Brian Bailey

Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 2002

Research Statement

Designers in a myriad of domains need computer-based tools that help them better assess early design ideas. In my doctoral dissertation, I worked with over thirty multimedia designers to understand the requirements for, develop, and evaluate a better design tool (DEMAIS) for early multimedia design. Using DEMAIS, a multimedia designer can quickly sketch temporal and interactive design ideas for an application and then run that sketch to experience those ideas through an interactive prototype.

Inspired by the positive results of my user evaluations, I am now researching methods to support the design of interactive animation, support more effective visual representations of temporal and interactive behavior, and better understand the long-term impact of electronic sketching tools on design culture. I am also researching mechanisms that utilize how a designer interacts with physical design artifacts to facilitate the creation of interactive prototypes in the early design process. I am interested in applying similar techniques to other domains where rapidly assessing early design ideas benefits the iterative design process, e.g., database design and interactive story spaces.