For my final project for API of You, I designed and developed a system for tracking climbs I have done across the world. Development was done in Node, JQuery, MongoDB, and Bootstrap.
See it live here.
Dashboard
Individual Cards
Uploads
[fac_button icon="github" name="smart-starter" text="code on Github" link="https://github.com/ntwallace/climbTracker" target="_self"]
I spent the last week user testing my Sunrise app and device, which was an interesting experience. I initially thought that user testing with just 5 people was not going to be enough, but 5 does indeed seem to be the magic number. Within the first 2-3 users, I had a good idea of the major issues that needed to be addressed, and by 5 I was consistently getting the same feedback.
Initially, users were confused about whether the device itself was a clock or not. I had originally envisioned it being more of an art piece of wood and light that evoked the sun. However, my test users wanted for it to have the capability to behave like a more straightforward clock during the day.
Additionally, users wanted clarifications made to the various settings available to them. They felt that some of the interfaces did not provide enough feedback.
A full write up of the process, UI changes made, and next steps can be found in the slides for my final presentation.
1. Freida -- No Wait Food
Freida is a 28 year old chef who works as a recipe developer for a meal-kit company. She spends the majority of her day on her feet working in a test kitchen. Most nights when she gets off work she is tired and does not want to cook dinner for herself.
However, she often finds that she "can’t find a decent restaurant without a wait, and wastes [her] limited time and money on experiences/food that is underwhelming."
She wishes there was an easy way to find restaurants/bars nearby that had available seats.
IDEA: Website/app that pulls data from restaurant reservation APIs (Resy, OpenTable, etc) and shows bar/restaurants in the area that have availability within a certain time window (ex. now to 30min). This would work even better if I could get POS data from restaurants to see open tables/open bar seats, but would require more access.
2. Dan -- Fitness to the People
Dan is a 31 year old personal trainer and climber who owns his own personal training business that operates out of a climbing gym in the city.
When he's not training clients, Dan spends a lot of time studying peer reviewed research on strength, mobility, and wellness. Dan also has Crohn's disease, and is very interested in nootropics.
Dan wants to share the knowledge he has gained through his training and research, especially to the climbing commmunity, but believes that this information would get lost in the sea of information if it were a blog. He is not interested in making money from this.
IDEA: Build a platform for centralized knowledge distribution to climbers. Interview other climbers to understand where they get their training/mobility/wellness information currently (or if at all) and develop a platform for distribution.
3. Katie -- Natural Wine Recommendations
Katie is a 26 year old yoga teacher who teaches at an upscale studio in tribeca.
Katie loves to drink wine with friends, and recently has become especially interested in natural/biodynamic wines. However, she is frustrated by the lack of easily available information (and gate-keeping) on natural wines. Rather than being forced to go to specialty wine shops and ask for suggestions, Katie would like to be able to get recommendations on her phone.
IDEA: Build a website/app that allows user to track the natural wines they drink and provides recommendations based on the users' choices. It should also show the user where they can purchase the wine--data is available via winetracker API. Additionally, allow user to select food and provide them with recommend wine pairings.
This skill builder is also step 1 in my goal of making spring loaded camming devices (SLCD, aka a cam) in this class.
Created two SVG files in illustrator with a basic cam lobe--one for overall cut, one for axle hole
SVG files loaded into Bantam Tools
Adding the aluminum stock to the mill
Missing shots of loading and homing the machine, here it is starting to cut
Over an hour fifteen minutes to go...
[arve url="https://giphy.com/embed/xUOwG34rYNx4JYKUc8" /]
It's done!
Pulled out of the machine, rough edges
Up close after breaking the scrap material off
A few quick passes with a sanding block and it's smooth enough to handle
Done, for now!
I created a simple BLE weather station peripheral that uses a DHT22 sensor to get temperature and humidity values. The peripheral gets sensor values every 1 second and broadcasts the values over BLE.
