So what do you do?

We often ask that question when encountering new people. The answer typically revolves around what people are, and not what they do: “I’m a nurse.” “I’m a bus driver.” “I am an engineer.”

Job titles give a first impression of what someone does, but there is so much more to a person's story. Here are some things I do.

explore & learn

For as long as I can remember, I was eager to find out how things work and how people think. I’ve been fortunate enough to nurture that curiosity through the years, and I even made it my career to explore and learn: about human behavior and, particularly, how humans interact with technical artifacts.

research & design

After completing my Master’s in electrical engineering, I took a few career details until I settled on user experience design in 2006. Focusing on complex workflows, interaction design, and systems solutions, it’s a great match for my inner explorer.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the good fortune to almost exclusively work on large-scale, feature rich SaaS applications for meaningful applications. No overselling and no “engagement” beyond letting our users get their work done. And I intend to keep it that way.

Most recently, I designed lab orchestration software for human genome sequencing, contributed to a design system, and led our team’s DesignOps efforts.

My LinkedIn profile has more details.

build & deploy

Building something, and seeing it in active use, is the logical next step to research & design. I use much of my spare time to explore programming at my own pace and to assemble kits of all kinds.

I’m currently working on a not-yet-published Python software project related to ham radio, and explore retro-computing kits such as the 6502 Anniversary Computer Badge and the Core64 Interactive Core Memory kit.

share & care

Countless people have freely shared their expertise, advice, and convictions with me. Just as importantly, they also taught me the joy of paying it forward by sharing with others, and how much you can learn in return from those whom you teach.

Besides mentoring others in person, I write and speak, mostly about the fundamentals and practice of interaction design. My blog, The UI Observatory, is full of everyday user experiences. An example for a presentation is this talk about Shneiderman's 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design that I presented remotely for the UX San Antonio meetup.

Oh, and one topic that’s dear to me, is computer backups. You’ll understand once you’ve watched this short talk called “Data Backups are the Bomb” from Ignite Fort Collins, you

play & savor

Play is exploring and learning in a relatively safe context. All mammals play. It’s an integral part of growing up. While many grownups no longer experience the joy of playing, making play a lifelong habit comes easily to anyone who considers themselves a geek at heart.

Besides programming and building kits, I love digging into brainteasers from Kenken and Kakuro puzzles via math riddles and engineering problems to computer adventure games.