For the past few months I’ve been doing some web work for Free Geek, a non-profit in downtown Portland that refurbishes, donates, and recycles computers and electronics. They’re in the middle of web tweaking–preparing for a redesign (as you can see, their current site needs some improvement)–and wanted help addressing usability issues, doing some basic usability testing, and cleaning up content. Above is a wireframe proposal for their homepage redesign.
For the Capstone project of my Bachelor of Philosophy degree, I created a proposal for an open learning materials site, complete with preliminary sketches, wireframes, visual design, and even some usability testing.
Download the pdf or read the online version below…
For an Independent Study this past summer semester, I set out to tackle some novel approaches to controlling music. I ended up writing patches for the graphical programming language MAX/MSP that allowed me to receive signals from game controllers and convert them to MIDI signals, which were then received in my favorite music software: Ableton Live. After composing a track with digital instruments and samples, the setup allowed me to control any music parameters I wanted by pressing buttons, moving joysticks and whammy bars–even tilting a Guitar Hero controller (with an accelerometer inside).
Some friends and I built a combustion PVC potato cannon (or spud gun) and named her Charlotte.
I created the site of the The LION 90.7fm, the Penn State student radio station, taking the site off of a Wordpress backend that was too simple for the needs of such a large organization and moving to a customized Drupal CMS installation. The new site provides one place for intra-station communication, playlist posting, and public and private events managing, along with separate blogs for every radio program and some nifty new embeddable flash players.
UPDATE (11/30/09): The site has since undergone a visual overhaul, but the original Drupal setup is still in place.
Skills: Drupal, PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Photoshop
Taught by S. Shyam Sundar, my 400-level Media Effects course this spring was a survey of media effects theory that transitioned into analysis of online implications. The course culminated in a collaborative social sciences research project; our group attempted to measure the effects of race-related imagery on 4chan with a standardized implicit association test.
An excerpt of my contribution to the Results and Limitations portion of our report:
Evidence of the Third Person Effect matched the predictions of the social distance corollary nicely, and the established theories of related semantic cognitive networks were supported with our priming data and the results of the IAT.
Because the findings indicated a difference in race attitudes when exposed to racist content–though barely below the statistic significance threshold–users and hosts of such shock humor should note that even offensive content posted in fun or without serious context can have real-world effects on viewers. Our tests for Third Person Effects show that though one doesn’t think they are affected by racist imagery, they believe others are. Together, these arguments provide evidence that, if one wants to avoid cultivating racist mentalities, humorous racist content is not insignificant.
Conversely, because our results did not reach statistical significance, hosts and providers of shock content may still argue that there is no conclusive evidence that content has confidently measurable effects. Those tempted to jump to the conclusion that such content always has negative net effects should perhaps be more conservative and acknowledge that racist content may indeed be demonstrated as largely harmless.
In my own revolt against crappy and overpriced astronaut costumes, I made a homemade Apollo astronaut suit for Halloween.
Audacity is a great, simple, open-source audio editing software utility. The interface needs a little work, though–everything is functional, it just looks a little stale.
Audacity’s 1.3.3 beta release included preliminary support for skinning, which allowed users to modify the interface graphics. I created a partial theme with a significant icon update and submitted it to the Audacity development forums.
The theme uses modified parts of the free png icon set Silk at famfamfam.
During the summer of 2008 I worked with in the Computer Supported Collaboration and Learning Lab at PSU’s School of IST. My work focused on developing a facebook application for wConnect, a social alliance of women in information technology headed by Mary Beth Rosson, using PHP and the Facebook API.
The project required careful handling of abstract concepts of user identity. Users sign into their wConnect account through their regular Facebook account, and merging these identities while managing issues of user privacy, and technical implementation was one of the most interesting parts of the project.
Developing satisfactory visual branding for the app was also a challenge. wConnect needed a modern, clean look and feel that integrated into the Facebook frame nicely–but communicated ownership of the content we were responsible for.
Some screenshots after the jump…
Skills: PHP, SQL, Facebook API, HTML, CSS, Photoshop
KINETIX
KINETIX is a colorful, fast-paced casual game that uses only a webcam for input. A computer vision algorithm detects motion and alternatively rewards and punishes players for moving. Originally conceptualized as a children’s toy to encourage physical activity, the game’s simplicity allows it to be be played by anyone, either alone, competitively, or collaboratively–with any number of players.
This version was built in Processing, with help from the OpenCV library, Andy Best’s introduction to the same, The Very Best (no relation), and WhoopAss.