On this page, my portfolio is presented in chronological order, by academic quarter. Projects will open in a separate browser window.

Winter 1996
	Do Fish Sleep? Harvey the Hoverer Tells All! Do Fish Sleep?: Harvey the Hoverer Tells All is a multimedia introduction to ichthyology for children. It is a linear tutorial which helps answer the question, "do fish sleep?" It teaches elements of biology, physics, anatomy and vertebrate biomechanics using text, still images, video and animation. All content was gathered and produced by myself and my partner, Kara Carlberg. This was the first educational multimedia title I worked on, and the fabulous experience I had on the project sparked my interest in educational technology.
Summer 1996
	The Stanford Students' Guide to San Francisco This guide was a group project for a class taught at Stanford by Ray Kristof and Amy Satran, authors of Interactivity by Design. It was my first large-scale web design. We were a group of five, and soon learned the value of efficient project management. It was a very positive first large group project experience - each person's skills were effectively used. The design process was very user-oriented, and the result was this prototype guide to SF built specifically for Stanford Students.
	Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence This prototype is the first step towards creating an interactive CD-ROM based integrated science course. We used a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) angle - it was a subject of immediate interest due to the recent meteorite findings in Antarctica - Winslow had experience with an existing paper-based SETI science curriculum - and the subject was inherently interesting to both of us. Winslow and I explored the possibilities for interaction, lab-simulation and multimedia enhanced learning. We used Director as our authoring tool.
Winter 1998
	Human Biology 40: Web-based Multimedia Production for Human Biology I was the course assistant for HumBio40. My role was to act as coordinator and liason between the students and the professors. I built and maintained the course web-page. I coordinated and taught technology workshops (HTML, Photoshop, Director). I worked closely with student groups on their projects, overseeing both content and technology aspects of their work.
Summer 1998
	The ACE Computer Camp at Stanford: A Learning Environment A group study examining the physical human/computer interactions that occur at a local summer computer camp. We examine what environmental factors influence these interactions and how the human/computer interactions might affect learning. The challenge here was to, as a group, narrow the research focus in a very rich environment.
	Journey into the Brain: The Analysis of an Educational Software Product This project involved evaluation, user studies and redesign of a to-be-release educational software product. I learned how to conduct user studies - from writing the study questions to obtaining subjects to setting up equipment to interpreting results.
Fall 1998
	Water Wire Water Wire is the first captology (the study of Computers As Persuasive Technology) design project I participated in. The problem: design a technology persuading people to keep themselves adequately hydrated. The solution, Water Wire - a distributed drinking water system.
	Mission: Mascot This captology design intends to increase recycling behaviors on campuses by increasing the availability of recycling containers and capitalizing on the existing competitive spirit between schools.
	Drowsy Driver Deterrent Driving drowsy is a frighteningly common occurence, and a very potentially deadly one. 50% of users surveyed admitted to having fallen asleep at thte wheel. 83% of those accidents resulting from falling asleep at the wheel result in fatalities. DDD is a thoroughly researched captological design intended to stop people from driving drowsy. DDD would use sensors to detect physiological signals indicating imminent sleep, and sound alarms to prevent it. We envision an extensive system which may involve incentives from auto insurance agencies, the police and corporations.
	LiveID Welcome to the darkside of captology. Persuasive technologies have enormous potential for ethically questionnable applications. Here is a nursing home management system which claims to improve the quality of life for those who are healthy and active and reduce the amount of suffering for those who are bedridden. LiveID uses the princples of manipulating psychosocial stressors to manipulate physical state, as studied by David Spiegel at Stanford University.
	An Exercise in Creativity This short story was co-written by three other students and I in the course of a week over e-mail. Each of us would contribute two sentences and then pass the growing tale on. It was a fun exercise in creativity and resulted in what I think a fascinating tale.
	An Interview with Marge Cappo, Designer As a student in LDT, I learned much about the principles of design - and in countless exercises was made to apply them. But how much of the things I learned in books are used "in real life?" This interview with Marge Cappo, president of Learning in Motion, helps reveal what "real-life" designers think about and consider good/bad design strategies. Marge Cappo was my internship supervisor at Learning in Motion.
