Archive for October, 2009

Drawing & Sketching

Posted
October 28, 2009
Categories
sketches

One of my hobbies throughout the years has been drawing. From time to time, I get the drawing bug and I put pencil to paper and lose myself for a number of hours. Fortunately, I decided in 2000 to centralize my artwork and put everything into a sketchbook. I scanned in some of my previous work:

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With recent talks by Google and Razorfish, I realized how important sketching could be during the design process. My drawings now have an outlet, which is exciting. Most of my current projects include a few of my sketches (which easily help articulate an idea, especially during group work). Moving forward, I’ll continue to hone my rapid-sketching skills.

Communicating Design

Posted
October 24, 2009
Categories
readings

Communicating Design by Dan M. BrownI’m currently working my way through “Communicating Design,” which is a practical guide on the process of creating design documentation. The first section of the book deals with User Needs documentation, such as Personas and Usability Test plans. Section 2 reviews strategy documentation (I wish I knew about this when I was working on the redesign project). The final section talks about design documentation (e.g. wireframes, flow charts and screen design). The book  helpful resource and I encourage new UX designers to take a look at it.

Google UX

Posted
October 23, 2009
Categories
event

Google was on campus this week and they held a number of events. There was an event dedicated to User Experience design, which was encouraging. Jenna Bilotta and Alex Cook, Georgia Tech alumni, led a discussion called the “12 things I wish I knew before my first job.” The were great and they gave us really practical points to consider. My favorite point was that “nothing is perfect,” though we may try to make it so (sigh).

A Futurist

Posted
October 20, 2009
Categories
event

James CantonJames Canton, the renowned futurist and CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, gave a very interesting and inspiring lecture on campus today. The talk, which basically made projections about where technology will take us by 2035, covered a number topics such as Quantum Information Systems and Space Colonies.

He had some interesting comments on the necessary convergence of many disciplines (hooray for folks in interdisciplinary fields such as HCI) in order to solve some of the biggest issues we face today, such as energy demands and health care. My favorite part of the lecture was his overview of the Innovation Mindset, where he advocated for having the courage to create, experiment, collaborate and break the rules.

2 Cool Videos

Posted
October 20, 2009
Categories
media

Tangible music production:

Siftables Music Sequencer from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

The following project reminds me of a NYC Subway installation, “Read New York.”

Swarm from Blendid on Vimeo.

Rapid Prototyping

Posted
October 16, 2009
Categories
event

So, I spent most of the summer working as a consultant. I developed a few Google Maps v3 applications and experimented with HTML5′s Canvas element. I’m a fan of the canvas element. It allows one to create simple animations a-la Flash. I has a chance to play with it, while creating XHTML/CSS/JavaScript prototypes. Check it out if you’re interested in exploring some of the new features in HTML5.

As for Rapid Prototyping, Luke Hamilton, who is a Senior Art Director at Razorfish, stopped by campus this week. He talk that gave one a good indication of how rapid prototyping was used throughout Razorfish’s design process. Razorfish has been working on a lot of really cool UX work related to haptic interactions, which is really exciting.

Luke’s presentation helped me put my summer experiences into a more constructive perspective. I was basically a rapid prototyping developer. My mornings began with design discussions, which then led to developing functional prototypes by the afternoon. I learned a lot about how to practically approach a project and my JavaScript skills improved.

Trip to Savannah

Posted
October 12, 2009
Categories
photography

This weekend I took a trip out to Savannah, Georgia and I had a blast. Leeam and I stayed at the Park Avenue Manor, a wonderful Bed & Breakfast, which was in a beautiful Victorian style house. Here are a few pictures.

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