Back in 2010, I made the decision to restart the user experience consultancy portion of Human Computing (www.humancomputing.com). As such, I stepped back from my role running the ComicBase portion of the business, and have been focused on designing new products for some very cool clients in the enterprise, mobile, and consumer electronics spaces.
One of our largest clients this past year has been TiVo, the folks who brought us both the DVR and the ridiculously cute corporate trademark.
I’ve just completed a long contract there, which–among other challenges–saw me helping design their next generation of high-end DVRs and streaming video boxes. This was a terrific project which I was lucky enough to see through end-to-end. On it, I got to do everything from sawing apart old circuit boards and visiting Radio Shack in the middle of the night to assemble testing prototypes… to doing screen design… setting up user studies… and even working with an exceptionally clever engineer to figure out how to get the box installed (and the cable guy back on his way) in a third of the time it used to require.
Best of all, I got to meet and work with some amazingly smart folks both on the user experience team and throughout the company. I may even sign on more adventures there next year, but for now I’m very happy to be back in my robot-strewn office at Human Computing helping put the final touches on the much-anticipated (and slightly overdue) ComicBase 16–and looking forward to a terrific Christmas with my family.