I am naturally a pretty skeptical person and when I was introduced to pre-writing I was a bit unimpressed. I felt that the ideas of pre-writing were obvious and that I have been doing them for years. I was wrong. I started my pre-writing exercise and realized half way through that I suck at pre-writing.…
Recently, Heidegger’s concepts of present-at-hand and ready-at-hand have been mentioned in readings for both Jeff’s class and Erik’s class. I find the implications of these concepts interesting for interaction designers and want to examine them further. A fundamental question for an interaction designer being introduced to these concepts is: Should products be designed to be…
Read more Present-at-Hand & Ready-to-Hand in Interaction Design
After hearing that a bunch of my cool classmates have sent in position papers for CHI workshops, I decided that I too want to try to get a paper in to a workshop. Plus, I figured I could take advantage of Jeff’s class to help me pre-write this paper. After looking through the list of…
This summer I read an interesting article by Jerome Bruner about how we (humans) are actively creating narratives of our experiences. He argues that narrative is really the only way we can understand experiences and the only way we can communicate our experiences to others. While we are experiencing something, we are thinking about how…
So, I finished my 2nd STEPS class today. So, after 6 hours of illustrator training you can make something like this: Pretty good, I know. I will sign autographs after class.
For my capstone I am working on a frog sound website (strange, I know). Part of the project involves me creating some simple interactive learning content for the site. This design will be informed by user research and a thorough literature review on related topics. Along with these, and other interaction design methods, I am…
Read more Using structuralism to inform interactive design. Your opinion needed!
In Buxton’s book ‘Sketching User Experience’ he talks about the nature of sketches. He says sketches are fast, cheap, plentiful, ambiguous, etc. He also talks about how sketches have their clear vocabulary and distinct gestures. Examples of this vocabulary and gestures would be how lines extend through endpoints and how they are not tight or…
Our discussion this week in class reminded me of the ideas of technological determinism. Last year I learned about, and explored, the interesting ideas of technological determinism in a research methods class and an art class. In short, (according to wikipedia.com) technological determinism is a reductionist doctrine that a society’s technology determines its cultural values,…
Read more Using Structuralism To Analyze People’s Views on Technological Determinism
I have been thinking about Erik Stolterman’s lecture about design. A large part of the lecture was about the tools and materials used by designers. He used a carpenter analogy and stressed that the skilled designers, including carpenters, carefully select the tools they use for a task. As interaction designers, one of the most important…
Read more Tools For Interaction Design – Experience Prototyping & Beyond
Technology is no longer the benign desktop computer in our basements. Technology is now integrated in to all parts of our lives and many tech items double as status symbols and fashion accessories. The distinct style and customizable features of some tech products allow the consumer to express him or herself in unique and interesting…
Read more Tech. Becomes Personal – Changes In Consumer Adoption
Interaction Culture 