jamin.org

Obviously, I have not been writing much recently. There are a number of reasons for this. First, I needed a break from all the design thinking to remember how to function with the rest of the humans. It seems they don’t often talk about design or know what I’m talking about.

Second, I’ve had a lot to do in the way of preparing for my move to San Francisco and Nokia. I moved out of my apartment and will be leaving Pittsburgh in a few days for a road trip that I haven’t completely planned yet. In general, I’m visiting a few folks in the east, then heading to the top of the country, hitting state and national parks along the way. Some stops include Geneva, New York; Vienna, Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia; Great Smoky Mountains; Badlands; and Glacier National Park. I’ll eventually arrive in Mammoth Lakes around early August, where I’ll stay for a bit before heading to San Francisco. I’m doing this by myself and living in my car or a yet-to-be-purchased tent. I’m pretty excited for the adventure.

Finally, it’s been difficult to blog as I have not had a laptop since mid May when we had to return the ones the School of Design let us use during our time there. Not having a laptop has really cut down all the design reading that often inspired posts. Of course, not being in school and exposed to great teachers and peers has also had its impact. But I suspect I will pick up again when I start working.

Until then, don’t expect much from me unless I bite it and buy a laptop or make posts through my iPhone from the road.

I was tagged by Dan Saffer to continue a meme (noun: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture) of four lists of four things about me, which provides a break from writing yet another post about design! I’ve never been tagged to continue a meme before. It’s very exciting. Like receiving an Oscar, I imagine.

Okay, here goes…

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:

• McDonald’s in Lancaster, England, where my American accent was a novelty at the “till”
• Reporter for United Press International in Washingon D.C., where I spent a lot of time hanging about the U.S. Courthouse stalking Monica Lewinsky
• Soccer trainer for Curt Onalfo Soccer, working with boys and girls ages 4 to 14
• Editor for Computer Sciences Corporation, where I edited huge outsourcing contracts being submitted to the likes of Raytheon and NASA

Dan had “Four TV Shows I DVR” next, but as I do not DVR, or watch four shows, I’ll defer to the original post and substitute the following…

Four favorite foods:

• Cake
• Cookies
• Beer (liquid bread)
• Tortilla chips

Four places I’ve been:

• Zakynthos, Greece
• Dublin, Ireland
• Barcelona, Spain
• St. Lucia

Four music artists I’m listening to right now:

• Architecture in Helsinki: Heart it Races (Trizzy’s Rusty Tin Can Mix)
• Battles: Atlas
• Aesop Rock: None Shall Pass
• The Diggs: It’s Just Like You Say

Alrightythen. I suppose the thing to do is pass it on to four people and hope they read my blog: Eric Niu, Dennis Eusebio, Jeff Howard, Brandon Schauer.

Happy new year +3!

What follows is my experience in 2007 as a graduate student and the opportunities it afforded me, as well as what I will be doing in 2008. Finally, I mention the blizzard that is about to hit Mammoth Lakes, California, where I currently am.

Design School and 2007

Two thousand and seven was a great year for me. I have no regrets about taking two years out of my work life to indulge in the grad school experience. People say that you don’t need to go to grad school and that you can get the same experience in the working world. While that may depend on the program, in my case, I wholeheartedly disagree.

The interaction design program at the CMU School of Design has changed the way I think about what my purpose is in the world and how I think about life. I’ve had a chance to learn under some great people—Shelley Evenson, Richard Buchanan, Dan Boyarski, John Zimmerman, Jodi Forlizzi, Ben Fry, Golan Levin, and Kristin Hughes. And I have had the pleasure of being in the company of my peers, a range of interesting folks from various backgrounds with perspectives I truly appreciate. I learn a tremendous amount from them. My coursework has also provided me with real-world experience working for clients like Motorola and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

This past fall semester I taught Design Computing (digital prototyping with Flash) to a mix of graduate and undergraduate design students. It was my first time teaching, and was both challenging and rewarding.

I also had the opportunity to direct the school’s second annual Emergence conference, which was a great honor and privilege, though a lot of freaking work. But becoming acquainted with folks from Adaptive Path, Apple, Cooper, Core77, Electronic Ink, Engine, GM, Google, IBM, IDEO, live|work, Method, and Swisscom Mobile, eased the pain a bit.

Most of the companies listed above also recruit from the school. This past summer I worked at Adaptive Path in San Francisco, which I would not have had access to without going through the IxD program. There I worked on the Charmr project, a diabetes management device with a focus on the diabetic experience. It was very rewarding and a lot of fun.

