Having nearly a year to craft a paper means that there is a lot of time where you are secluded in rooms full of books wondering if you still have an ounce of sanity left. With Dick Buchanan as my advisor, our meetings usually consisted of nudges and strategic questioning about the ideas involved. He helped me to look at things differently and explore sources I never would have, and generally gave a broader perspective of whatever we were talking about.

Anyway, I was inspired to write something about my paper because of a recent Adaptive Path post that had some web tools that analyze writing. I thought I’d throw my paper in and see what came out:

One of the things that happened to me, and I’m sure happened to a lot of people, is the discovery of so many more ideas and topics than you first start out with–via readings, discussions, classes, etc… So it almost turned out to be too much time as I had to fight to scope things down. Overall, it was a good experience, and made me a lot more confident in my writing and research process.

As the end of the master’s program approaches, it’s more relevant than ever for all of us second year students. That being said, I came across two documents, one from Carnegie Mellon and one from the Institute of Design in Chicago that polled some graduates:

IIT puts the median at $80-$90k, CMU gives a conservative $66k, and US News has some pretty high numbers, except for Pittsburgh. Of course, these should all be taken cautiously, considering the number of people who responded, the various levels of experience that people might have, and what the job actually is.

Also, pulled these from the IxDA discussion list:
AIGA Design Salaries Website
AIGA Survey of Design Salaries 2007
Information Architecture Institute Salary Survey 2006
Usability Professionals’ Assocation Salary Survey 2005
Jakob Nielson’s Salary Trends for Usability Professionals 2006
Peak Usability Salary Survey 2002, 2004

The types of work and titles are questionable… but if anyone has any other sources, I’d like to hear about em.

John talked about his design philosophies and described the basis for the work he does. He approaches design as a way to solve complex business problems in a strategic and tactical manner. He talked a lot about the work he did with BodyMedia and how it is about behavior change for people, but that you can’t force people to change, but it is more of a change of the awareness of their behavior by having access to explicit information about their habits over time. It sounds like there is the ability to use a suite of devices along with a web service to get information into a proper way to show others, including your doctor.

Data
An interesting point he brought up related to BodyMedia devices is the contrast between data that is collected by the devices and those that are entered into the system. There are some things, such as food intake, that needs to be entered manually and is presented alongside data that from the devices, making it somewhat problematic if people aren’t as honest as they could be.

John also talked about individual differences in motivation. I found this really interesting, since my thesis project is already dealing with motivational issues.

• Numbers themselves can be motivation for some people, such as seeing the number of calories spent each day.
• Coaching and branding might also motivate people, if they  have some overarching cohesive system that is telling them what they should do next.
• The social aspect of sharing also helps motivate people, as they share the data showing the energy expenditures over a week with other people using the same system. People can also challenge each other and cooperate like when people go jogging or work out together.
• There is also the social networking aspect where people can meet and find others who are doing similar activites and have similar goals and values
• Feedback at the right moment is also important. Giving someone access to their data at the exact moment when they are deciding whether to stay indoors or go outside is more useful than after they have committed to staying home and doing something else.

Design Studios VS Design Consultancies
A lot of the conversation revolved around the idea of different possibilities in places to work, which was good for me as I make my decision of what I want to do afterwards.

Studio: You’re going to make the actual solution. You hire people to do the design of different parts, build it, and also support it.

Consultancy: More focused on research and planning. You need to be able to facilitate discussions with client teams. The interdisciplinary nature of CMU is good for this. You become the voice of design and speak for the end user.

This turned the discussion into what they end up delivering to clients at the end. Those being: Research reports, plans, scenarios, early conceptual prototypes, wireframes, or even flash prototypes. So there is quite a variety, as expected

Important Skills 
Talking about the deliverables naturally transitioned to the creation of them and skills needed to be a part of a successful design team. A lot of it might be obvious, but it was nice to hear it again.

• Ability to communicate clearly, especially to clients
• Ability to listen – hear what people are saying, understand it, and re-frame the discussion in the interest of the end user.
• Ability to find ways that users already deal with an issue (ex, paper journaling their wight loss)
• A passion for questioning and figuring out why people do the things that they do.
• Reiteration of importance of communication (it’s hard to teach and often missing)
  • Speaking clearly
  • Knowing social conventions of a group (esp. clients), when to talk, when to let them talk
  • Not just verbal, but the idea of the consultance’s stance. People are paying you for knowledge and leadership through a problem. You should clearly show your value and be able to stand your ground. People often think that you are just billing them without giving them something useful.
  • Etiquette when sending emails, naming files, logical organization of meterials. Everything is “part of the argument” and is a reflection of your relationship with the client.
  • Consciousness with your deliverables… even the breaking down of cost-benefit analysis.

He talked about how not only does this help them get new clients by being “buttoned up” but more importantly it helps them retain clients. 80% of the clients they work with are ones they started working with in their first year as a company.

