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elektrolyte79

4 karma · joined March 8, 2011

I am a designer, educator and visual artist with a passion for interactive media, experience design, research and education. My approach is interdisciplinary in nature and follows design thinking methodologies: define, research, ideate, prototype, test, implement, and learn (not always in that order ;) ). I’m continually inspired and motivated by the possibilities present in creative problem-solving to help people in their everyday lives and build strong, sustainable businesses and communities.

I’ve worked on a variety of digital, print and research projects for Kaiser Permanente, IDEO, Next 10, Sony, Mitsubishi, Microsoft and San Francisco Bay Area food businesses and non-profits. At present, I practice Experience Design and User Research at Razorfish and teach community-based graphic design at California College of the Arts.

Visit my journal and portfolio at www.melissaannmartin.com for more information.

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elektrolyte79··on Ask HN: Serious FB alternatives?
they are currently working with the Pivotal Labs team. They are not building it on their own - they have technical/backend/security support now.
elektrolyte79··on [dead]
DROP BOX or Yousendit.com PRO
elektrolyte79··on Ask HN: Who is Hiring? (April 2011)
San Francisco, CA UX LEAD:: Razorfish https://jobs-razorfish.icims.com/jobs/8829/job

FRONT END WEB DEVELOPER :: Razorfish https://jobs-razorfish.icims.com/jobs/8459/job

SENIOR FRONT END WEB DEVELOPER :: Razorfish https://jobs-razorfish.icims.com/jobs/8516/job

elektrolyte79··on Ask HN: Serious FB alternatives?
Diaspora is one alternative. I had the pleasure of meeting the founders and they are great guys. Their philosophy around social networks is that its your information and you should be able to control it, take it with you and share it on your terms. It is still in the Beta stage so if you would like to join, send me your email address and I'll send you an invitation to join so you can check it out. Another one, which is mobile only, is Colors. It's photo based and uses location and frequency of interaction to manage what information you share with whom. You can find it on the iTunes app store. Hope that helps!
elektrolyte79··on San Francisco Food Web
I wonder how this compares to other areas of the country?
elektrolyte79··on The New Humanism
Really found this article inspiring. I wrote a small commentary on it in my journal.

http://www.melissaannmartin.com/the-human-skills/

elektrolyte79··on Why being first doesn't matter.
It's been said many times that there is no such thing as an original idea, that everything created in the world is a derivative of or inspired by something else. For the most part I think this is true but it also depends on how you define originality. If you're a purist, which is sounds like you are, then originality is extremely hard to achieve. I mean, the very essence of inspiration means being inspired by the idea, words or work of someone or something else. I think a better way thing to strive for is creating something useful, something that brings people joy and/or improves their lives. In the end, if you're work is derivative of something else, who cares, as long as it's not plagarism and you've made meaningful changes or improvements that differentiates your product from the inspiration - then originality starts to not matter so much. Don't start by trying to reinvent the wheel - maybe start out by trying to make it better or more useful for a particular group of people.

Good luck!