First Location after Leaving Australia - 11th / 19th May 2012

288 days, 4 hours, 29 minutes and 37 seconds

**UPDATE: Due to some further contacts I have decided to extend the SF stay. 11th - 19th instead of 11-16th May. Responses from Stanford and other opportunities show that I can get far more for SF.




The first stop is San Francisco (SF). Flying East is really great after 14-16 hours of flying I arrive an hour after I have left on the same day. So this will be a very long day to kick of this trip. While I am in SF there are a number of things I hope to achieve. Dependent on the time and day I arrive I will have a couple of days to acclimatise and prepare for my visits.

I would like to see some of the sites of SF, these are the classic locations with Alcatraz, the trams, Golden Gate and finally the skyline over the city. Being a hobbiest photographer I would love to get some good photos. 

Main Reason for Being in San Francisco

The main reason for picking SF was Silicon Valley and seeing some of the major companies that have a great influence on what we use our technology for and how we use it. These are Apple, Google and Facebook. I am looking to meet with representatives from these companies and to hopefully get a better understanding of how they address usability and interface design or what is referred to as User Experience (UX).

Apple, I believe has achieved a remarkable feat with making a piece of technology in to something we consume. The work that has been done with the iPad has been increadable feet of both marketing and functionality. I use the iPad as an example with respect that people will talk more about what they do with the iPad rather than the technology. You will see and hear people talk about their pictures or videos, with pride they just present the iPad with the images and talk about the images and their content. Its not about the technology and the CPU and how much memory the device has, but more of what and how they interact with that technology. So I would like to find out a little more on how and what goes into that thought process. At the moment still trying to get in to see them.

Google has achieve a lot with how we find information and our interactions in carrying out that task. Google the work itself has become an adjective with in our language. Don't quote me on it as grammar is not my forte, but people use it within conversation "have you googled that yet?". 

The other area I am interested in finding out more about is their work in the Android area. I have had a smart phone for a number of years and have seen and used this OS from and early stage. I now have an Android tablet and while I was on the earlier versions of Android I considered it a geek device. I installed thing and uninstalled and experimented but it was not really a consumable device. Since I have installed Android Honey Comb the story has changed. It is now becoming a very functional device. The material I have seen for what is coming in Android 4 or "Ice Cream Sandwich" are very exciting. So having the opportunity to see what is happening in this area will be great. Still working on this contact.

Facebook, a friend of mine suggested this and at first I was not sure but the more I thought about it the more I could see the value. Facebook has become the social space where everyone around the world is coming together I now see businesses on TV with ads that include Facebook references. So understanding their views on social interaction and working with their software. What work is done on the understanding of the user and their experience. At time I have read damming articles talking about the lack of this as a consideration. Having an better insight into their processes would be good.


Stanford University - this is somewhere I would have loved to had the opportunity to study and learn. This is just a small way of achieving this and getting some insights into this specialty area of HCI (Human Computer Interface/Interaction, not use yet on the 'I'). In some information that I received from a contact in New York the field of HCI and usability has been around since the end of the Second World War. It is a specialise area of study and research and I will hopefully be catching up with Charles Mauro of Mauro New Media in New York to discuss further into my trip.


I have started to send out the emails to Stanford University to see if I could catch up with the HCI department or people working and studying in this area. As I gain appointments I will update my blog as to where and whom I will be catching up with. This blog will become my record of the trip and help towards the writing of my paper.


So this leg of the trip is a short leg and I hope to cover and see all of these organisation and contacts in 5 days I am there. My next location will be Seattle and Microsoft.