Finally, my grad school experience has also truly turned me into a designer. So to answer any question as to whether grad school is worth the $70,000 I will owe upon graduation, for me, the answer is yes.

2008

Enough about last year. The year ahead will bring a slew of new adventures. For one, I will be graduating in May. After that, I will likely move away from Pittsburgh, where I have been living since 2003, to wherever it is that I find work. To prepare for this, during the winter break, I have been building a new portfolio and redesigning this site, which I hope complete before the semester begins on January 14.

This semester I am taking courses with Richard Buchanan, Kristin Hughes, and Shelley Evenson. In addition, I am teaching Basic Interaction Design to design, computer science, and HCI undergraduates. Given my enthusiasm for interaction design and the design process, I am very exciting about this.

In February I am heading to Savannah for Interaction08 to the first ever interaction design conference. I would also like to attend SXSW Interactive, but it may not be in the budget.

Speaking of conferences, I am also currently working on a Work-in-Process submission for CHI 2008 in Florence, Italy, due January 8. My paper is on my thesis project work regarding opportunities for interaction design to support identity change. Submission to CHI is a requirement of my thesis advisor.

Mammoth Blizzard

I am writing this post from Mammoth Lakes, California, where my brother, Matt, and his wife live. I have been here (Flickr photos) since December 20. It has been quite relaxing and a good break from my near constant design thinking. That said, I started off 2008 on somewhat of a design note when I met up with Dan Saffer (Designing for Interaction author, Adaptive Path Experience Design Director, and Interaction08 co-chair, MDes IxD CMU) who just happened to be in Mammoth at the same time as me. Dan will be guest lecturing at CMU on January 16 in Jodi Forlizzi’s Seminar 2 class for the first-year interaction design grads. Good beer and good conversation with Dan in an unlikely meeting place provided a fitting start to the new year.

Dan left Mammoth the next day, due to the upcoming storm. Conversely, I extended my stay.

The National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Warning for Mammoth Lakes warning of significant snow accumulations and strong winds that have the potential to create dangerous winter driving conditions Friday through Sunday. Four day snowfall totals of 5 - 8 feet are possible through Sunday in the Sierra.

To leave Mammoth, I need to fly out of Reno, Nevada, which is already a harrowing experience given the winds the whip over the surrounding mountains. The impending storm will only increase those winds. So I changed my flight from this Friday to Tuesday, January 8, so I could both avoid potential delays or cancellations and also see such a massive amount of snow. Friday’s prediction is three inches per hour.

The fear of storm produced the longest grocery store lines that I have ever seen, stretching from check-out all the way down the aisles to the back of the store. The shelves were being emptied. Got to love people. (We were only there for a few ingredients needed for last night’s meal.)

So day three of 2008 finds me well, looking forward to the storm, the semester, and whatever lies beyond. I hope it finds you well, too.

Alone, I scrambled to the top of Mt. Whitney, by way of the mountaineers route, a gully filled with terrible scree and no discernible path. Winded by the altitude and encumbered by a headache either caused by lack of oxygen or dehydration, I arrived at a notch a few hundred feet from the top. I caught my breath and then began a class-four climb up a steep face of large, broken rock, partially covered in ice.

I arrived at the top of Mt. Whitney, at 14,494 feet—the highest point in the lower 48 states—in just two hours after parting ways with my brother, Matt, and his two clients, who climbed the East Buttress. I spent the next four hours peering over the ledge looking for the sight of them. Finally, they appeared.

The day before, at our base camp five thousand feet below, Matt and I joked that you haven’t lived until you plunged into a 40 degree lake at 10 thousand feet, which we both did. (Imagine being a single beer in a cooler filled to the brim in ice.)

After he and his clients got to the top, I climbed 10 feet over the edge and under some rocks so that I was out of view, and took a dump into a large plastic bag provided by the forest service. The leave-no-trace policy for the park included poop. You haven’t live till you’ve taken a dump at 14 thousand feet, looking out on the mountains and valleys below, packaged it up, and then hauled it back down the mountain with you.

It was also great to get away from the computer for a few days.

I left San Francisco for Baltimore Sunday morning for some client meetings early this week. However, Baltimore was backed up, so we landed in Pittsburgh to refuel and wait. After a half hour we were back in the air.

It was kind of funny to spend 30 minutes at Pittsburgh International Airport, about a half hour away from my apartment, my car, my mail, my bed.