To wrap up he talked a little bit about how he decided to work with BodyMedia and why he ended up starting his own company. Overall it was really worth hearing and to get some more real-world grounding. Sometime I feel like we are in a bit of a fantasy land while in school and forget about day to day logistical issues that we don’t have to deal with here. Gist definitely sounds like an interesting place and I like to hear about people who are working in the design world doing stuff that they enjoy that is positive and beneficial rather than designing simply to get more sales.

These reasons are the principles that guide the types of design projects and the decisions we make within them. Am I here because I want to make “cool stuff” or is it because there are better job prospects with a master’s degree or is it because I truly want to make the world a better place. I’m aiming towards the last one and I’m trying my best, but it’s not always easy.

This brings me to the question of when not to design. If we are truly trying to make the world a better place, there might be times that we tackle a project that ends up a dead end. Maybe there is nothing to invent and people will go about their natural way of doing things and there is nothing you can do to change it. A bit cynical perhaps and it’s probably not the best attitude have. It might come down to the initial approach to the design problem itself. There’s tons of writing and discussion about how problem framing is critical, which might be one way the dead-ends are avoided.

But I wonder, especially when the starting point is a new technology or ability, how many times have there been situations where designers should have just admitted that there is nothing they can do and move on. Or is there always something that can be done, even if it is small. Is there a mobile application hiding in every human issue? A service that people can always attach to and use on a regular basis? With pressure from clients and even within academia to produce results, it’s probably rare. If there is a paper on a project like that, I’d love to read it.

Making Furniture Interactive
Although it wasn’t a class I even knew about until classes started, this class is essentially about physical computing and embedding electronics into physical objects. This is pretty closely related to things I’m interested in, with regards to the boundaries of physical and digital contexts. It’s nice to actually work on making something that has multiple facets of production (physical, electronic, and computational), but that also makes it difficult. Most of the time success means getting something simply to function rather than making something meaningful. We have been posting the work we do on this blog.

Graduate Typography
After getting a bunch of mixed reviews from people who took the class, I figured I should take it anyway since I want to have a good foundation for visually communication ideas. I’m surprised at how useful it has been so far. I’ve always thought of my problem with typography being a matter of choosing the right font, and the approach that Kristen Hughes takes already has helped me in understanding how to start using type. I’m slowly getting used to the subjective aspects and freedom that is created through constraints.

Thesis Project
I’m glad to say that I feel somewhat confident about what I’m doing with the project. I’ve started with a somewhat formed vision of what is important with my topic and why I want to do it. I’m working on Ad-Hoc assistance and how people can share resources between each other, possibly using mobile devices. I’m going to interview people who are involved in volunteer groups to get a sense of their attitudes and thoughts, and also approach the east end food co-op as a user group that collaborates through helping. I’m hoping the research will help in creating a system to make it easy for regular people to participate in everyday assistance. I think it’s great for me because it puts me outside of my comfort zone and is something I don’t know very much about. The only worry is time.

Thesis Paper
This one’s a little tough. Every week I feel like I’m formulating something worthwhile just to be thrown into doubt and anxiety following our thesis meetings. I feel lost a lot of the time and unsure if what I am writing about and why it’s worth my time and energy. Somewhat like our Seminar II papers last year. Right now I’m looking at how people assign meaning to space resulting in places. It all relates to pervasive technology and something about perception and flow. I’m hoping I can clarify this for myself as soon as possible.

If anything, I’m coming across tons of questions that be thesis topics in themselves. Here’s to hoping that things start coming together, and quickly.

Spontaneity and fluid interactions: One thing that mobile and ubiquitous technology can potentially allow for is interactions that are happen naturally. This could mean products that are simply low-attention or products that let people do what they wish. A simple example is the camera phone. Whereas before people had to intentionally bring a camera somewhere, now things like citizen journalism have emerged where people only have to be at the right place at the right time. The challenge here might be finding a specific context or group of people to design for. So maybe its for journalists, for public events, for the environment, for education. Essentially I would want to find out how people already do spontaneous and fluid things and how a product could be designed that takes advantage of those needs.

Social cooperation: We already have lots of situations where we are in the same physical setting with others and we are cooperating. It would probably look at a type of people: construction workers, restaurant workers, bands, offices, groups of friends, people traveling together, etc… understand how they work and communicate and how a product could serve them. This could also look at people who are strangers and who cooperate. Reminds me a bit of Fred’s goPlay project. That said, it could be related to gaming a bit.

Representation of digital media: I’ve always been interested in how the representation of different media changes and how people interact with it and value it changes as well. Do we as people just adapt to new forms or is there something inherent in older representation that should be preserved? I think it’s fascinating because it’s something that is constantly changing and has an effect on how we interact with each other and society. I would probably focus on one type, like photographs or music. The only “drawback” is that we have kind of dealt with media in two previous projects already, so I might just want to try something else.

Privacy and notifications: With the potential for all kinds of recording of data in the future as well as stuff that is being recorded right now, what are people comfortable with? In terms of privacy… is it something people will just get over and accept that they are already being tracked and traced? Do we have a responsibility as designers to let people know what information is being collected about them regarding the products they use?

