Interaction Design, Leadership, & Strategy

I'm Dan and my design and art pursuits are informed by a respect for universal human needs, societal trends, and a desire to bring more equity, irreverence, joy, magic, and beauty into the world.

I'm currently a Principal Designer at Adobe, helping to drive ethical cross-product initiatives that combine generative AI with 3D, AR, and VR.

For me, design is about being playful, kind, and humble in a sprit of true collaboration; whether it's for an app, website, tool, virtual world, protest sign, art-car, or Halloween costume.

Generative AI + 3D

I am investigating how to bring the best of 3D and the best of generative AI together in ways that are ethical and amplify the artist's skills and efforts.

Speaking Engagements & Teaching

Equity, Trust and Magic: Navigating Tradeoffs in GenAI

So you want to design an immersive app

Voices of VR: Values Driven Design

List of all my recent engagements

Successes & Design Influence

Over my long career I've had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with key inventors and implementers in the field of user-interface design. I've helped define:

novel touch interfaces before there were even smartphones
powerful search and browse interfaces
practical hand-based interactions for Augmented Reality
compassionate uses for machine learning
ship nuanced integrity and safety workflows for social VR communities
efficient professional design tools

Patents & Publications

Across my time at Brown University, Microsoft Research, Visual Vocal, and HTC, I've taken care to codify my projects into over 100 patents and publications. With colleagues from the disciplines of user research, computer graphics, HCI, and software development I've carefully delineated useful and cutting-edge techniques for interaction, visualization, and workflow.

Art

I use 3D printers, laser-cutters, welding torches, zip-ties, VR controllers, sewing machines, and LEDs to make sculpture that is both tiny and huge, both physical and digital.