Arduino code
// add libs
#include
#include
// define IO pins
#define HUMIDITY_SENSOR_PIN 6
// initialize vars
unsigned long previousMillis = 0;
unsigned short interval = 2500;
// initialize DHT sensor
DHT dht(HUMIDITY_SENSOR_PIN, DHT22); // on pin 6
// initialize BLE peripheral and service
BLEPeripheral blePeripheral;
BLEService tempService = BLEService("FF99");
// define BLE service characteristics
BLEFloatCharacteristic temperatureCharacteristic = BLEFloatCharacteristic("BBB1", BLERead | BLENotify | BLEBroadcast);
BLEDescriptor temperatureDescriptor = BLEDescriptor("2901", "temp F*");
BLEFloatCharacteristic humidityCharacteristic = BLEFloatCharacteristic("BBB2", BLERead | BLENotify | BLEBroadcast);
BLEDescriptor humidityDescriptor = BLEDescriptor("2901", "humidity %");
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println(F("Serial online..."));
dht.begin();
Serial.println(F("DHT started!"));
// set name and advertise BLE peripheral
blePeripheral.setLocalName("dht-temp");
blePeripheral.setDeviceName("dht-temp");
blePeripheral.setAdvertisedServiceUuid(tempService.uuid());
// add BLE service and characteristic
blePeripheral.addAttribute(tempService);
blePeripheral.addAttribute(temperatureCharacteristic);
blePeripheral.addAttribute(temperatureDescriptor);
blePeripheral.addAttribute(humidityCharacteristic);
blePeripheral.addAttribute(humidityDescriptor);
//temperatureCharacteristic.broadcast();
//humidityCharacteristic.broadcast();
blePeripheral.begin();
}
void loop() {
blePeripheral.poll();
Serial.println("LOOP");
// read sensors @ 2 sec interval
if (millis() - previousMillis > interval) {
getTemp();
getHumidity();
previousMillis = millis();
}
}
void getTemp() {
// read sensor val
float temperature = dht.readTemperature(true); // true = fahrenheit
if (isnan(temperature)) {
Serial.println("DHT Temp not found...");
temperature = 0;
temperatureCharacteristic.setValue(temperature);
} else if (temperatureCharacteristic.value() != temperature) {
temperatureCharacteristic.setValue(temperature);
Serial.print("Temp: ");
Serial.print(temperature);
Serial.print(" *F");
Serial.println();
}
}
void getHumidity() {
// read sensor val
float humidity = dht.readHumidity();
if (isnan(humidity)) {
Serial.println("DHT Humidity not found...");
humidity = 0;
humidityCharacteristic.setValue(humidity);
} else if (humidityCharacteristic.value() != humidity) {
humidityCharacteristic.setValue(humidity);
Serial.print("Humidity: ");
Serial.print(humidity);
Serial.println();
}
}
Fritzing diagram
I LOVE I love my knife. It's not a particularly fancy knife, as far as chef's knives go, but it is high quality. Cheap, stamped knives don't hold an edge well and make cutting a chore. High-end Japanese knives cut like butter, but don't stand up to abuse. My knife stays sharp, and survives every trip to the utensils drawer my absentminded roommate subjects it to.
My knife fits perfectly in my hand. In my hands, my knife has cleaned a deer, cooked dinner for 30, and prepped a lot of chili ingredients. But my knife never feels better in my hands than when I am dicing an onion.
I HATE
Hate is probably too strong of a word, but I strongly dislike the UX of Google Maps on iOS. It is frustrating and feels condescending--I am not stupid, please don't treat me like I am.
This is most apparent while driving. There's nothing like inputting a destination, putting on Spotify and then being interrupted a couple minutes into my drive with, "You are on the fastest route!" I mean yeah, no shit, that's the whole reason I am using Google Maps, what else would I be on? This continues as I am driving: "There is a 5 min slowdown ahead, you are still on the fastest route." WHY ARE YOU INTERRUPTING MY MUSIC TO TELL ME THIS USELESS INFORMATION!?
By far the worst "feature", though, is the auto-zoom to the driving route. Before some engineer/designer mucked this up back in 2016, you could pinch to zoom out and see more of your route. I really like to do this when I'm somewhere unfamiliar so I know the general direction I'm headed and can anticipate lane changes/turns. Now, though, I'm stuck with one super zoomed-in view of the route, or a super high level overview of the whole map (unusable on a trip longer than 10 minutes). Try to pinch to zoom out but accidentally touch anywhere on the actual route itself? BOOM, auto-zooms all the way back in--WHY? I wish I had the email address of the person who designed this so I could send them hate mail. My girlfriend is tired of listening to me yell at my phone in the car.
What's in a name?
I don't really like the word manifesto, it sounds archaic to me. Manifesto conjures up images in my head of a text about that plight of the proletariat that bears little relevance to my everyday life. As corporate-speak as it might sound, I think statement of purpose better conveys what I am aiming for.
With that in mind, I wrote a statement of purpose for myself as a creator, maker, and artist.
I will create work that is honest, engaging, and challenging. Work that challenges me--and inspires others--to push boundaries. Work that makes the world a better place. Work that forces me to grow my skills, to empathize with others, and to be fully present.
I will focus on the human side of design and experience, rather than just the technical. I will follow through and complete projects, even when I don't want to. I will express my voice, fully and authentically, without regard to the judgement of others. I will empower others to find their voice.
I can't wait to revisit this in a year, 5 years, 10 years to see what changes and what doesn't!