Author: Elaine Choi

The Future of Data

We see that technology has changed relative to past advancements, and as a result we must reflect on our current state of technology in order to determine a sense of a future trajectory. It is easy to assume that our current level of advancement is somehow superior to those prior, but sophistication as a trait…

The “Shock-Factor”

Science Fiction provides viewers with a stylized portal into the future, where we can see what it may look like. These shows are based on the writers’ understandings of today, implying that our current reality informs the trajectory of the future. With that said, many science fiction today include either a deliberate or inherent “shock…

ASL for Siri

Siri is one of my favorite features on the iPhone and one that I use incredibly frequently. The tool is particularly useful to me if I am driving, wherein my vision and kinetic ability are limited. In this situation, my voice is the only safe and available method to interact with my phone. And I’m…

Hedy Lamarr: More Than Meets the Eye

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as Hedy Lamarr (1924-2000), was an Austrian-American actress, film producer, and inventor. She was not only known as “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”, but invented frequency hopping spread spectrum technology that is used today in cell phones, Wi-Fi, CMDA, GPS, and Bluetooth, among others (Massie). Although she…

Quick and Dirty

As an Interaction Design student, I’ve learned to appreciate the exhilerating practice of rapid iteration. There is something so fun about producing work as quickly as possible and receiving feedback at rapidfire pace, repeating the process to determine the trajectory of a project. Within my work, I have participated in the process of Information Architecture…

Lucy Suchman: More than a Green Button

Lucy Suchman is a professor of anthropology at Lancaster University, who worked as the principal scientist and manager at the Palo Alto Research Center. Her university education was completed at UC Berkeley, receiving her Ph.D in Social/Cultural Anthropology in 1984. Cambridge University Press published her dissertation, Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication…

Humans are not Nodes and Links

In consideration of early forms of social networking, a common theme that emerges is that of self-regulatory systems. Particularly in the case of WELL, several of the seven design goals established by the team include fostering an environment that is “an open-ended universe”, “self-governing”, and “a self-designing experiment”. By doing so, technology becomes both a…

It’s a Metaphor.

When comparing the graphical interfaces of Xerox Star and original Macintosh to that of modern day, it is easy to contrast the aesthetic elements. What was more notable to me was that the basic framework of the Desktop remained more or less a fixed constant, as the aesthetic design and the general computing capabilities evolved…

Demarcation of Work and Life

In Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language, he outlines various concepts in architecture that may be replicated to fit various contexts dependent on the inhabitants needs and behaviors. In more ways than one, these architectural patterns have persisted to the design of software. Rather than inhabiting spaces physically, digital users’ physical actions are responded to with…

Tomoko Miho: ‘Borrowed Scenery’

Tomoko Miho (September 2, 1931-February 10, 2012) was a greatly influential graphic designer, who like many Japanese-Americans of her time, spent her formative years in an internment camp during World War II. Despite the constraints within her life, she is an example of greatness that emerges in spite of difficult, external factors. In her school…

Looking Back to Look Forward

Henry Dreyfuss’ work is a result of extensive research on the human body, and highlights human-centered design in terms of the physical capabilities of users. If the user is unable to utilize a product, it does not provide users with an adequate starting point for discoverability. In fact, Dreyfuss measures a product’s “success” by its…

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