I noticed that my baby boy loves to stare at blinds. Inspired by his desire to see contrast and shapes, I created a string of colored shapes to hang in the window. The number of sides on the shapes increases going down, a subtlety I’m sure he’ll appreciate when he’s about four months old.

I’ve loved working on this skateboard collaboration with Lauren from hippanonymous! Lauren frequently creates DIY activities for the readers of her super-stylish blog. She’s also learning to skateboard. Combine that with her immense passion for things that sparkle and you’ve got glitter boards. We had a blast figuring out how to use glitter as grip, laying out our designs, and trying to look super cool in our photo session with...

My article on lessons learned from doing user research in Asia is out in UX Magazine. Check it out for my overall impressions as well as tips and tricks for successful research campaigns in China, Japan, and...

Today I gave a presentation to the Innovation Learning Network entitled, Tooling Around. In this talk, I shared ten tips for building and using tools with innovation and design teams.

I’m in the process of learning how to screen print. This map is my first attempt. The base layer (super light neon yellow) is made using a stencil that I cut out of tracing paper by hand. The top layer (the map) is something I created in Illustrator and then used a photo emulsion to create the screen. The edition of ten varies because I was experimenting with inks and because I’m super novice and don’t know what I’m...

Today I gave a talk at Mozilla about my major learnings regarding doing user research in Asia. Take a look at my slides or watch the talk in action. Top 5 Lessons Learned – User Research in Asia View more presentations from Carissa Carter...

It’s here! Scree volume 2 is hot. A Nigerian-American poet, indie film expose, metal band analysis, and a 30 day art experiment are just a few of the features in our second issue. Find more at scree.co or head right to printing (why...

mmm maps + notebooks! Let the etching begin!

I’ve been experimenting with patterns a lot lately. Building off of the slew of hand drawings that I’ve got lying around, I took sections of some of my favorites, patterned them, and then printed them on fabric. Not yet sure what I’m doing with them, but the process has been satisfying so far. I think they’d make great bag...

I am super interested in the cross-applicability of science and design. As a geologist and a designer, I have always wanted to experiment with design techniques in the geosciences. I partnered with Dr. Christie Rowe at McGill University in Montreal. The students had an assignment to write a Geology-format paper on a controversial topic in tectonics. After writing their paper proposals, we moved them through a series of design synthesis and...