Transforming Grounds

Today I closed my account on Facebook. I did that a few years ago but then reactivated it again. I don't know if that will happen again, but I do not think so. I have slowly 'starved' my Facebook during this last year. I started to unfollow (not unfriend) people I did not want to read updates from. Then I became more strict and unfollowed most students and colleagues and old acquaintances. Lately I have only kept my close family members and some good friends. And now I deactivated my account, I kind of unfollowed myself. So, for now, no Facebook... And since I am doing this, I also deactivated my Twitter account that I really never use anyway. So, I am not on any social media anymore....

In my class my students had an assignment where they had to analyze two blogs by people who work within the fields of UX design, interaction design and related areas. They had to read a substantial number of post on each blog and then compare them. Very interesting results. In many professional fields today, professionals who blog about their profession and practice have a huge influence on the field. Here are some of the most popular bloggers that my students selected and analyzed. An interesting list in itself. Aaron Walter                          Design leader @ Mailchimp Luke Wroblewski                   Product director @ Google Mike Monteiro                        Mule Medium Jared Spool                             User Interface Engineering Matt Webb                              BERG London Kevin Gaunt                            Intern at IDEO Simon Pan                               Uber Julie Zhuo                                Facebook Meng To              

Our MS program in HCI design students are planning their yearly employer event again in February. See info below. If your company is interested, get in touch with Kate (info below). Help spreading this to anyone who may be interested.

I have a habit of ordering books that I find interesting and then they show up on my desk. It is great to have a stack of unread but exciting new (and sometimes old) books, even though it can also be a bit stressful since there is no time really to read them. But at least, I can show them...