Posts tagged “activity”

This Week @ Portigal

Despite early-morning soupy fog, it turns out to be another gorgeous Monday. Here’s what we’ve got going on

  • For one project, we’re working hard to both immerse ourselves in a new business area (interviewing experts, scanning the media, planning a walking tour) and charging ahead with project logistics (getting a recruiter lined up, finalizing a screener, setting up briefing meetings on fieldwork best practices, developing participant homework exercises, etc.).
  • We’re looking at an innovative combinations of methods this week that we’ll be proposing to a prospective client. Wish us luck in landing the work!
  • Last week we published Carla’s War Story. I’ve got a near-final draft for another in my inbox, and have been swapping email with some other folks finalizing their stories, so stay tuned for more.
  • I’ll be leading a class on user research for the Industrial Design school at Academy of Art University this week.
  • I’ve got a handful of lunch and coffee meetings this week to catch up with different folks, both local and visiting.
  • What we’re consuming: underwater dogs, Izakaya Yuzuki, McSweeney’s Issue 41, pumpkins as many ways as possible.

This Week @ Portigal

Here’s the latest on our end

  • Infrastructure? Who needs it! After last week’s challenges (resolution still pending) on the water for our kitchen, today PG&E finally made good on their repeated promise to only offer intermittent power throughout the day. So we’re in and out, in cafes, and waiting hopefully for full service to return.
  • We’re taking last week’s flurry of Bay Area and Sacramento interviews and very rapidly turning that into a deliverable. We’re committed to finishing up this week (which is about as rapid as we’ve ever done something like this, admittedly with a bit of trepidation) but it looks like our client has some scheduling gremlins emerging at the last minute.
  • It’s San Francisco Design Week, a time to hang out at other firms, talking to our friends, and eating-and-drinking from their free and sumptuous spreads. Maybe we’ll see you around (we’ll be the ones with our mouths full).
  • We’re hiring!
  • I’m in some near-final stages with the book, focusing on the images, a lot of which I’m crowdsourcing from other research folks. Hooray, community!
  • Do you have a fieldwork War Story? Please share it with us!
  • We’re moving ahead on upcoming talks at CPSI, San Francisco/Bay Area ACM, and WebVisions Barcelona.
  • What we’re consuming: Stanley Park Noble Pilsner, Crunchie Bar, Hyperbole TV.

ChittahChattah Quickies

  • Reading in public, worldwide – A set of photos, on Flickr
  • The Reading In Public chair – A specially-designed chair for the public performance. If the chair is available, will it influence behavior?
  • Reading In Public – Reading In Public (RIP!) was formed to celebrate the written word by way of community performance in public spaces. The project began as a response to the shifting landscape in publishing, and the realization that more and more of us are writing in public, as bloggers and tweeters, for instance. Similarly, we sought to broadcast words in public, through the simple act of contemplative reading on a noisy street corner, or as performance, with readers directly engaging onlookers.
    On Saturday, August 1st, beginning at 10am, we wheeled the Reading Chair to various downtown locations in San Luis Obispo, California, where assigned readers took turns sitting and reading. Our readers were people of all ages and walks of life who shared a passion not only for words, but for story telling. They chose their own reading materials and crafted their own performances.

Pi-club, Japanese activity calendars

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We found these interesting calendars (Google translate link) in Japan. They contain different daily activities tied to the room that you’d use them in, including kitchen, bedroom, bathroom (i.e., the room you bathe in), and toilet. I liked that the toilet calendar features a happy individual, presumably using the calendar, sitting on the throne. The calendars offer a small peek into Japanese home life.

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Series

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