alexis hope

it’s been a while.   i have been a busy girl, i promise.

aside from spending time with friends, watching mad men, and decorating my new apartment, here are some of the things i’ve been investing my time in:

.calm
:

.calm is a design project for CSE 440: introduction to hci.  my team and i are developing an interactive prototype for a mobile anxiety management tool.  to inform our design, we have been interviewing therapists, social workers, and individuals who suffer from anxiety.  this week we finished testing our paper prototype with potential users and started working on the website.

fly happy:

fly happy is a redesign project for HCDE 400: foundations of human-centered design & engineering.  my team and i have been tasked with redesigning the airport security process, using principles from both service design and interaction design to guide our inquiry process.  fly happy is a unified line-optimization and marketing concept designed to humanize the airport security process by providing customers with positive feedback for playing their part.  this week, we are headed to seatac airport to speak with TSA employees, operations management personnel, and travelers at the security checkpoint about their experiences with the current airport security process.

the band (no name yet):

matt, kabir & i have been working on some songs lately.  we have about five songs arranged.  our goal is to record them sometime within the next two months.  i’ve been having a lot of fun with this musical project and it’s a good reminder to make time for good friends, food, and fun.

razorfish internship:

this quarter i also started an internship at razorfish.  so far it has been really interesting and i’ve learned a lot from the talented group of people i’m working with.

I think I finally have a renewed interest in working on my latte art.  I’ve been doing it for about two years, but over the past year I haven’t put much effort into getting better at it.  This is mainly because I don’t like using a bunch of milk that no one is going to drink, and I think getting better requires practice outside of making drinks for people (so you can concentrate and try new techniques without worrying about screwing up, etc.)  I think I should probably watch some videos and such; there’s a lot to learn from the pros!

One of my first attempts at song-writing, recorded in my coffee shop.

My name is Alexis Hope.  I’m a twenty-one-year-old barista and student from Seattle, Washington.  I’m currently finishing my undergraduate degree at the University of Washington, majoring in Human-Centered Design & Engineering with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction.

This is primarily a personal blog, wherein I will try to catalog my various extracurricular projects, hobbies, and adventures including, but not limited to, banjo playing, programming, cooking, making coffee, crafting, travel, and learning for fun and profit.

Thanks for stopping by!