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McCulloch and Pitts’ Logical Calculus
Prompt: Several days ago, a Professor assigned us a reading. “A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity.” This is not the kind of reading I’m used to doing. It’s science. It’s (shudder) math. Nonetheless, I dove in with an agenda. We were asked (as a preface to reading) to “discuss the implications…
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The Time Paradox
Please note: This is a more free-form brainstorming piece done in anticipation of a fuller paper surrounding a new idea in interaction design. Out of context, it may not translate well. I simply needed to get the idea out (publicly). The Time Paradox gave me an interesting Aha! moment. In its section on the benefits of…
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Experience Design | Manipulation | Perversion
I’ve been thinking about morality and manipulation since class today especially as it pertains to experience design. I get the impression that when we talk about manipulation we generally do so with an implied value judgment: manipulation = bad. But when we were talking today about theme parks and movies, aren’t we talking about places…
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Design and the I Function
I was re-reading an essay I wrote about The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function several years ago. Currently, I’m in the process of becoming a designer and part of that process entails thinking about everything — or at least trying to think about everything — in a designerly way. In this case,…
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Is Clarity the Path to Enlightenment?
While revisiting the notes I jotted down when I read Buxton‘s Sketching User Experiences I stumbled across this line of text: Clarity is Not Always the Path to Enlightenment It’s the chapter heading for a few pages that describe the ambiguous nature of sketching in design. I especially love this idea: ambiguity is evocative. (Buxton 115)…
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Growth as a Designer
**reblog…I wrote this entry as part of a reflective journal in my first-semester graduate interaction design class at Indiana University‘s SOIC** Bill Moggridge’s book Designing Interactions was waiting on my desk when I got home tonight. After taking care of a few lingering project 4 tasks from the day — and after eating a late dinner —…
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HCI Study Journal
Last week brought with it a slew of activities: project submissions, presentations, and exams. The weeks in this program end soon after they begin. It’s wonderful. Our third design project for the semester centers on time, and I find this apt because — even before the design brief was released — I had taken a step…
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What do designers do?
One of the tasks in my introductory design class is a weekly reflective journal. I got in the habit of keeping a study journal over the summer, and I think that this reflective journal is akin to a study journal. It’s more formal, though. And so I find myself approaching it like a short essay…
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How and Why I Chose this HCI Graduate Program
The third day of graduate orientation at the IU School of Informatics and Computing is winding down. The day’s events peaked around 5pm with…course registration! It’s official. I’m enrolled. As the question has come up numerous times over the last few days, I thought I’d take a stab at articulating my reasons for pursuing an…
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HCI and the Future of Education
In Being Human: Human-computer Interaction in the Year 2020, Harper, Rodden, Rogers, and Sellen remind us that, “With the uptake of calculators, educationalists became concerned that students’ ability to perform mental arithmetic were disappearing.” Then, they ask, “In 2020, what other kinds of basic skills might go?” Could reading be next? Critical thinking? Concentration in…