Rob →
Robin James Adams is a design researcher, usability specialist,
interaction designer, vegetarian, writer, scientist,
teacher, student, philosopher, scholar, iconoclast, social malcontent,
and overall intellectual dilettante living in San Francisco, California.
He has a number of other titles as well, but didn't include them
in the list because they didn't sound sufficiently pretentious.
Rob is currently employed as a Usability Specialist at Macromedia, Inc., maker of various web tools doohickeys. Perhaps you've heard of them. Rob specializes in conducting design research for Macromedia's Flash and Flash-related products and in being a general pain in the necks of his interaction designers.
In the recent past, Rob worked and matriculated at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. During his tenure at that venerable institution, he worked as a Research Associate with Drs. Bonnie John and Len Bass on their Usability and Software Architecture (U&SA) project After two grueling years, he earned a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, then fled Pittsburgh forever. Futher back in time, he graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Computer Science, then went to Orca Computer, Inc. to architect and implement the Evaluation Environment, Orca's flagship web application. In the near future, Rob plans to change the world, hopefully for the better this time.
Rob's primary interests include user-centered design and talking too much about it. But to kill time and relax, he enjoys reading, eating delicious food, exploring the most beautiful city on Earth, the imbibing of beer (in moderation!), hanging out with friends, and referring to himself in the third person.
I initially set up this site because my good friend Aaron Krowne was foolish enough to give me a shell account on his server, Binary Realm, and I felt I should make full use of it. Since then I've set up my own server, Loki's Labs, and made it my new digital home. At the moment, it primarily exists to host what little personal content I produce, including my weblog and a few essays I've written as well as the occasional odd software application I throw together from time to time.
I welcome feedback of all kinds regarding any of the content on this site. If you want to drop me a line, I'm at .
I first started my weblog because my good friend Micah Alpern had one and kept raving about them and made me jealous. I also thought it might be nice to have a place to record my thoughts and ideas, experiences and feelings, and the things I learn and accomplish as near to the context of actually doing them as I can get. Besides, it keeps me off the streets at night.
The thoughts I write about here are generally in a very rough form; I tend to write them down as I have them. So, basically, I don't make any claims as to the accuracy of anything I put here, so feel free to ignore it or tear it apart in the Comments section. All other warranties, express or implied, are hereby disclaimed. Void where prohibited. If you're looking for something a little more polished, you might want to check out some of my writings.