Hello! I'm Dylan. I love design because it has the power to demystify and democratize technology, transforming it from an arcane power wielded only by experts to an accessible tool that anyone can use themselves.

I'm currently working as the Director of Operations for XR Access, a research initiative at Cornell Tech dedicated to making immersive technologies accessible for everyone. I conduct outreach, organize events, and manage volunteers to ensure that we make space for content creators, people with disabilities, and other stakeholders to meet in the middle and discuss accessible XR technology. I also represent XR Access with groups such as the IEEE Global Initiative on the Ethics of Extended Reality (see our report), the W3C Immersive Captions Community Group, the Metaverse Standards Forum, and other collaborations.

I recently worked as an Augmented Reality Researcher at UC Berkeley on an AR Obstacle Avoidance system, similar to my AR for VIPs system but relying on vision instead of hearing. This basic research will pave the way for future generations of AR headsets to be powerful assistive tools in addition to their general computing abilities, just as smartphones are today. Read the paper

In 2019 I completed my master's degree at UC Berkeley's School of Information, studying immersive design and the sociology of information technology. That helped me understand the big picture of tech, and some of the potential we have yet to explore for technology to improve people's quality of life.

Before that, I was a UX designer and then lead UX designer at Vertigo Software, which was acquired by MLB Advanced Media, which was acquired by Disney to become the backbone of Disney+. (There’s always a bigger fish!) There I worked with a cross-functional team to design and ship entertainment apps for every platform under the sun.

I love talking and teaching design. If you need a consultation or are looking for someone to teach a design workshop, drop me a line!

View my resume using the link below, or you can view a text-only version here.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Yeah, yeah, this one is a cliche, but it’s considered the bible of UX design for a reason. I read this as a young mechanical engineering student, and Norman’s emphasis on the fundamental importance of affordances and design for human psychology have really shaped my attitudes as a designer. Required reading for all UX designers.

Xbox Adaptive Controller by Microsoft

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is an awesome example of a big company embracing accessibility. It’s clear from reviews that, while no magic bullet, this represents a major improvement in the user flow for disabled gamers, and that Microsoft paid significant attention to detail, right down to accessibility-friendly packaging (which hopefully will become standard for their other products too).

Microsoft’s work with nonprofits like Able Gamers to create this makes it a great example of designing with, not at.

Fantastic Contraption by Radial Games

Fantastic Contraption was one of the first commercially released VR games and in my mind still one of the best designed. In addition to a tutorial, intuitive controls, and a great core gameplay loop for anyone who considers themselves a tinkerer, it has a remarkable amount of redundancy. You can get new parts by pulling them from behind your back or plucking them off your cat (don’t worry, they regrow.) You can delete things by poking them with a pin or just tossing them off the ledge. You can play the whole thing one handed and at whatever scale you choose.

Overall, this game oozes good design, and stands out in my mind as the right way to introduce users to the world of VR.

Dungeons & Dragons

D&D is a game about collaborative storytelling and creative problem solving. For me, there’s few better ways to spend an afternoon than cracking jokes, rolling d20s, and trying to figure out what illusion my wizard can whip up to save us from the giant crowd of orcs thirsting for our party’s blood.

Hiking

When you spend a lot of your time behind screens, dealing with artificial systems, it’s nice to get outside once in a while. Some favorite trails are in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, Henry Coe State Park southeast of San Jose, and pretty much anything in Big Sur.

Rube Goldberg Machines

Rube Goldberg machines are “machine[s] intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overcomplicated fashion.” I absolutely love this absurd blend of mechanics and showmanship, and I’m proud to have had a hand in several throughout the years, such as this specimen based on Las Vegas.