Starfire

When: 1992 – 1994.

What: Vision video illustrating next-generation user interaction and communication.

Where: Sun Microsystems.

How: Visionary contributor. Tasks included participating in brainstorming sessions, idea creation, animated mock-ups, and report writing.

About the Project

My first major project at Sun Microsystems was working on a “vision team” headed by former Apple Macintosh designer Bruce Tognazini (standing at whiteboard in the photo below – I’m in the blue shirt with the long hair).

This was an all-star team made up of several former Apple UI designers as well as a number of people who are now leaders in the HCI community. Our job was to create mock-ups of potential future technologies. I worked on a sub-team focusing on software innovations. In addition to participating in many brainstorming sessions, our sub-team created a series of animations illustrating future user interaction techniques. These animations were never made public, but the ideas we generated were encapsulated in the Starfire vision video published in 1994.

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