Designing with Time
For a “Visualizing Information Space” graduate project, each Design CMU grad student was asked to visualize the information space of a different artifact…some of us received a page from the Wall Street Journal, a game board, or a book. The artifact that I was given was a 45 minute, interactive, CD-ROM that contained a lecture Dan Boyarski gave in 2002 when he was awarded the Muriel Cooper Prize by the Design Management Institute. The title of the lecture was “Designing with Time.”
Kinetic Type :: Catch 22
Design students in Carnegie Mellon’s Graduate Typography II course were asked to choose and then interpret a dialogue across two mediums—a digital kinetic typography movie, and a 16-page printed book. Issues of type selection, legibility, space, pacing, duration and placement were also to be considered in both deliverables. My dialogue was pulled directly out of the book “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller.
Discovering Typography
For this graduate Design project at CMU, I was inspired by the beauty of the Bauer Bodoni typeface, so I selected it as the basis of my research for my project. The project asked me to reach back into the typeface’s historical context, researching the use of type and the trends of communication design relative to the time of the typeface’s creation. The research was to inform our use of grid systems, hierarchy, type as image, points of entry, and appropriateness…as well as to inspire us.
Type as Voice :: “She Surrenders”
Our “Graduate Typography” class was presented with a verbal rendition of a short story that was told by Jackie Jonas, a professional storyteller. That was our raw material…from there, our goal was to convey our interpretation of the story using type as something not only to be read, but also felt and heard.
Nature as a Model
All designers know that there is much inspiration to be found in the natural world around us. Using the organizational stucture of either a natural artifact or process, our “Graduate Typography” class was asked to tap into this inspiration, then organize and visualize 44 random names from 20th Century to bring context and meaning to the data.
J. J. Keller’s Prospera
As Prospera’s Internet Product Design Manager, I had the lead role in developing the high-level designs of Prospera, with a focus on information architecture, content planning, end-user functionality, and usability. I relied on user-centered research methods, direct customer feedback, legislative activity out of Washington D.C. and over 13 years of industry experience to inform and guide design decisions for Prospera.
Microsoft Research :: Sharing Personal Media
The Sharing Personal Media project, sponsored by the Microsoft’s Social Computing Research Group, asked first year graduate students from CMU’s School of Design to explore the creation, connection, and behavior of future mobile devices, and the ways in which such devices could facilitate information sharing.
Thesis Paper :: Designing for Innovation
Today’s business books and magazines are overrun with ideas and tactics on how to balance both strategy and creativity in the workplace, but in actuality, this is easier said than done. Many businesses continue to separate the creative design process from the strategic planning process, because even with the help of the literature, managing both still seems risky and contradictory.
Thesis Project :: Research Methods
Heuristic Evaluation? Cognitive Walkthrough? Beeper Studies? Professionals from all fields—whether they are lawyers, manufacturing planners, or surgeons—have an everyday language that may seem insurmountable to outsiders; and user-centered design researchers are no different. Instead of actually doing research, however, design researchers may find themselves continually selling research methods to the management team to get organizational buy-in.
8 Sharp
Before we six Managing Partners came together to form 8 Sharp, most of us had advanced in our careers to the point where we were managing those who did the design work—instead of getting hands-on. But there were parts of the management process that we liked very much—bringing together larger teams for multi-disciplinary projects and working with clients. 8 Sharp was a means for us to get back to doing both.