
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Patient Focused Care

Sunday, December 27, 2009
Data Management

Friday, November 13, 2009
Participatory Design



Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Remote Education - part II
This morning, I had the opportunity to talk about design research, particularly Participatory Design, with a class at the University of Oregon. The class is being taught by Dawn Nafus.
- A desktop device on the lectern allowing you to share your projected laptop both in the room and at a remote site.
- A document viewer which allowed me to share papers and pictures that were not part of the official presentation, but which were great examples of written diaries, collages, photo diaries and subject feedback.
- Two wide screen TV sets which allow me to see the remote class room, and them to see both me and each other (one in the back and one in the front).
- Two video cameras - again one faced front on the speaker and one facing towards the back to catch all the students.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Remote Education
Monday, October 26, 2009
Columbia's Gotta Brand New Bag


Today, guest speaker Chris Araujo came to speak at my Advanced Studio focused on soft-goods design at the Portland Art Institute. Chris is a Senior Designer of Bags and Accessories at Columbia here in Portland.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Curry-ing Favor of Local Artists
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
User Testing Software - no good news
- Two (2) Intel based Macs allowing testing on both Windows and Mac
- OS X's built in screen sharing to view the test participant's machine and opening an iChat session to get the picture-in-picture and have audio
- Recording with SnapZPro
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
CHIfoo - Gretchen Anderson on Collaborative Spaces
On Wednesday, September 2, Gretchen Anderson from Lunar Design in San Francisco, CA came up to Portland to talk about collaborative spaces and how design teams work. She talked about the need to generate ideas and how important it is for "idea people" to have a space to post, comment on and contemplate their work.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Researcher's Nightmare
Thursday, August 13, 2009
On Hiring Theater People
Hiring Theater People
PM: You mentioned that when you see a resume with a theater background, you find that encouraging. What is the perspective of theater people that you find illuminating in doing this kind of work?
JS: Theater people have an interesting viewpoint of the world and it changes our viewpoint towards them.
Theater, particularly live theater, as opposed to film for example, is a process where you iterate, you see what works, you try it in rehearsal, and then you make changes, and then you try it again. So theater people inherently understand vast iterations, and moving toward an objective. Theater is also very much about an experience, so quality theater people understand the experience design in that regard, and they understand elements of the user design, such as the illusion, and subtlety, and the back-channel communication sort of stuff. Theater people all know how to work on a deadline because the curtain goes up at eight, and so you either have everything in place when the curtain goes up or you just make stuff up, but the curtain is going to go up. Theater people also understand the difference between on stage and backstage, which in a consulting practice or a research business is actually very important.
See the full article at: http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000516.php
Monday, July 20, 2009
Social Media and Health Insurance
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Concept and Usability Testing
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Networking Tip #2
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Networking Tips - Listen First
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
iPod to eyePod

Last week, I was walking around with my iPod firmly placed in my ears. Downtown Portland is not exactly a screechy, noisy place, but I noticed how nice it was to have my music in my ears. And then, I noticed how odd it was to have music in my ears and not hear the diesel of the bus, the honking of the cars, the whir of the streetcar.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
The One Button Lie

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Noticed: De-motivating workouts
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Logo Hell


Seen: Yes We Can
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Garage Extraordinaire
One of my favorite examples of user friendly parking is right here in Portland. The garage at the airport has excellent signage. They tell you: how many spaces are left in the garage, which direction to drive to find those spaces and then there are small lights over every parking space that are red or green (see above), alerting you from afar to an empty space. Finally, some intelligence comes to parking.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The New Creative Economy
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Insurance
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tweet
www.twitter.com
I tweet on healthcare, usability, design and yes, I confess, sometimes the inanities of my daily life.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Interactive Meeting Design

I'm attending a National Education Association conference with my partner and had the opportunity to see the keynote speaker on Friday. During the keynote, a woman stood off to the side with a large poster and a wonderful array of colored markers, and took "notes" based on an idea presented in "How to Make Meetings Work" by Michael Doyle and David Strauss.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Color Play at the Auto Show




Sunday, February 1, 2009
You are Being Followed
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Disaster Relief

I ran across information today pointing me to the site Displaced Designer. AIGA is the main host of Displaced Designer, but what if all of the design communities came together for large or small relief when our colleagues need a hand?
The site is a great idea, but seemingly on the back burner. The posts are largely from the Katrina era 2005-06, with a new call for 2008 and anyone in Texas in need of assistance. Unfortunately, the pages to offer or request help are currently non-functional and contact information is invisible.
That said...one wonders if the current economy will bring about similar sites where we can offer housing to a designer who needs to work out of town temporarily just to be able to work at all, offer meals to one another and general support or advice.
AIGA did it, but can the design community as a whole pull together for a comprehensive support network? It would be wonderful to try.