Ghost in the Pixel

After a long break from attending design conferences (haven’t been to one this year due to work commitments) I just registered for the IxDA’s interaction’09 event being held in Vancouver, Feb 2009. Should be a great event, with a nice mix of notable and influential keynote speakers, including Dan Saffer, John Thackera, Marc Rettig, and so on. Lots of fabulous networking to be done ;-) I’ll be staying at the Four Seasons, so I hope to see you there!

It’s been admittedly a very long while since my last post. I’ve been on somewhat of a hiatus from blogging and designing since voluntarily leaving my Sr. IxD position at Cisco a month ago (within the Voice Technology Group). Since then I’ve been exploring other options affording greater personal creative potential and strategic design innovation. In the meantime I’ve reunited with my friend and mentor Andrei Herasimchuk at Involution Studios on a short yet very exciting contract…who knows where it might lead :-) In addition, I’m providing ad-hoc UI consulting guidance for friends in the Bay Area and continuing to teach part-time at SJSU this fall. It’s an interesting time personally and professionally for me at this point in my career, having spent the last 7 years working at a variety of companies, large and small! No doubt, working in Silicon Valley has been incredibly beneficial on many levels, not the least of which the great multitude of options without having to relocate!

During my time off, I’ve been pondering what issues specifically to continue writing about, that continue and extend the general theme of “Ghost in the Pixel”. Here’s a tentative list of upcoming topics. Stay tuned…

* Lessons from corporate design

* Challenges of establishing a new design initiative

* Dark truths of designing: power, control, ego, and politics

* Preparing for your next job interview: what to really ask!

* In defense of creative talent…yes it still matters!

* Reviews of some new UI’s: Cuil, Chrome, Picasa, Firefox 3, etc.