Are You Experienced?

What makes a good experience? Answering this question is the raison d'être  of the Experience Group. Encompassing visual, interface, interaction, auditory, hallucinatory, and verbal creations, the Experience Group (or 'EG' as we lovingly refer to them) conducts intensive research into all facets of creating meaningful experiences for users online and off.

The basic mission of the EG is to support and develop creative capabilities at vivid. (We've refrained from calling the EG the "Design Group" for two reasons: design happens in other disciplines as well, most notably engineering; and design is but a part of the process of building an experience.)

Who's in the group:

Creative Director (Nathan Shedroff)
Head cheerleader for the EG, the Creative Director provides ideas, advice, and inspiration on specific projects, as well as vivid's overall creative process. Also plays Design Cop when crimes against usability are committed.

Associate Creative Director (Tim Bruns)
What Robin was to Batman, the ACD is to the Creative Director (minus the tights and dopey lines). The ACD brings his own ideas to the creative process, and together with the Creative Director, guides the EG deeper into the waters of understanding.

Director, Experience Group (Jodi Hadsell)
Coordinates the EG, runs meetings and other design-related activities (such as vivid school, outings, and training), and makes sure we have all the obscure fonts and whizzy new software we need.

Creative Writing Director (Drue Miller)
Develops copy style guidelines and writes pithy verbiage for projects (or directs her fleet of writing minions to do the same). Her left-brained counterpart, the Technical Writing Director, hangs with the Engineering Group.

Senior Visual Designer (Jeff Davis, aka Art Droid)
We don't actually know what he does, but he assures us it's important. (We're pretty sure he leads the visual design of most projects.)

Visual Designer (Maurice Tani)
Conceptualizes and produces visual elements for projects (plus, he gets all the cool Photoshop filters first).

Visual Design Assistants (Marsha Plat, Pamela Gauci)
Carry out the evil plans of the visual designers.

Interface + Interaction Designer (Katherine Isbister)
Conceptualize and develop all aspects of the interface and interaction (including, but not limited to, things like navigation, user feedback, color palette, information design, etc.). Interaction designers work closely with visual designers and engineers to create interfaces that are usable, enjoyable, and technically feasible.

Writers They, uh, you know, write stuff.


  
Where they go:

  
To further their understanding of experience, the EG takes
  field trips to local events and places. They go to become aware
  of personal boundaries, to learn how physical space affects perceptions,
  and to explore 3D metaphors so that they may better translate
  them to the 2D desktop. Recent outings have included:

  
  
And there are plenty of other places on the list.

  
Know of a place the EG should check out? Tell 'em about it!

  
Meet the rest of the teams:

  
 

  
  
 

  

  
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