132-Pete

I hate writing about myself. But I think almost everyone feels the same about it.

My PhD is taking me on a bit of a journey at the moment through the ethics of design and developing interactive systems. I’m coming to the conclusion that we, as designers and developers, need some kind of ethical code or set of professional standards. Perhaps it’s my background in law where that’s a given and is actually something that guides much of what you do in everyday legal practice, along with the fear of being sued.

Mike Monteiro’s writings are resonating with me quite a bit at the moment.

So I get that you like making things. But making things at the expense of someone else’s freedom is fucked. (From Ethics and paying rent)

Commentary like this is providing quite a bit of direction for my PhD, because it aligns with a lot of what I am discovering through my research. I get that it’s placing a pretty huge obligation on designers and developers, but given the fact that technology permeates our lives and often we don’t really have a choice, it’s something that I think we must accept.

This is Sally. She’s a very big part of my life and part of the reason that I choose to be vegetarian.

This is Hudson, also an important part of my life. He’s a smooch but wonderfully so.

Design and Interaction Design changed the way I think about the world and my place in it. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of learning a completely new field and look forward to what it will bring in the future. Despite what I might sometimes say, I also enjoy helping others learn about Interaction Design. It’s a privilege to be able to tutor students in this area and I can honestly say that I learn more every time I tutor a course.

I do like to build stuff, particularly interactive stuff that has neopixels. I say it’s for my PhD and this one aims to build connection between people, their food waste and a worm farm. But truthfully, it was more about the form and how it throws light from the neopixels.

I’ve entered the OzCHI SDC previously. Our team go into the finals for OzCHI 2016. I’m really interested to see how we approach this challenge and to compare it against our approach from 2016. I’m pretty sure it will be different, influenced by the methods I have used in my PhD and by the projects that have been part of the past few year’s iterations of our Design Thinking course here at UQ. It’s changed a lot. We’ve stepped into some really interesting areas of design which has continued to expand my view of and approach to design.

Trevor is my partner. He’s currently doing a Master of Interaction Design and is on our team along with Awais. You can read more about them on their intro posts.