Jay's Home Page

Welcome

My name is Jay Melican, and you are on my home page. I don't know how you got here or what you want, but now that you're here, you might as well take a look around.

I'm currently Senior Research Associate in the Department of Social Sciences at Illinois Institute of Technology, where I work with Christena Nippert-Eng. I'm also lecturing on the adjunct faculty of the Institute of Design. My work is concerned with the social implications of new technologies and with the ways that designers apply social and behavioral research data in their creative problem-solving processes. If you find anything here that interests you, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

What's up with me?

Finally got my blog up and running -- so I won't have to try to keep this page updated anymore. It's called World of Our Own Design, and I've got big plans for it. For now, I'm describing it as: my musings on things designed, on the social life of technology, and on our everyday interactions with the people and the stuff around us. That should cover just about anything I may want to do. (May 9)

Served as moderator for a student paper session at the second annual, always fabulous About, With & For conference at IIT's Institute of Design. Didn't have much to do, though, because the papers delivered by Michael Winnick and Dale Wunderlich were great and had the crowd talking. (October 18)

Officially started a new job as researcher in the Department of Social Sciences at Illinois Institute of Technology. I'm working with Christena Nippert-Eng on issues of privacy, community, trust, sense-of-place and other social constructs that may be challenged with the introduction of new technologies. (September 1)

Started teaching -- with Jean Canavan at the Institute of Design -- a course on qualitative research methods for design that we are calling "(More than) Observing Users." Eric Swanson, Brianna Sylver, and Jeff Tull are all helping out as teaching assistants. (August 25)

At the invitation of Elisa Vargas and Mark Faga, headed out to Libertyville, Illinois to screen and discuss ON/OFF 2002 with a group of industrial designers, user interface designers, design researchers, market researchers, and design planners in the Consumer Experience Design group of Motorola's Personal Communication Sector. Motorola was a major sponsor of the ON/OFF project. (August 5)

Dashed over to the UK to present the ON/OFF project at the annual conference of the International Visual Sociology Association, held this year at the University of Southampton. (July 7-10)

At the invitation of Joyce Bromberg, drove over to Grand Rapids, Michigan to screen ON/OFF 2002 and lead a discussion about ubiquitous communication technologies with the Workspace Futures R&D division of Steelcase, Inc. Steelcase was a major sponsor of the ON/OFF project. (June 11)

Moderated two days of fascinating presentations and lively discussion about "User Studies to Humanize Technology and Foster Innovation" at the Institute of Design's 2byTwo Symposium in Chicago. The symposium was an intimate gathering of educators, researchers, and practitioners from around the globe who are interested in forward-looking design education and practice based on advanced and coordinated study. (May 28-29)

Spent the weekend of May 2-4 at the fabulous Furnace Creek Inn & Ranch in Death Valley, California at James' and Diana's wedding. Photos online now....

ON/OFF found some space in the May 2003 issue of I.D. Magazine. Freelance writer Sean O'Leary covered the scenario workshop we held in December. And they printed one of Takafumi Hayashi's sketches too. You can't get it online, but if you subscribe to I.D., we're on page 84.

Spent the weekend of April 11-13 at the 2003 World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois with writer Melissa Milgrom and world famous (or so he says) designer Eric Janssen. Photos online now....

Participated in Aaron Marcus' panel on "Cultural Issues and Mobile UI Design" at CHI 2003 in Fort Lauderdale, along with Emilie Gould from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ken Douros from Motorola, Pia Honold from Siemens, and Lianne Yu, who is now at Ricoh. (April 9)

Been enlisted as U.S. coordinator of an international co-design exercise being organized by François Jégou. The results will be part of an exhibition called "Sustainable Communities / Futures of Everyday Life" that will be hosted at the Triennale di Milano.

Got a word in on Howard Wolinsky's extensive series of articles for the Chicago Sun Times in which he describes the adoption and evolution of the cellular phone over the past 30 years. (April 3)

Was quoted in a really nice article that Hassan Fattah wrote for American Demographics. The article, "America Untethered," (starting on page 34 of the March 2003 issue) is "a look at what ethnographers have observed about our changing social habits, thanks to the rise in cell phone use."

Still working on writing-up and extending ON/OFF 2002 -- a project that documents the impact that perpetual accessibility has had on the lives of ordinary people around the world, and brings those people's stories to designers of the next generation of mobile communication technologies.

At the invitation of Dr. Elizabeth Friedman, guest lectured to her class on the Anthropology of Technology in IIT's Department of Social Sciences. (March 12)

My good friend and co-teacher at IDII, Jan-Christoph Zoels interviewed me for the Institute's website. Then I got to interview him. (February 17)

Recently returned (to Chicago) from teaching a workshop class at the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy. The course was called Strategic Design: Putting People First, and you can check out some of the very cool student projects on our class website.