 | Binaebi on Dec 11, 2009 GISA Town Hall… |
 | Nina Mehta on Dec 11, 2009 GISA Town Hall… |
 | ekoshyun on Dec 11, 2009 GISA Town Hall… |
 | Eugene on Dec 11, 2009 GISA Town Hall… |
| ninamehta on Portfolios for the Non-Te… |
Hi guys,
GISA SOCIAL EVENT: This Wednesday night, January 20th, please join us for bowling at the IMU starting at 8pm
This is a great opportunity for a break, to hang out with friendly people, to do something different, to learn how to bowl, to check out a new place in the IMU, or to talk to current GISA officers about their positions to find out if you want to apply.
We’ll be starting at 8pm at the IMU bowling alley. Feel free to stop by for a chat even if you don’t have time to bowl a game.
We will soon hold elections for the Executive positions on the Graduate Informatics Student Association (GISA) Executive Committee. We are currently taking nominations for the positions listed below. This race is open to all Indiana University Informatics graduate students.
GISA represents the interests of all students in the Informatics graduate community, and seeks to promote and champion the concerns and unique perspectives of graduate Informatics students to the Informatics faculty, to the Deans, and to the greater University community. If you would like to influence the direction of this school and improve the experiences of your fellow Informatics graduates, a position on the GISA Executive Committee is the place for you.
The GISA Executive Committee meets just one or two times per month for approximately an hour. If you are interested in any positions, please send an e-mail to Rachel Lawmaster describing your qualifications and interest, by noon on Wednesday January, 27th. To nominate a friend, please do the same. The positions are briefly described below and the current GISA constitution is attached, with more detailed descriptions.
Elections will be held online from Monday, February 1st until the morning of Friday, February 5th. The new GISA Executive Committee will be announced on the afternoon of February 5th. Elected GISA Executives will hold their positions from February 2010 until February 2011. Please note that the incumbent GISA Executives do not run for reelection, so this race is wide open!
Thank you all for a wonderful 2009-2010. We look forward to watching a new Executive Committee carry GISA, as well as all Informatics graduate students, further into the new decade!
The Executive Chair presides at all GISA meetings, handles the securing and disbursement of funding for GISA, and makes sure GISA continues running smoothly with the institutional support necessary to maintain its operations.
Your current Executive Chair is Dane Petersen.
The Institutional Voice Chair advocates for the interests of Informatics graduate students to the Department of Informatics and Computing, including its faculty and administration, soliciting and promoting student participation on all matters pertaining to the academic well-being of the school.
Your current Institutional Voice Chair is Binaebi Akah.
The Community & Social Chair organizes social events for Informatics graduate students, including intramural sports and events co-sponsored with other organizations, and presides over the GISA Social Committee.
Your current Community & Social Chair is Emily Allen.
The Professional Development Chair works with the School of Informatics and Computing faculty, administration and staff to develop professional relationships with external organizations, and assists the Career Services staff with professional development activities for graduate students.
Your current Research & Professional Development Chair is Andrew McKinney.
The Technology Chair coordinates and manages the technical resources required for GISA initiatives, maintains GISA’s web presence, while advocating for and documenting the technical resources available to Informatics graduate students.
Your current Technology Chair is Casey Addy.
Please help guide the quality of life and work for Indiana University Informatics graduate students by considering a position in GISA. Nominate yourself, or nominate a qualified friend!
I’m sharing an email from the lovely Nina Mehta, who sent a great email to the current first years about winter in Bloomington. ———————————————————- This message is mostly intended for those new to cold climates. It gets really cold in Bloomington and it stays cold for a few months. I recommend you invest in a serious, warm, thick, wind and waterproof coat. If you find one that extends below your knees, you’re golden! Many winter coats come with a hood; that’s a good way to keep warm since heat escapes from your head. Next you will want gloves, a scarf, a hat and something to cover your ears. Dress in layers so you can derobe when you get indoors. The University’s heating system is irregular. Boots or closed-toe water-proof shoes will keep your feet warm while sludging through snow around campus. If you can keep your feet dry, they’re much more likely to stay warm. If the best you can do is rainboots, go with that. Traction is also important in winter footwear. Ice that has been slightly melted onto the sidewalk is clear and slippery. A bruised tailbone is not a way to start the semester. Trudge through the snow over the grass if the sidewalks haven’t been salted. I feel like this winter has been more mild than others, so far, but I think the worst is yet to come. Can anyone back me up here? While we’re talking about traction, those with cars may want to make sure their tires aren’t balding. Hopefully someone who is a better driver than me can offer some tips about driving in the snow. When in doubt, go slow. Your body is not sweating like it does in the summer but it’s still working hard in the winter. Remember to stay hydrated and use chapstick or lip balm to protect your lips from windburn. Unfortunately, winter is expensive. For everyone else, if you have snow pants at home, or wherever you are, bring them back to Bloomington. Let’s build snowmen, snow angels, forts and snowballs to throw at the second years.
