Hi, my name is Diana Harrelson and I use research as my excuse to game and be connected all the time because I am addicted to the Internet.
I am the consummate student:
I am a native Texan with a Masters in Applied Anthropology where I focused on design/business/organizational anthropology and specialized in virtual methods / cyber anthropology. I am currently attaining my PhD in the Interdisciplinary Information Sciences Program at UNT focusing on Human Computer Interaction. My undergrad was an interdisciplinary degree focusing on Anthropology, Philosophy, and Psychology.
My general interest via my current profession is on user experience, user interface design, usability, blogging, social networking, online gaming and communicating via any interface computers/consoles/handhelds/mobile phones. When it comes to HCI my interest fall in any non face to face (f2f) communication between two or more people. This can take the form of one to one, many to one, or one to many.
I am a girl gamer:
Personally, I am a avid gamer both console and computer so much so that I only own a PC for the gaming experience and it fights for time with the Wii and PS3. I have actively (more or less given time constraints due to school) played World of Warcraft since it was released and to my knowledge was one of the first to conduct anthropological research on that particular community, specifically from the perspective of guild dynamics.
I love what I do:
By trade, my background is in Web Development (designer/scripter/coder) where I worked for a 105 year old retailer doing internal web applications, then for a startup doing design/UI/SEO/light .net programming. After that I was an IA for an interactive marketing firm and then I worked HR software firm as a Usability and Interface Engineer.
Today I am a User Experience Researcher and Designer at internet company where I design user interfaces for desktop, mobile, and web applications. There I am able to meld my technical/design background with my advocacy for the user from a usability and accessibility perspective to create sites where information flows easily and the tools are not only right at hand, but also easy to use and understand.
My offline predilections:
Other than that I love 19th century German philosophy, taking pictures, stompy music (the less mainstream the better), technology, gadgets, and organic design.
Please contact me if you have any comments or questions!
~Di
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