David Roedl

For the past two months, I’ve been working to overhaul the look and contents of this site. I was getting bored with the generic Wordpress theme, so I decided to create my own style from scratch. This turned out to be a lot more work than I expected, but I am pleased with the results. The style came together with some typographic advice from Web Designer Wall, and some worn edges by way of designer Henry Jones. Along with the new look, I’ve also added a lot more content to my portfolio, notably bringing it up to date and featuring my ongoing capstone project. So please take a look at what I’ve been to and let me know what you think! Also, with the site design out of the way, I’m hoping to find time to start blogging again…

This essay is about the challenge of making environmental sustainability a focus of HCI research and practice. While environmental concerns have been around for a long time and have been considered important in other design disciplines like architecture and product design, the topic has only recently been recognized in the HCI community. It is also a very complex topic, posing a number of difficult theoretical questions. For example, it demands that we first understand the complex issue of how HCI design is currently impacting the environment. Second, we need to understand how concerns for these impacts can be effectively integrated into the design process. Finally, we need to develop insights and concepts for designing more sustainable interactive products. In this paper I look to the literature of design theory to provide insights into these three problems. Sustainability can and has been considered from many perspectives: political, economic, biological, technical, spiritual. My goal here is to describe my understanding of the issue of sustainability through the lens of design theory. Continue reading ‘Entropy and Ensoulment’

This fun 20 minute video is one the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Its written and narrated by Annie Leonard and designed by Free Range Studios, who previously produced the popular Meatrix videos. With a delightfully blunt and simple style, Leonard clearly breaks down the complexities of the materials economy. She manages to connect a huge number of important issues. The simple animated sketches work perfectly with the narration. Everyone should watch this.