I've done this before ... - humane machine

I’ve done this before …

Humane Machine

… this time I’m mostly serious … definitely maybe.

I’ve created blogs in the past and never really stuck with them. For one reason or another I just never had the drive to keep up with posting (or reposting) and at the same time keep things interesting for someone reading, or myself for that matter. Plus I’m a primarily a user interface designer not a writer, I don’t do words. But, I’m willing to endure it if you are.

There are so many blogs out there on so many topics, along with microblogging, Facebook posts and all the rest. Why on earth would I bother at this point?

I have more that 140 characters worth of things to say about various topics for one. While Twitter is fast and easy, sometimes I come across problems at work or think of new a process and there’s no easy way to get that information out to a lot of people in order to get feedback on it. Which brings me to point two, I want to share things I’ve learned from doing user interface design and user experience design with those communities and get people talking about things.

Most importantly, today there seems to be few or no one exploring and practicing user experience within the context of game development. Even fewer are people who are advocates for UX outside of web and general software engineering. Maybe this is a huge Vegas style sign for me to realize this is a bad idea, or maybe I’m onto something. I’m not 100% sure which yet but I’m excited about exploring the possibilities.

For the most part UX has been restricted to web development, and desktop applications. However, I feel and strongly advocate a lot of these practices within game development and try to use these concepts in my day to day work. Mind you UX for web doesn’t translate one to one over to game development. There are just too many wide and varied differences for that to work. However there are core components that do, and I’d like to explore those in a more public forum.

Along with that, I’d like to share and discuss various UI paradigms, in conjunction with practical applications of graphic design and layout within that context. Maybe some of these posts will make it out into the ether. I hope the result is having some nitty gritty discussions going on here, and maybe learn a thing or two!

For those of you who are wondering who the hell I am, here’s a brief summary:

I never went to college. I loathe scantron tests far too much. I’m a self taught user interface designer, user experience designer, artist and game designer.
I started out doing web design in 1995.
I did user interface design for embedded systems within RAID storage devices. Developing one of the storage industries first platform independent RAID management applications. Many of the people on this project later went to Apple and ended up developing the XServe RAID software.
My first brush with game development was QA at Interplay along with some various game mod tinkering. I spent a lot of time in the DOOM 2 editor and worked with some very talented folks on a couple of Quake 2 mods.
I’ve done freelance web design, graphic design, user interface design, and consulting as well.
In 2003 I went to work for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) as a UI designer, primarily doing web design at first and eventually went on to create the user interfaces for EverQuest (post Shadows of Luclin expansion), and PlanetSide.
While at Sony I later took up 3D modeling and worked on several EverQuest expansions. I mostly was creating NPC character models, however I also got to design, model and texture weapons and props, and create particle effects along the way as well.
After my time at SOE I went to Obsidian Entertainment to dabble in single player games for a bit. I was hired as a Senior Artist to work on Neverwinter Nights 2, and develop the user interface for that project.
Some new opportunities arose around this time and I jumped in feet first into a new start up company developing large format touch screen computer integrated after market GPS for cars. He I acted as the Director of User Experience, and got a lot of hands on with developing a company and consumer product from scratch. As with most start ups this one ended prematurely, but that’s a story for another time.
Next I set out to do some more freelance. Web design, consulting and some iPhone and beta Android applications this time, which was a lot of fun.
Later I went to work for Active Storage, Inc. developing XRAID RAID storage products. Again working as the Director of User Experience, we set out to deliver an Apple experience to our users. Active is still kicking and doing great things. My industrial design for these products recently won a GoodDesign Award 2009 in Japan.
Today I’m a Senior User Interface Designer for something and I do some cool stuff on a cool game. :)

So that pretty much brings you up to speed. :) inorite?

Feel free to check out my art portfolio, follow me on Twitter, or ping me on LinkedIn. You can check out my game credits on GiantBomb or MobyGames.

More posts to come! In case you’re curious you can find actual robot dudes picture above on Etsy.

Obligitory Disclaimer
These are my own personal views and do not express the views of anyone, any company, or entity that I have ever worked for, am working with currently, or may end up working with some time in the future. These are my own personal opinions and stand as such.