Author Archives: Daniel Erwin

About Daniel Erwin

Interaction Designer

tangible programming

A great example of using tangible means to help students get some core principles of computing: http://www.core77.com/blog/education/ubi_de_feo_figures_out_how_to_teach_coding_to_code-challenged_designers_24625.asp It doesn’t seem to be too deep, and I didn’t see any good tangible metaphors for class relationships, but doubtless this is a … Continue reading

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Cisco DX650

The product I’ve been working on at Cisco for the last year and a half has just launched! See a brief overview, in the form of some tutorial videos that will run on the device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUmxyLD63W0&playnext=1&list=PLFT-9JpKjRTCuOb5Q6kBX1YSIEUjZicHh&feature=results_main    

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tensegrity

After seeing Kenneth Snelson’s work when I was in high school, I’ve tried several times to reproduce the floating quality of his tensegrity sculptures. Whether I was using steel cable or fishing line, I was never able to create a … Continue reading

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Woodworking

A few years ago I committed myself to getting rid of all the pressboard furniture I owned. It’s been a struggle, but this year I finally did it, and along the way I’ve put to use some of those woodworking … Continue reading

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media theory

Jon Stewart’s extended cuts of conversations with politicians cut through a lot the problems with the television format. He’s managed to take advantage of the internet’s potential to transform the sort of conversation that can happen. His recent conversation with … Continue reading

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trees in the future

Looking at the dieter rams exhibit at sfmoma I was struck by the luxuriousness of using real, solid hardwoods in a mass-produced product. It may have seemed like a leftover or a throwback then, but now it’s the realm of … Continue reading

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a big view of interaction design

“Historically, machines have been viewed as tools to be applied directly by people to perform tasks. … the tool is an extension of the human and is under the human’s control. … an intelligent machine could aid a person by … Continue reading

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InDesign Styles as Dependency Trees

InDesign’s Styles palatte is an advanced way to make documents more efficiently by quickly assigning attributes like color, size, font, etc. to an item. Below is a demonstration of how the dependency-tree organization that Adobe’s style sheets allow can also … Continue reading

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levels of abstraction

A conversation over beer with a tech guy I’m working with at Toca brought up the open systems interconnection model, a seven-layer technical protocol that underlies the internet and most other networking hardware/software. This is relevant because it occurred to … Continue reading

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perception close-up

A New Yorker piece compares the way the media presented (a particular event during) the Iraq war to the way one chooses to frame a scene: “a famous study carried out more than half a century ago, when General Douglas … Continue reading

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