Hello everyone, happy holidays!
I compiled the responses from the GISA-sponsored Town Hall from December 11, 2009. Thank you all who showed up. We hoped for a larger turn-out, but we understand it was crunch time at the end of the semester.
Download the GISA Town Hall PDF now!
[Dec 28 Edit]
I have been notified by Linda Hostetter that some faculty feel this GISA announcement is not for them. On the contrary, I feel that as Institutional Chair, it is my responsibility to let the faculty and administration know how the student body is faring. That is the purpose of the Town Hall meeting, and the subsequent report. I had Linda email both faculty and students so that everyone knows that this is what was said at the Town Hall, with the hopes that it will provide a basis for change, however small.
Thank you,
Binaebi
[/Edit]
Hi Everyone,
“Portfolios for the Non-technical” is an effort to give those without much web programming experience some direction as to how to approach their portfolio work. This meant as a starting point and is by no means exhaustive, so some discovery on your own is highly recommended. Feel free to leave suggestions for this post in comments and we’ll incorporate them into this page.
Regardless of your technical ability, you will probably want to buy a domain name for your portfolio. Most people try to get a domain name that includes their full name. Examples:
But then again, others have gone toward a personal brand…
BraindsideOut.com (Dane Petersen)
Siriomi.com (Binaebi Akah)
You can register this domain name through many services, including GoDaddy. These are fairly trivial to connect to your webhost, which is beyond the scope of this document, but which you should be able to find through your webhost. For those using WordPress.com accounts, domains can be “forwarded” to the address from your primary domain. IU GISA blog uses this: visit http://www.iugisa.com and watch as the domain forwards to the WordPress blog.
Consider buying hosting space if you plan on hosting your portfolio under your own domain. For example, http://www.myportfolio.com instead of myportfolio.wordpress.com. If you don’t mind where your content is hosted, you can always forward your domain to the hosted site.
We recommend Dreamhost for low-cost, low-maintenance hosting. Dane Petersen has set up a discount code for the site which passes “all of the savings on to you” – (code: hcid). Dreamhost also offers the option of One-click WordPress installation, which is described below.
(but accept some loss of control)
WordPress
For those who are looking for minimal setup and long-term maintenance, we highly suggest using WordPress. It is easy to setup, maintain and visual elements can be changed on-the-fly using WordPress Themes.
Some examples of IU HCI/d WordPress portfolios:
Chad Camera [EDIT: Chad does not use WordPress. His portfolio was hand-coded]
Setting up WordPress depends on where you want to host it. Some prefer to host their WordPress instances on wordpress.com itself, which is not a bad option, but will have the trade-off of having the wordpress domain root in your url (http://myportfolio.wordpress.com).
The other option is to buy hosting space and install WordPress there, which is also a simple step in most cases. Dreamhost offers one-click install of WordPress:
Changing the look of a WordPress blog can be as simple as clicking on a theme. There are hundreds of WordPress themes to explore, including those made specifically for portfolios (see “Using WordPress as a Portfolio“).
For the CSS savvy, WordPress allows you to tinker under the hood. Under the Appearance menu, there is an “Edit CSS” option to allow you to directly manipulate the look elements of the page.
The remainder of WordPress content manipulation is fairly straightforward. In most cases, posting a new blog entry is equivalent to creating a new portfolio item. Images can be uploaded and maintained using WordPress’ Media menu. Most of WordPress is learned through hands-on manipulation and Google searches, so get started now!
(but don’t mind a bit more work)
Stacey is a lightweight, text file-controlled portfolio tool which runs on PHP. Installation is very simple for such a system as you will likely have everything you need already set up by your host (e.g., Dreamhost). Stacey requires some knowledge of HTML and CSS. Helpfully, the default HTML structure is simple and easy to pick up.
For those familiar with HTML/CSS, a static HTML page (as opposed to a dynamic system) might be a good option. Static HTML, or HTML frameworks with partial templates (like Stacey) offers a great degree of control and portability for future upgrades. Dane Petersen originally started with HTML/CSS, and eventually moved to a custom dynamic system. Andrew McKinney [typing in the 3rd-person] started with a custom dynamic system and has been kicking himself ever since.
