Project LeadLiving Labs - Emily Carr University of Art + DesignPost secondary institution for the arts, media, and designDuring my role as a project lead at Living Labs, I was responsible for managing student projects in the Design for Startups program. In this program, students are matched with local startups to work on design-specific tasks. During this project, I worked closely with students to make sure the project deliverables and quality standards are met.I joined the program at a time of expansion when more local startups signed up due to previous successes and rising popularity.Successes included helping students adapt to the fast pace of startup environments, teaching and implementing Lean UX practices into student's design approach, and making sure project deliverables stay on track.Unfortunately, I had to suspend my position as a project lead before the program was finished due to unexpected working visa processing issues.

As a sessional instructor, I teach various design courses including:IntD 210 Core Studio Interaction DesignThis course offers students a foundational understanding of interaction design and interaction design practice. Students engage in three projects and while doing so, learn key design techniques and methods including user research, personas, scenarios, KANO analysis, information architecture, design techniques for graphical user interfaces, concept iterations, prototyping techniques, as well as presentation and evaluation techniques. The three studio projects include a re-design of an application, the development of a tangible user interface and a concept design for emerging technologies.IntD 416 Emerging TechnologiesThe purpose of this course is two-fold. On the one hand, students are exposed to contemporary programming and markup languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, d3.js, Processing, etc. This enables students to better understand the core ‘material’ of interaction design, while it also provides them with different tools to build prototypes. On the other hand, various readings on technology give students an understanding of how (emerging) technologies shape the practice of interaction designers.IntD 217 UX Sketch, Prototype, Test IPrototyping has become an essential skill for interaction designers and is the most effective, quickest, and often most affordable way to communicate concepts and make ideas tangible. In this hands-on course, participants learn contemporary prototyping techniques to design better user experiences by sketching, experimenting, making and testing.My work as a sessional instructor includes the development of course syllabi, organizing and holding lectures, guiding students and providing feedback for their designs, moderate discussions about design and technology, grading and more.

In this role, I lead and supervise undergraduate student projects at the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Students are hired through the Health Design Lab to collaboratively work with industry partners on design and research projects. As the project lead it is my job to guide students through the project, make sure the deliverables are ready at the end of the project and communicate with the project partners. SWAPPSWAPP (Sleep/Wake Behavior Web-App) is an application to facilitate recognition, characterization, and monitoring of sleep problems and daytime sequela in children and youth with neurodevelopmental conditions. The goal of the project is to provide a tool to help parents log and share qualitative data about their child’s behavior to share with their healthcare team. This will allow clinicians to make informed decisions and initiate further investigations.At the current stage, the project consists of a mobile application for parents to log and share data. In the next stage, the project will be extended with a desktop application for clinicians to process and review the data. The ultimate goal of the project is to have a validated and commercially available app for participatory data collection on poorly understood challenging-disruptive sleep/wake behaviors and medication effects. This would enable home-based monitoring of therapeutic interventions, support optimization of medication dosages and monitor adverse drug reactions; thus, individualize therapies, increase efficiency and reduce health care expenses.

Sr. Interaction DesignerEduce Design & InnovationDesign and Innovation Consultancy, 2-5 employeesDuring my role as an Interaction Designer at Educe, I was responsible for envisioning, designing, and implementing digital solutions for Educe's clients as well as initiating and leading projects. I worked closely together with our clients, developers, visual designers, and Educe's CEO.I joined Educe as the only Interaction Designer at a time when the studio was shifting focus towards more digital work and establishing itself as an expert for digital products and services.Successes included developing an in-house LMS which is delivered to major technology companies and helping clients solve internal processes by designing and developing a custom web application.

As a teaching assistant, I helped to organize and run various courses including:"IAT 338 - Interactive Objects and Environments" under Ron Wakkary"IAT 267 - Introduction to Technological System" under Mark Nazemi"IAT 100 - Digital Image Design" under Gabriela Aceves-SepulvedaIn each course, I helped to organize and execute the course content. This included preparing and running lectures, providing student feedback, leading discussions, grading, etc.The course contents itself were very varied and included everything from designing interactive installations to basics in photography and electronic prototyping.

In between my Bachelor and Master degree, I had the chance to briefly work at the Intuity Media Lab. Among other, small projects, I was mainly working on two projects.Gira Configuration SoftwareThe software allows electricians an easier installation and parameterisation of their services (networking home technology, energy and light controls, door communication, etc.). My job included the iteration of the GUI, direct communication with the developers, and implementing small portions of the GUI in XAML.Daimler ResearchDuring this project, we developed several prototypes exploring various aspects of tomorrow’s mobility. The prototypes ranged from infotainment systems in self-driving cars to dashboards and concepts for the information exchange between cars. My job included the conceptualization, development, and communication of these prototypes.

In between two semesters at the University of Design in Schwäbisch Gmünd, I worked for the Intuity Media Lab as a freelancer in order to provide support for one project.My job included the iteration of the graphical user interface of the first home telephone with touchscreen and preparing a video to communicate the product.

During my six-month internship at MESO Digital Interiors, I was mainly working on three projects, all of them interactive installations.DVAG MuseumDVAG opened a longtime exhibition in Frankfurt a.M. in which they wanted to have several interactive installations to promote their services in finance and insurance.My job was to help with the conceptualization and development of two of the installations. One is a relief map of Germany made out of acrylic dowels which can light up and show the various DVAG locations in Germany over time and the other is a table with a number of integrated small wheels to explore the various DVAG products and services through a table projection.Gravity - a public light installationSituated in an underpass in Aarau, Gravity is a permanent light installation consisting of 21 low-res LED panels and 10 retina sensors and interacts with passers-by but also reacts to weather, time and the current season.My job was to come up with and develop generative and interactive visualizations for the installation. Together with Philipp Steinweber I also traveled to Aarau in order to test and deploy the system on site.BMW Exhibition Booth For the International Automobile Fair in Paris, MESO had created various interactive telescopes for the BMW booth. During my internship, we extended the telescope with a self-build stereoscopic display. My job was to help with the build and implementation of the hardware as well as to create the generative visuals for the display, carefully considering its limited interactions (lowering, raising and turning the telescope).

During my time as an undergraduate student at the University of Design in Schwäbisch Gmünd, I was part of the editorial staff of FORMAT, the official magazine of the University.Each semester a small group of students form the editorial staff of the magazine and come up with a new issue. The students involved are responsible for all the work behind the magazine, including coming up with a theme, researching, writing and editing the single articles, designing the issue, choosing the paper, contacting a print shop, etc.

During my time as an undergraduate student at the University of Design in Schwäbisch Gmünd, I was hired as a research assistant to work on an in-house schedule and room planning system. The web-based systems allow the academic staff of the University to easily and efficiently schedule courses, workshops, and events by cross-referencing available rooms and the availability of staff and lecturers.My job was to create the visual design for the system which would be implemented on different devices.