	The Human Hand: Preliminary Design Document for a New Concept in Multimedia CD-ROMS I took a fantastic interdisciplinary course at Stanford on the human hand, taught by Ellen Porzig. The content for this course so excited me, and had such a hands-on nature (pun intended) that I was struck with the idea of translating the course into an educational multi-media CD-ROM. Here is the vision set down on paper.
	Usability Analysis: Photoshop 4.0 This is a short paper analysing a usability failure in Adobe Photoshop 4.0. I examine the not-so-simple task of selecting and moving an object.
	AFFORDANCE DESIGN: Design of a Course/Section Assignment System A short paper presenting a new design for a section assigment system. The design makes use of the "information mural" technology in development at Stanford, which provides a 2 by 6 foot interactive space for multiple users to work with and manipulate information. The task was to use this emerging technology to simplify the traditionally agonizing task of assigning students to sections.
	Parking Guidance System Choose a difficult driving task. Design a technology to make it less difficult. Our choice of challenge - design a computer aided parallel parking system. The result: PGS (Parking Guidance System, an integrated system of sensor technology which serves to aid and reinforce good parallel parking habits. Designed for all levels of parking skills.
	Critique of Student Design: Computer Aided Parallel Parking Here is my critique of another student group's design of a computer aided parallel parking system. Principles from human-computer interaction literature as well as psychology and education are cited.
	An Evaluation of PRC's Speech Output Devices This is an anaysis of Prentke Romich Company's line of speech output devices. For whom would they be useful? What user-interface issues exist? What are the principles behind their design? How is the design innovative? What broader social or economic issues does the technology create?
	Software Genre Analysis What defines a genre? How are genres defined in the software industry? How does a piece of software's predetermined genre affect it's design? How is genre affect marketing strategies? This short paper examines two software titles from two distinct but related software genres and identifies the border and peripheral cues associated with each product.
Winter 1999
	A Patient's Guide to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome This patient's guide gathers and synthesizes all the commonly needed information about carpal tunnel syndrome and presents it in a user-friendly fashion. The challenge for this project was to gather accurate information from a subject expert and lay out that complex information for the layman user. Explanations have been clearly presented and navigation made simple and intuitive.
	Sensus In this hectic world of last-minute deadlines and coffee binges, mental blocks can become major stressors. Sensus is a tool to be used by workers in their work environments to overcome the frustration of a mental block. What is unique about Sensus is that it engages multiple senses to accomplish its goal: sight and touch. By using multiple senses in problem solving, Sensus aims to help open up new sources of inspiration and new modes of thought. Sensus was quite an achievement for it is the only project I've worked on involving hardware construction. In the process, I learned some about chip construction, how to wire up a chip, and most importantly - how to solder!
	A Short Thought Paper: Situative Curricula This paper questions the use of situative curricula - pointing out their limitations, as well as proposing extensions for their use.
	A Short Thought Paper: Educative Assessment This paper questions the use of educative assessment as a realistic means of assessing students. Who will determine the universal rubric? And how can biases be avoided?
	A Short Thought Paper: On-line Communities The primary issue surrounding on-line communities in education is how to monitor these communities? How to monitor without suppressing freedom of expression? And who will monitor? Teachers already have a full-time job.
	A Short Thought Paper: Identity and Education Education is nothing more than a process which creates a functioning citizenship. Through the guise of "education" children are spoon fed the propaganda of their nation. Could this not be said to be an unethical process? Is education unethical?
Spring 1999
	InforMD: A Web-based Tutorial Authoring System for Doctors InforMD is my masters project for my degree in Learning, Design and Technology. It is the culmination of a year's learning in educational theory, human-computer interaction studies, and design experience. What I am most proud of regarding this project is that I was able, through several user studies, to validate the need for such a product. My hope is that perhaps, someday, I will be able to pursue the implementation of InforMD.