In terms of notifications… with all this information, how do we let people know about things? What’s the proper way to let people know something. How much control do you give people over notifications? How are the notifications manifested or visualized? Especially related to relevant contextual information. How do you find out what people care about and what they are willing to be bothered about? Ie, how do you design for those things? An incoming call is a notification. Today we represent that using obnoxious ringtones. A text message is a buzz. How are you notified if your friends is near? How are you notified if your bank account is low. Again, I feel like I need to focus on a specific context of people or situation.

While these are only a few of tons of other topics, I feel like they are the most relevant and have been on my mind. So I hope I can do something interesting with one of them.

Documentation and Process
The other thing I’ve been doing is setting up some system of documentation for my thesis. I was looking at google docs, which is nice, but maybe not as straightforward as a wiki. So I’m using pbwiki for now. The 10mb limit is kind of troublesome, so if I have time I might go through the hassle of installing my own wiki on this server. Otherwise, I’m leaving it open to anyone. I’m a fan of having a transparent process, especially in school.

It’s a little scary relying on an online service, but it might be more trustworthy than my janky laptop that is slowly dieing. Hopefully I’ll post worthwhile consolidations of my notes every so often.

Classes
Another anxiety inducing issue is choosing the two classes to go along with thesis project and paper next year. There are so many good classes to take, but I don’t want to jeopardize my thesis by getting in over my head. I think I might be set on taking Graduate Typography since I find myself always wanting to improve my visual design skills. For the second class it’s a toss up between Jodi Forlizzi’s Advanced Interaction, Shelley Evenson’s Designing for Service, or Osman Khan’s Circuit Bending. They all seem fascinating, so it’s going to be a hard decision.

While this means that more people can participate, it also means there’s a lot more to sift through in order to find anything meaningful. Which is why I feel the need to explain why I have decided to write and what I plan on this space being used for:

Topics
The first important issue is what will be discussed on here. I’m hoping the main overarching theme will be interaction design in its broadest sense. It will be about people, what they do, and what we do as designers to help them. Some posts might be more theoretical based, while I might talk about a specific products later on. Somewhat similar to how I’m learning right now.

Within interaction design, I’m interested in: how people adapt and re-purpose products, how technology changes people’s behaviors and how it can be used to fulfill people’s needs, ubiquitous computing, game studies, and a sprinkling of service design, among other topics.

1. Design Writing
The first reason is purely selfish, which is to help me learn how to write in general, and how to write about what I am doing. It’s important for people to know how to communicate clearly about what they do and how they do it. It’s also important to be able to tackle different topics within the discipline and be able to discuss them. At the very least, it can provide a springboard for more discussion later on. I want a place where I can write about design without the pressure of being completely proper.

2. Self-Reflection
I also need a place to keep track of everything. I might be walking to school and see something that triggers an interesting thought about people, but after a few days it escapes. I’m hoping this can be a place to hold some of thoughts and experiences. I also spend a lot of my consuming information whether it’s reading, listening to lectures, or just browsing online or in bookstores. I’d like to capture some of my own reactions and thoughts to information I encounter so that I can have a concrete representation of what I think.

3. Social-Reflection
On the flip-side, I also run into a lot of interesting people that I have great discussions with. Being at a design school, it’s easy to find classmates who are willing (most of the time) to geek out over design and other random stuff. At the same time, people are extremely busy and people need to get to work. It would be nice to explore some of the discussions and questions we raise further if needed.

4. Public Display
So why do I want to do this online? With everything I just talked about, I could just as well be writing things in a word document or in a private site. One reason is that I think what we learn and talk about at Carnegie Mellon is important for others to encounter. It’s likely I would not be going to school there if I hadn’t followed Dan Saffer’s blog and read about his experiences. The picture he painted of CMU helped me make a more informed decision about where I wold be be doing my graduate studies. Since I’m done with the all important first year, my discussion will most likely be less about the school itself and more about the themes I think are interesting enough to talk about.

Another reason is that I firmly believe in public discussion. Although the internet can really turn ugly with the anonymity that it enables, I think the potential for generating discussion is wonderful, and I would hope that people would challenge things I say and argue with me.

One of the dangers I’ve always felt with putting my words down is that it makes your ideas that much more rigid, since they become a record of your thoughts and feelings. I would like this to be more of a cross-section with room to contradict myself and change as much as I need to.

Quick and Dirty
Just to reiterate some of the reasons why I am doing this. I really think there is a value in being able to put something out into the world without the pressure and influence of peers, professors, or workplace. It takes less time to piece something together and see what people have to say than writing a full blown paper, and is more permanent than a casual conversation.

I’m hoping that future posts will be shorter and less wordy, since half the time people don’t actually read posts completely. I will also try not to bring in everyday details unless they relate to something greater that I find interesting.

Although, who knows? Maybe this will be the first and last post. Only time will tell.