Consider HTML/CSS if you have some experience producing web pages in some form. If you have not done this in the past, while a tempting option, may prove to be too much to accomplish before January (HCIDConnect 2010).
If you think something is missing from this post, or would like to know more about something particular please post a response! We’re more than happy to incorporate feedback/good ideas into the blog entry.
Great writeup, as someone in the biological field, you also have to consider the format and presentation of your information. Most researchers prefer a more “utilitarian” approach. Some tasteful CSS styling and formatting, but no flash loading screens, menus, etc.
Just 2 cents from someone that probably doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
@bobak You’re definitely right!
No matter the portfolio you may be putting together (interaction design, bioinformatics, etc.) you want to make sure the content of your work does the talking. It’s very easy to get hung up on the design of one’s portfolio, starting in the upper lefthand corner and working to the lower right, while forgetting to consider the actual writing and imagery that goes along with it.
People are visiting your portfolio to see the work you do, and it’s important to be respectful of your target audience. Especially if you’re gunning for a design job, you might decide to make a rock-em-sock-em experience with your portfolio. If you have the time, skill and creativity to pull that off, then by all means give it a shot. However, don’t privilege the design of your portfolio over the clear communication of your work!
Additionally, for the HCId students, you have to be careful of a super slick portfolio website. It might give the wrong impression that all you do is web design, when in actuality, you do so much more.
Now, if you’re interested in web design, then that works for you. But if you want to do usability, or research, etc, then like Bobak and Dane said, make sure you’re catering your portfolio style and content to your audience.
In terms of personal brand… People have asked me why I didn’t use my name as my domain. The fact of the matter is that I like to change the layout and style of my website frequently, and I felt that if I use my name, I need to have a consistent look that represents me, versus representing me professionally. Does that make sense? There is my personal identity, and then there is my professional identity. They correlate and influence one another, but they aren’t the same. By having a personal brand, I can experiment with my professional identity.
@Bobak @Dane @Binaebi I definitely agree. The design should be invisible; the design should make your content sing.
It’s important to know what you want to communicate about yourself. It’s hard! Are we interaction designers, researchers, usability experts, user experience experts? What about all of us who are also programmers, photographers, graphic designers, mulitmedia producers, etc? We are a talented bunch and can do a lot of things. So, it’s important that you know what you want to communicate about yourself. It’s okay to be a lot of things and say so!
However, the design of your website WILL communicate something about you. I personally believe it becomes portfolio piece itself, whether you like it or not.
So, to begin, get something online. Just get it up there. Then iterate. Shop it around to a range of people: HCI folk, professionals, graphic designers, web designers, academic folk, former bosses, your mom, etc.
This is just like any other HCI problem: there is no best or perfect design. I’m on ninamehta. v 9.1 and still not satisfied. Get something online, send the link around for feedback (to people who know about graphic and web design). Sometimes minor tweaks can make a world of difference.
I spend time looking at the designs of other portfolios. Sometimes I just google “photography portfolios” or “interaction design, apple, portfolio” or “packaging design, portfolio, masters degree”. It’s okay to look at portfolios from other fields for layout inspiration because a lot HCI centered websites and portfolios are ugly and not very usable (ahem acm.org).
You’re a designer; people expect you to design well. That being said below are some tools to help you get your work posted online beautifully, quickly* and for free:
http://carbonmade.com
Upload all of your content to carbonmade, wipe your hands and be done. There are huge constraints on what you can do with carbonmade, but you can have your portfolio done in an hour.
http://flavors.me
Flavors Me is a tool that makes a beautiful but simple hub for all of your work.
http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/
Download HTML & CSS layouts to get started on an coded website.
http://960.gs/demo.html
If you decide to built your website from HTML, please please please design on a grid. 960.gs is a fantastic tool to help you get started including psd templates to get you started and will explain in detail why grids matter. The demo.html link will help you find a layout that works for you.
*The Oxford Comma was purposefully left out.
For the somewhat technical, let’s talk about design rationales.
There should be a reason why everything is placed where it is. Below are some posts about grids (both vertical and horizontal). The first link is very easy to follow if you understand CSS. You can even just copy their 12 over 18 line-height style and save your trouble of doing the math.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/settingtypeontheweb
http://www.thegridsystem.org/
Minimalist design is a style. It’s not for everyone and it’s not always appropriate. A minimalist design should help the website be functional and should not cross the line and ultimately become boring.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/when-minimalism-backfires-when-too-little-is-not-enough/
Hey guys,
Another night of comedy is coming your way! Same deal as last time. We have discount tickets that are $11 per person. Please send me an email at emilalle@indiana,.edu to claim your ticket. We have fewer tickets than last time, so be sure to send me an email early!
