Although I am still working on building up Hotcakes New Media, I have been paying attention to the job market in Ottawa; More specifically, I am watching for the few Interaction Designer positions that pop up in this area. Since my main Hotcakes cash cow is now all but going under, business has been a little slow (which allowed me to work on finishing the basement). Since a little extra money, networking, and career advancement never hurt, I’ve recently submitted an application that required me to put together a PDF of my portfolio.

I thought it would be interesting to show the portfolio to you, my loyal readers.  So here it is!

I’ve attached the PDF version of the portfolio to this post. The file is 1.5Mb and is 4 pages long.

My portfolio

Let me know what you think.

A7

Since IxD is now officially my career path for the next little while, I’ve had a few ideas for some design posts. Now I have somewhere to post them.

Most of the posts will be focused on Interaction Design, and I’m hoping that this site (or specifically this section) will act as a think tank for building on design ideas and considerations. The sharing of ideas, information, and experience is an important part of the design process, so please don’t be shy to participate! The more discussion that occurs, the better the end result.

A real IxD post will be forthcoming. Enjoy the new section.

A7

So far, most of my posts have been technology based. I will be writing some art articles (ARTicles?) soon, and I already have some ideas, but I would love to know what you are interested in reading about. This is, after all, an interactive forum, so your input is appreciated. Some of the general topics I have in mind include IxD (Interaction Design), using Apple for home audio, and bridging technology and art.

Here are some future topics I will be writing about:

• Hackintosh – Part 2
• Whole home audio setups – Part 1 (current state and offerings)
• Whole home audio setups – Part 2 (Apple’s role, my setup, how-to)
• How technology has influenced art
• Interaction Design – Designing a home
• Video art – public memory and recollection (work proposal)
• Video and the technological disconnect (how technology creates anonymity and behavioral changes)

So that’s the short list for now. That should keep me busy for almost 4 months, and I’m sure more ideas will come out of this. Do you have a suggestion? Have a topic you think I should write about? Have a technology you think I should investigate? Let me know by leaving a comment on this post.

A7

As many of you know, I make a very clear separation when it comes to art and design. I strongly believe art is created by the artist, based on the artist’s concept with no outside influences or pressure, and fully developed with no financial gain as motivation. Design on the other hand, as artistic as it may be, is always created with another person’s motivation and objective in mind, often, but not exclusively for, financial gain. So why is this post Art News?

It seems upon further reflection that OCAD has provided me with the perfect set of skills to become an Interaction Designer. I hadn’t thought about it until my new manager at Artez, Peter, had asked me if I wanted to be the new Interaction Designer for Artez. Yes, as of last Friday it is official… my job title now lists me as Interaction Designer. Since I now have “design” in my job title, I feel I have reached the goal I set out to achieve several years ago.

First, in case some of you are wondering, what is interaction design? According to Wikipedia:

As new technologies are often overly complex for their intended target audience, interaction design aims to minimize the learning curve and to increase accuracy and efficiency of a task without diminishing usefulness. The objective is to reduce frustration and increase user productivity and satisfaction.

Interaction design attempts to improve the usability and experience of the product, by first researching and understanding certain users’ needs and then designing to meet and exceed them. (Figuring out who needs to use it, and how those people would like to use it.)

Interaction design is about creating design that allows for a simple and effective use of the application or product. If a product is ugly and clumsy, but functions really well, then it is not a good product. Likewise, if a product is really pretty, but doesn’t function well, it is not a good product either. The goal of interaction design is to bridge the gap between aesthetics and usability, function and form, to make a product that is pleasing to use and look at.

Back to my original topic… why is this art news? Quite simply, OCAD turned me into an interaction designer. Well, not quite… actually, my combination of technology education and experience from my “past life”, combined with my recent interactive “new media” art education, as well as my knowledge of design, makes me an ideal interaction designer. Furthermore, it’s something I really enjoy doing! It allows me to explore technology with a design and art view; I can be creative and technological.

I think this is quite an interesting and promising field of work to get into. Not only is it very cutting edge (interaction design, as an area of study and work, has only become prominent in the past 5 years or so), but it is also extremely difficult to find a good interaction designers. I’m sure you’ve all heard of “right-brain” vs “left-brain”, and the different schools of thought surrounding creativity and technology. Simply put, they don’t usually mesh very well. People who are naturally artistic are not generally analytical, and vice versa. Somehow, I have managed to escape this “rule” and I am equally blessed with equal parts creativity and analytical skills (a fact that has cursed me and torn me in two very different directions all my life… until now).

While I would never call my interaction design work “art”, it is comforting to know that my art education was able to be applied to a real world skillset. Let’s just hope I have enough free time to actually create some works of art somewhere in between all this design and technology.

A7