Historical Self
With the explosion of technology over the past 20 years, little attention has been payed to user interaction design. Sometimes it is, but for the most part, people seem to think functionality takes precedence over design and usability. This blog has been created to explore the ways people interact with technology and how it affects them.
I am a 26 year old designer. I have taken so many titles over the years that I think designer sums up what I do. We could get technical and say I am more on the interaction design side of things, but that boxes me in and I don’t like that. I have spent countless hours studying the design of everyday things, asking many questions as to first why and then how. Ever since I was a kid, I enjoyed taking things apart to learn how they worked and then putting them back together again. This is why I love what I do. Knowing how something works, not just how it looks when functional, is extremely important in my work. It helps find the common bond between usability and engineering. After all, you could have the world’s most energy efficient car but, if it is not visually appealing in some way, you’ll never sell it.
I have a career goal of working with advanced user interfaces such as touchscreen window fronts on stores and GUI’s for the space and aeronautics industry. I have developed many user interfaces ranging from small, point of sale kiosk displays up to training course ware for our nation’s armed services. Learning has always been a part of my work ethic and I feel that the day I stop learning from my work is the day I need to move on. This has afforded me many opportunities to test certain theories and push the limits of what is considered doable on a market level. Always wanting to go a few steps further, this has lead me to develop an extremely strong work ethic. I strive to not only meet the business demands of the job, but to also use massive amounts of creativity and development so ideas and solutions stay fresh and never become stagnant.
I have so far enjoyed my time with what I do. It has lead to many new paths and showed me ways of thinking I never thought I would encounter. For every problem there is a solution, it just needs to be studied and found. With time, effort and creativity, anything is possible.