Who: Robert Hawkins
What: $11 tickets
When: Friday, November 20th at 8PM
Where: The Funny Bone Comedy Club at 4th and Walnut
Heck yes! We went last time and had a blast. There’s typically a few comedians before the main act, good food and drink, etc. It’s a great way to laugh and blow off some steam with some fellow Informatics grads!
Plus, for those of you in the HCI/d program, stand-up comedy is all about design! Not just the aesthetics of the surroundings and the lighting, but the individual acts and pacing of jokes are unique for each comedian. You can learn a lot about how important timing is in humor… and imagine if you could incorporate something like that in your interaction designs!
For those who missed it: Eugene Siew was good enough to video tape, edit, process and post the recent talks by Jennifer McCormick and Elizabeth Boling on Vimeo.
Note: Passwords to view both of these videos have been sent out on the Grad Student listserv. We are not making these public beyond informatics at this point.
First, the E-Portfolio Session with Elizabeth Boling (http://vimeo.com/7023935).
Next, the Microsoft Surface talk with Jennifer McCormick (http://www.vimeo.com/7024517).
I finally got around to watching the Elizabeth Bowling portfolio talk this evening. I wish I had seen her last Spring. Thanks for posting it here!
Hellllooooooooooooooooooo,
WHO WANTS TO GET SOCIAL!?! I have worked out discount tickets for a comedy show at Bloomington’s Funny Bone comedy club. It’s a lot of fun! GISA is also pitching in for part of the cost of the ticket, so you get a really good deal. I have 15 tickets available at the lovely low price of $11, so email me fast to reserve your spot at emilalle@indiana.edu
What: A night of comedy
When: 8PM Friday October 9th
Where: Funny Bone Comedy Club at the Corner of 4th and Walnut
It’s going to be lots of fun. You can also order food from the Greek restaurant the Trojan Horse, so if you want to, you can hold off on dinner and have a delicious Gyro.
If you need a ride, that can be arranged, just let me know 
Hope to see you there!
Here’s the guy who’s performing this Friday:
Hi All,
GISA will be hosting an E-Portfolio Workshop with Dr. Elizabeth Boling THIS FRIDAY Oct 2 in Info East. As many of you know, employers as well as graduate schools look at your past work as an indicator of your potential for future success in their organization/institution. Starting to conceptualize/build your portfolio now will put you ahead of the curb in the spring when employer events such as HCI/d CONNECT occur.
Last year this event very well received and attended. Make sure you get there early! Refreshments will be provided by GISA.
Workshop Presenter: Dr. Elizabeth Boling, Chair of the Instructional Systems Technology Department
Friday, October 2
4:30 – 6:30
Informatics East, Room 130
But will there be Ford Fusions?
The Ford Fusions will be provided to each attendee for a small “purchase fee” of $19,000 at your nearest Ford dealer.
Okay seriously, what is it with the Ford Fusions? I missed something.
It’s in reference to the rumors about the tiki party. Such as Neil Patrick Harris was making an appearance, there was a chocolate volcano, and they were giving away Ford Fusions. … Boys
UPDATE ON SOCIAL EVENTS:
Hello all,
I am working out a deal for a trip to the Funny Bone comedy club in town. I am currently in negotiations with the owner to get us some really low ticket prices to a show on October 9th at 8pm. The Funny Bone comedy club is located on Walnut and 3rd. You can order food from the Trojan Horse to enjoy during the show as well as a wide range of beverages. I’ve been twice and thoroughly enjoyed both shows. Hope you can make it. I will give more details soon.
Eugene 7:05 pm on December 28, 2009 Permalink |
Great job with compiling the report, Binaebi!
ekoshyun 9:45 pm on December 28, 2009 Permalink |
I’m glad lots of people mentioned the AI funding. I was overworked for the first 3 weeks and I’m still pretty pissed off about it.
Nina Mehta 5:11 pm on January 17, 2010 Permalink |
Can someone tell me what search term to use to find wordpress themes that automatically show comments? Or is this a plugin?
Binaebi 5:16 pm on January 17, 2010 Permalink
This is the P2 theme, one of the few that shows comments automatically. I think if you search threaded comments, you might get similar themes…