Welcome! I'm a 2nd year graduate student at Indiana University getting a Master's in Information Science through the School of Library and Information Science. My main research interests are Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and usability issues. I became interested in this area of social research from day one of L542 with Professor Andy Dillon. Of course, HCI must incorporate user-centered design practices so I am venturing into that area to hopefully alleviate some of the suffering caused by poor design. Specifically, I would like to concentrate on cognitive psychology, learning and content in my future design work.

I took this class mainly to learn more about interactive web design and gain proficiency with Fireworks and JavaScript (although I certainly don't expect to be a JavaScript expert at the end of the semester!) Working with 2D and 3D "active" worlds is an added bonus.

I have taken several courses related to user-centered design:

• L542 Human Computer Interaction (Dillon)
• L546 User-Centered Database Design (Mostafa)
• L548 Programming for Information Management (Priss)
• L642 Information Usage and the Cognitive Artefact (Dillon)
• R685 Human-Computer Interface Design (Siegel)

The software applications I work most frequently with include:

• Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Publisher, Outlook, Project; ABC Flowcharter
• Adobe Photoshop 5.5, Dreamweaver 3, Allaire HomeSite 4.0
• Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 Suite

Unfortunately, my programming skills are rather weak since I have only taken Perl. And, to be quite honest, I cringe at the thought of having to endure something like that again. I have the patience, I just need to know how to incorporate what I'm programming into the 'big picture' with practical examples.