Profile
As a Innovation Lead, Louise’s focus is to bring the right products and services to market by following human-centred research and design methods. This involves defining the problem to be solved and identifying our target users, before laying out strategic roadmaps of work.
Louise works end-to-end across projects, focusing on user research, design strategy, and on-the-ground testing, iteration and implementation.
She holds a Bsc in Applied Psychology from the Dún Laoghaire Institute, Dublin, her hometown. Before joining Shift, she led projects at two design consultancies - Engine in London and Each&Other in Dublin - where she successfully brought new concepts to market within the commercial sector.
Louise tries to run, bake and do yoga in her spare time, but generally gets distracted by the delights of London.
louise.cooper@shiftdesign.org
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A Shift reset: Our renewed focus for the future
Following on from our blog about becoming a self-organising, ‘leaderful’ team, here Louise and Rachel share a glimpse at Shift’s …
Our big SHIFT: becoming a flat, roles-based team
Over the past 18 months, we’ve been exploring and transitioning to a new, flatter way of operating. We’ve been experimenting …
Stories about the lived experience of Universal Credit
The challenge Universal Credit puts people at high risk of spiralling into debt and falling into rent arrears. For our …
Testing a Universal Credit survival pack for Housing Association tenants
The problem While Universal Credit claims in 2020 had already increased by 5% since the previous year before COVID-19, the …
Introducing MadeByPlay – a new venture born out of Shift
Today sees the launch of a new Shift venture that’s built on our 10 years of work strengthening communities in …
Building a social enterprise to tackle childhood obesity Part 2: Validating the concept
Kids are becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer. We’re taking a design thinking approach to building …
Building a social enterprise to tackle childhood obesity: part 1
Kids are getting fatter. Generations are becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer. This is a …
Gamification to make story sharing impactful and fun
Our Senior Service designer explains how the Historypin team are injecting elements of gamification into their design process for their …
Design principles for Historypin’s Storybox
Bringing people together to share stories and experiences with one another has always been intended to be at the core …
How to co-create the future of storytelling
In an age of Brexit and Trump, bridging divided communities might seem like a far fetched dream. But at Historypin, …
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Research

Hot, prepared revolution: A summary of two years work looking at takeaways
December 17, 2018
Shift has developed the UK’s most detailed understanding of takeaway food, families’ relationship with it, the role hot, prepared food plays in their food behaviours, the economics of outlets and the motivations of their owners. Possible avenues for positive change have been tested and the way forward is clear.
Projects
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Supporting community-led routes into work
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Supporting older people into fulfilling work
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Embedding human-centred design at UK Youth
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Building eBay’s support for social entrepreneurs
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Powering nonprofits to respond to the crisis
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MadeByPlay: social games that ignite dialogue, empathy and action
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Working with a housing association to help households be more financially resilient
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Storybox: bringing diverse communities together through story sharing
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Historypin: bringing communities together though local history
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Box Chicken:
a healthier alternative to fast food near schools