My scholarship explores three distinct yet connected trajectories in design academia and practice:

1) the development and critical analysis of digital interfaces and interaction design,
2) the generation of new knowledge focused on design history and pedagogy, and
3) the creation of digital art and design experiments.

Each of these trajectories is described in more detail below. Additionally, I maintain a freelance practice producing client-based print and web design projects. The scope of my research and creative activities is broad and multi-faceted, this is a necessary benefit as I build the new design program at UNH. Since starting at UNH in 2018 (as the first and only faculty in the program), I have single-handedly designed and implemented undergraduate curriculum that covers many of the important objectives of contemporary design practice including a myriad of technical skills, practical design processes, cultural and ethical considerations, historical contexts, human-centered design considerations, material choices, and aesthetics. This work directly informs my scholarship in many ways and the outcomes from each of these areas is increasingly accepted at high profile venues validating my expertise in the study and practice of design at national and international levels.

/// INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT, CRITICAL ANALYSIS, AND USER-TESTING RESEARCH

This line of inquiry examines how the development of digital tools might facilitate information- triage to help users manage information and make decisions. Information-triage is the process of sorting, grouping, categorizing, prioritizing, storing, and retrieving information to make sense and use of it. Throughout this work, I focus on online searching behaviors and systems and explore the ways in which working memory and attention span affect these types of activities. I plan for and build interactive tools and information displays that are intuitive, accessible, and account for the nuances of human cognition; this work includes conducting IRB-approved user-testing studies and user observations.

These efforts have resulted in several publications and presentations, including:

• a chapter in an edited book
• peer-reviewed presentations at national conferences
• invited talks at symposiums focused on interaction design

I also published a book project related to this research, titled Beyond the Search Engine: Design of the Online Search Experience with Routledge (editor Sheni Kruger, Media and Cultural Studies division) in December 2024.

This line of inquiry has also led to the publication of a journal article, “Thinking out loud: an invitation for designers to consider the Voice User Interface (VUI),” in the design journal Dialectic in November of 2022. Dialectic is “A scholarly journal of thought leadership, education and practice in the discipline of visual communication design,” and is made available through Michigan Publishing. This article underwent a rigorous peer-review and editorial process before publication and is part of a nascent but important conversation within design about the development of user experiences that move beyond the visual.

/// DESIGN PEDAGOGY AND HISTORY SCHOLARSHIP

Another area of my scholarship examines design history and pedagogy. This body of work consists of a long-term collaborative research project (described in more detail below), and conference papers and presentations on various topics as an individual scholar. The study of design itself and the ways we teach it is an important part of design scholarship, and the graduate program at North Carolina State University, where I studied with professors Meredith Davis and Martha Scotford, provided a special focus on pedagogy and history as a lens for understanding design.

Beyond the Portfolio is a collaborative research project started in 2016 with my collaborator Peter Lusch, a professor of design at Bowling Green State University (previously at Lehigh University). As undergraduate design programs pivot towards educating students for the emerging knowledge economy, we hypothesize that the current pedagogical approach to making design portfolios is a remnant from design’s industrial age. This IRB-approved research focuses on conducting interviews with both design educators and practitioners: to date we have conducted and transcribed twenty of the eighty projected interviews. Dissemination of this research includes two public websites, a book proposal, several presentations, and a white paper. Additionally, this research was nominated for a Design Incubation Communication Design Educators Award in 2020. This work is currently paused as Professor Lusch has transitioned to a new institution, but I plan to continue one avenue of the research through a podcast and online series entitled My First Portfolio, in 2024. Through one-on-one interviews I will gather and disseminate the stories of designers and their experiences creating their first portfolios.

Some of my other work connected to design history and pedagogy has been included in two edited, peer-reviewed, published books, several invited talks and peer-reviewed presentations at regional and national conferences including the annual CAA (College Art Association) conference, and the facilitation of a Design + Writing fellowship focused on examining the visual essay (more detail about the fellowship can be found in the service section of my narrative). This aspect of my research reflects on the ways design education continues to change, connecting those changes to both the historical narrative and visions of the future for the discipline. Diving deep into a specific period, technique, or practitioner offers crucial nuance and perspective to our understanding of the current cultural moment. Providing this context to my students helps them to make their own connections to how they think about our profession and discipline. As the field of design continues to reflect on its purpose, exploring the past and carefully considering how we share our discipline with new practitioners is a vital part of ensuring we have a healthy and sustainable future.

/// DESIGN OF DIGITAL ART AND CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS

Much of my other creative work focuses on the more poetic and experimental side of digital interfaces, the Internet, information, and search, and includes recent motion design pieces created in collaboration with UNH professor Kevin Healey (Come Back Home, Dolphins in Venice, and Angry Outsiders); several versions of a piece called An Exquisite Morass; the hand-bound book Xylophobia: A Compendium; a digital interface and companion book design titled An Unreasonable Longing; and print designs focused on computer code (still in progress) entitled Code Has Weight. I have also started the process of developing an experimental video game entitled The Three Fates, focused on the mythology surrounding these figures/stories and connecting this to the use of alternative narratives and feminist perspectives within video game design.

Many of these creative works have been disseminated. Pieces have been included in:

• an international symposium
• several invited talks and guest lectures
• peer-reviewed presentations at national venues
• an invited presentation at the National Academy of Sciences
• curated exhibitions and faculty exhibitions
• a juried video/animation exhibition

My training as both a writer and a designer has led me to create work that moves between the poetic, ambiguous, and experimental; and the analytical, rational, and straightforward. I test the boundaries between these poles, as well as the countless shades of gray between them. Future projects will include a further interrogation of the visual and tangible nature of code, an exploration of the art and design practice of curating content from online sources, and more experimentation with similar types of materials and media.