May 11, 2005
The Role of Metaphor in Interaction Design
My thesis paper (340k pdf). I think it's an interesting piece of work and I'm proud of it.
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May 03, 2005
Last Days of D School
The last days of graduate school are surprisingly quiet, although filled with anxiety and a tinge of panic. I went to my last class last week, which, like my first class, was with the inspiring Dick Buchanan. My last crit was yesterday, for service design, presenting a rethinking of Pittsburgh's light rail service, the T. Next Monday, I present my thesis project and turn in the final version of my thesis paper to be bound. Thus, these last days are about the final polish on my thesis work: typesetting and proofreading the thesis paper while creating the presentation and process book for my project. I'm also sending frantic emails to my developer, Dave Rowett, about bugs and final features to make it into the project prototype. It's all coming to a close.
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April 22, 2005
Final Draft
I reached another milestone this week: I finished what is hopefully my final draft of my thesis paper. It's about 30 pages long, but still needs to be formatted, copyedited, and printed on heavy stock. But that's for the future; I'm just glad the writing is done.
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March 21, 2005
References
I spent a couple of hours doing something mindless but necessary: compiling the references section of my thesis paper. Thirty-two references in all. Or roughly one per page of the paper's body.
I'm trying to get the final version of the paper done by April 1st so that I can just put it to bed and not worry about it any longer. I've got probably three pages left to write and the document to format nicely, so my goal should be doable. But we'll see.
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March 07, 2005
Thesis Paper Presentation
I've finally posted a longer version (2.5 mb pdf) of the presentation I gave on my thesis paper back in January. I'm not sure if it will make any sense without my commentary, but some of the images are funny.
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February 26, 2005
Stress
In the last week, I
- lost my programmer for my thesis project, leaving me in the lurch with a half-finished demo
- madly scrambled to find a replacement, which I think I might have done with some help from Jeff
- searched for money to pay said programmer, which may involve cashing in some savings bonds I've had for 35 years. Seriously.
- had major issues re-printing my music map of Amazon
- got a tattoo
- presented our group model for conceptual models class
- discovered a cavity in a tooth that I need to deal with ASAP
- got yet another $300 bill for the hospital for my emergency room visit back in July (this after paying them $250 already. CMU's insurance is terrible.
- speaking of which, my wife just got a notice that our insurance company hasn't paid a dime for some doctor's visits for her either, to the tune of $225
- AND the insurance company keeps sending me weekly letters asking whether I have other insurance, which I clearly don't and they are just stalling to prevent paying these bills
- had three job interviews during career days
- set up two more phone interviews for this upcoming week
- tried to do a backlog of grading for my class so I can submit my students' mid-term grades this week
- added to my thesis paper presentation for my presentation in Montreal next week
- Oh, and did I mention my daughter went to the emergency room sick?
- and that my wife is sick as well?
Anyway, this is what I've been dealing with. In this last semester, the schoolwork has gotten lighter, but the stress is still high.
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January 24, 2005
Thesis Paper Presentations
Last Friday, the graduating (!) students presented their thesis papers to faculty, students, and guests. A very nerve-wracking event: sets of 10-minute presentations followed by five minutes of Q&A. My presentation is the basis for the talk I'm giving in March at the IA Summit, so I won't give anything away here until after then. But here's some work that resonated with me:
- Ashley Deal's "Simplicity in Design" which focused on the need for clarity of thought before simplicity in action
- Yuan-Chou Chung's "Supporting Collaborative Experience in Human-Product Interaction" which examined karaoke as a platform for emotional experiences
- Chun-Yi Chen's "The Role of Design in Product-Mediated Human Interaction" which put forth the ideas that products should be both performers and be masks that help preserve human dignity
- Phi-Hong Ha's "The Role of Design in Public Life" about encouraging consciousness in public information spaces
- Jeff Howard's "The Creation of Place in Design" in which all of design is a means of wayfinding
- and Miso Kim's "A Case Study on 'Design By Users' " which looked at the role of meta-design in the attempted impeachment of the Korean President in 2004.
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January 19, 2005
Making Bouillon from a Cow
This week for the 2nd year grad students has been all about preparing for this Friday's thesis paper presentations, when we get 10 minutes to present the 30-some-odd pages of our thesis papers to the other graduate students, faculty, and guests. Currently, I have about 30 slides, which is one slide for every 20 seconds speaking time. Thus, I'm trying to edit down.
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November 24, 2004
Fall '04 Final Projects
The last three weeks of the semester bring with them the final projects of the fall. Here's everything I have to do between now and winter break:
- Journal Layout. For Graduate Typography, designing and laying out six pages of a fake journal. We got to choose the content, so mine is a literary journal whose theme is "20 Years of Don DeLillo's White Noise." (Dec. 14)
- Networked Art Piece for Interactive Graphics. I'm designing a program that fetches custom RSS feeds from Yahoo News based on user input, then shows the headlines in some sort of expressive typography display. (Dec. 9)
- Fine Draft, Thesis Paper. Finishing and refining my draft of my thesis paper. I'm on page 26 of about 35 as of this morning. (Dec. 17)
- Paper Prototype, Pile Cabinets. Create and test a set of paper prototypes of my thesis project. (Dec. 10)
- Poster of my thesis project, to be presented to faculty and classmates (and hopefully at CHI). (Dec. 17)
- Abstract and Paper for CHI on my thesis project, to go along with the poster. (Dec. 6)
Obviously, a busy time.
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November 19, 2004
Like the Horizon
The more I write of my thesis paper, the farther away the end seems to recede. I'm trying to remember the immortal words of Chad Thornton: Don't overthink the thesis paper. But it's hard when there's reams of information on your subject and you want to include a decent sampling of the ideas in the space.
Anyway, I just sent in another 6 pages of the paper. It was supposed to be my last chunk, but it isn't. But I've written for nearly 12 hours straight and I can't write anymore.
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November 07, 2004
Write On
I cranked out another sizable chunk of my thesis paper last week, turning in to my advisor Shelley Evenson roughly another third, bringing me to around 20-some-odd pages roughly written. This last section I wrote was mainly about metaphor as part of the design process. The final section, which I'll be writing this upcoming week, will be on metaphor in interactive products. Looks like the paper will be around 30 pages.
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October 16, 2004
First Draft, First Third
I turned in the first draft of the first third of my thesis paper to my advisor Shelley Evenson yesterday. The first third is mainly on the traditional and current view of metaphor, plus the criticism of using metaphor in interaction design. The next part, the bulk of the paper, is about using metaphor in the design process. I'm hoping to have that part done in early-mid November.
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October 11, 2004
Obvious Observation on Thesis Paper Writing
In some ways, it's a lot easier to go to class and do projects and other homework than to sit alone in your office and write your thesis paper.
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September 22, 2004
The Writing Begins
Yesterday was a milestone: I started writing my thesis paper.
In truth, I've probably been ready to start writing for about a week, but the importance I've put on it was giving me writer's block. It's only some 30-40 pages and I've written that much before, with much less time. It just has a daunting name: "Thesis Paper."
To recap, my thesis paper is on the role of metaphor in interaction design. Metaphor is oft maligned and typically misunderstood as a tool for designers, but it can be used effectively in both the design process and within the products themselves. Indeed, digital interaction design would probably be impossible without it.
I'm trying to have a draft done before Thanksgiving, which means writing 3-4 pages a week until then.
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