The first step of this project was to choose a list of information to work with.  I found Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to be an inherently interesting list in that it describes what motivates the behavior of human beings.  Maslow’s theory says that people will focus on meeting the lowest level needs before strongly desiring the needs the next level up.  Hence, physiological needs such as food and water are at the bottom of the hierarchy, while lofty goals such as morality and creativity are at the top.

I felt there was a stronger way to express the hierarchy in place here than through a pyramid, something that fit the concept more closely.  The tree seemed an apt metaphor.  Just as a tree can’t survive without strong roots, a person can’t survive without fundamental physiological needs being met.  A person flourishes through achieving self-actualization, while a tree displays its flourishing health through thicker, more lush foliage.  Thus I visually related the levels of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy to the layers of outward growth on a tree.  Users navigate the tree with a mouse by clicking on the section they wish to explore.

I used a vector image for the tree so that I could scale it to a large size, giving me the flexibility to zoom in while still maintaining a high-fidelity image.  The images for the tree, leaves, and roots were all manipulated in Adobe Illustrator, as well as the text on the branches.  The blowing leaf motion was a touch I added in After Effects.

Process

My contributions
Selection & execution of field research
Data analysis & synthesis
Formulation of design recommendations

Clean Air-Cool Planet is a non-profit organization committed to fighting global warming. Their Campus Carbon Calculator tool is an emissions calculator currently in use at over 1,200 universities across the country, and is the tool of record for most of the 600 signatories to the American Colleges and University Presidents Climate Commitment. While the tool is powerful and comprehensive, usability issues were causing inaccurate and incomplete calculation results. Our team was responsible for finding out how to make the tool easier to use.

We worked with the faculty of local universities to observe users as they worked with the tool, analyzing their workflows and identifying breakdowns. Applying a diverse set of research methods over the course of several months, our team built a comprehensive view of the strengths and weaknesses of the CCC tool. We worked together to create a set of 9 critical design recommendations to improve the tool, each based on empirically-derived data. The final deliverable to our client was a presentation of our research techniques and findings, the design recommendations, and our full set of data and analysis documentation.

Process

Objective
Use the Microsoft Kinect to create an engaging piece of interactive computational art

My contributions
Project concept
Algorithms & code for Boo positioning, object occlusion, Boo scaling, Boo rotation, and Boo floating motion

Mario Boo drawn in real space with Kinect, by Horstman & Kurani from John Horstman on Vimeo.

The idea behind this project was to use the Kinect to create an illusion for the viewer that items displayed on the computer screen existed in the real world. This is accomplished by drawing a virtual character on-screen in a location that the viewer can’t see in the real world – i.e., the viewer’s “blind spot.” The virtual character moves to stay in the viewer’s blind spot as the user moves around, so that the viewer can never see the real-world location of where the virtual character would be.

For the virtual character we selected the “Boo” ghost from the Super Mario Brothers video game series. In the games, the Boo sneaks up on Mario when Mario is facing away from Boo. When Mario faces Boo, Boo stops advancing on Mario and hides his face. Boo’s behavior is similar enough to our goal behavior to make him a great candidate to star in our project.

Process

All programming for this project was performed in openFrameworks. The following addons made our project possible:

• ofxKinect – Processing Kinect input
• ofxOpenNI – Skeleton recognition
• ofxVectorMath – Vector calculations

Click on the image for a larger view.

As a frequent biker, I’ve long been frustrated with the design of the bike pump valve head that attaches to the tube valve. It’s physically awkward to attach, leaks air while attaching and detaching, and gives no feedback on the strength of the seal.

My proposed redesign alleviates the ergonomic nightmare of the old pump head. Rather than holding the head in place with one hand and applying perpendicular force to the head lever with the other hand, this head is attached simply by pushing down onto the tube valve. This means that the new head can easily be attached with just one hand instead of two. When the pump head is pressed into place and a seal is created with the tube valve, the pump head provides feedback by physically and audibly clicking, and a green ring appears around the base of the head. The pump head is released from the tube valve by pinching opposite sides of the head and pulling off, again avoiding the awkward application of force inherent to the old head design.

My contributions
Ideation
Feature selection
Persona design
Scenario design
Wireframing
Prototyping

Storyville is a mobile application that helps retirees create and explore grassroots tours of their local neighborhoods. They can incorporate their own stories about places in their community, and contribute to a collective voice about our towns that treasures their experience and diversity. The application has two modes – one for tour-making and one for tour-taking – along with collaborative features such as adding to a tour, submitting feedback and recommendations, and sharing tours. The goals of Storyville are accessibility, ease of use, enriching local history, and positive social contribution for retirees.

The application is the result of an iterative, user-centered design process. Our first step was to identify a target user group, then to perform research on the goals, interests, and behaviors of that group. Based on that research, we scrapped our initial app idea (a service similar to Yelp that targeted an older user base) and went back to the drawing board. The resulting idea is much stronger than our first one, more unique and better focused on our target users. We further refined the app functionality in a subsequent round of peer critiques.

Further details and live demo available at the product website.

Process

My contributions
Execution of user research methods
Feature selection
Scenario design
Wireframing
Workflow design
Co-author of final report
Primary author for sections on retrospective methods analysis, design concepts and rationale, and executive summary

Methods
Contextual inquiry & design
Think-aloud studies
Keystroke-level modeling

The core Fall semester class of Carnegie Mellon’s human-computer interaction master’s program teaches students the practical application of key user research tools and techniques by focusing on a design challenge. In 2010, we spent the semester analyzing parents transitioning into the role of “empty nesters” – i.e., the last of their children is leaving home. These parents are sorting through their child’s possessions, trying to reclaim space in their home while making sure to keep useful or emotionally significant items. Our semester’s work culminated in the design of a mobile application to help a family transition from including dependent children to only including independent adult children, specifically to help discard and archive the accumulated possession from childhood. This system design was described in detail in a final report that included a summary of our design process, our design decisions, the rationale behind those decisions (supported by research data), and a scenario-based system walkthrough.

The research portion of this project was comprised of deep dives into a set of research methods, such as contextual inquiry and think-aloud studies. Students worked closely with instructors and TAs, receiving regular feedback on our understanding and execution of the methods. We were also frequently asked to step back and think critically about the strengths and weaknesses of each method, and when each method would be most effective. This critical thinking culminated in a retrospective analysis included in our final report, for which I was the primary author.

Process

Click on the image for a larger view.

Each student was required to design a container that required two gestures to open, in the same vein as a childproof medicine container. The container interaction had to be expressed through a storyboard consisting of 5–7 gestures, using hands and action arrows to effectively communicate use.

I created several versions of a container in search of something that felt realistic but also novel. Once I arrived at a solid design, I took reference photos of my own hands manipulating an object of similar size and shape (a pack of Post-It notes). I then drafted a few practice storyboards to determine which gestures and perspectives were best at displaying the object’s behavior. I used those key thumbnails for my final sequence, rendering the object and hands with pencil, ink and marker.

Process

Final rendering