About Me

Portfolio

Products and Interactive Prototypes

MaNIS Search Interface Prototype

Challenge:
Minimize the domain expertise needed to effectively search information from multiple natural history museums.

Solution:
The MaNIS User Interface displays search results on the same page as search tools. The design includes thematic browsing, dynamic term lists and one-click refinement of search criteria. This is an interaction prototype, not a visual design, developed to support the usability tests described on the project site.

"Tar Invaders" and "Aphid Eater"

Challenge:
Games engage kids, but many educational games provide action while sidelining the lesson.

Solution:
In contrast, I designed the game interaction of Tar Invaders (2003) and Aphid Eater (2000) to embody the biology lessons. Learning the game means learning biology.

Ocean Immersion Planner

Challenge:
Support development of complete communication cycles between rural elementary school teachers and parents to plan and participate in a month-long learning festival. Use existing technology at current levels of adoption in both home and school, integrate with existing planning systems, and minimize training and task times.

Needs Assessment:
I interviewed teachers and analyzed their existing planning documents to establish current planning practices and levels of technology adoption. Teachers needed very simple planning tools showing events across multiple weeks, dated versions, easily printed, with visual interest and no learning curve.

Solution:
Think outside the box: Flash's rich interaction capabilities are usually leveraged to deliver content, but I asked our programmers to develop a Flash application for creating, saving, editing and re-editing calendar files online. A centralized planning tool enables teachers to see plans used at other schools, make their own plans, and share them easily with teachers and parents using the web and existing paper systems without extra steps. I designed an easily-learned calendar editing interface to support the teachers' planning workflow, including their use of clip-art. Saved calendars are plug-in free webpages parents and teachers can print or view from any web browser.

"What's in a Cigarette?"

Challenge:
Provide comprehensive, scientifically accurate information about tobacco use to a target audience of low-income teens. Use visual appeal and detail appropriate to their interest, but avoid requiring plug-ins that school and library computers don't have.

Solution:
The Tobacco Info features of Tarnival.org use Adobe ImageReady and layered content. The dissected cigarette image provides information immediately in any web browser. The curious teen can roll over labels to uncover more details, and click to open windows with more text and links.

FOSS Populations and Ecosystems Multimedia

Challenge:
Provide appropriate multimedia activities to extend the learning begun in hands-on activities in the FOSS Populations and Ecosystems Middle School science curriculum.

Solution:
I was project manager from start to finish on this accompanying website and CD-ROM. Multiple Flash interactive components provide exploratory environments (see Ecoscenario food webs), self-quizzes, and simulations (see Larkey Natural Selection) that reinforce and extend learning begun in hands-on activities. I developed the website architecture, the help and product documentation, the content-collection database, and often provided both the initial interaction design and the revisions after the interactive activities were reality tested by students.

 

Interaction Designs / Page Flows

iFlix

Challenge:
How do you represent a video's content? A title isn't always enough to organize multiplying video resources in the Internet environment.

Solution:
iFlix provides an interface for creating and organizing video content summaries, and positions itself as a member of Apple's iLife application suite. I developed the interaction design, functional specifications, lead the search for user feedback, and did the website.

GEMSnet

Challenge:
Support teachers from four counties sharing their experiences with GEMS curriculum guides. Within school computing environments simple things about maintaining e-mail contact with a community can be difficult, such as keeping e-mail address books and having mailing list subscriptions get past junk mail filters.

Solution:
The GEMSnet online community environment provides communication tools and resources available from any web browser, while delivering messages to teachers' e-mail inboxes. I prepared this page flow to specify the interface and behavior for the final GEMSnet web application.

Evaluations of Existing Interfaces

Challenge:
With minimal investment, provide valuable input to improve user and interface design to self-directed natural history web developers.

Solution:
Use a combination of heuristic evaluation and comparative analysis techniques to suggest interface improvements.