The Krispy Kreme Challenge is perhaps one of the most unique things in Raleigh, and I plan on participating again next year. It was my first road race since I started running last summer (with the help of Couch-to-5k). I ran at a nice, casual pace (finishing at 1:01:28 according to the official results) and paused while looking for friends at the halfway point. Next year, I’m not going to look… and maybe I’ll eat more donuts at the halfway point. I just don’t know if it’s physically possible.

Check out my full set of photos from the KKC.

David Travis from Userfocus authored a simple and easy-to-follow short story called The Fable of the User-Centered Designer that follows one man as he attempts to learn what User-Centered Design is. It’s a free PDF that’s a quick read on the computer screen, but a printed copy is only $14.80 on Blurb, with all proceeds going to Room to Read.

[The Fable of the User-Centered Designer via Usability News]

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are my memories from 2009? Well, off the top of my head:

• Getting snowed in and working from home while watching the inauguration of our first black president.
• Flying home abruptly in January because my grandmother passed away.
• Experiencing my first economic downturn as a full-time employee. It wasn’t much fun.
• Glen Wesley Night at the RBC Center on Feburary 17. The Bruins won.
• Being a part of the Triangle Red Sox Nation green softball team (there are three teams, and green was new in ’09). We didn’t win much, but we had a lot of fun in the spring/summer and fall.
• Hanging out with Triangle Red Sox Nation while we watched the PawSox defeat the Durham Bulls from under the famous snorting bull in left field (as seen in Bull Durham).
• Playing golf for the first time at Knight’s Play Golf Center in Apex. Someday I’ll get better.
• CHI 2009 in Boston, April 5th-9th. I ran into a lot of old friends.
• Our gesture research at HumanCentric. Will data analysis ever end? I hope so.
• Discovering Bonobos. Well-designed pants with an unlimited return policy. I used to hate wearing anything but jeans.
• Visiting Charlotesville, VA for Rebecca’s cousin’s wedding. The downtown pedestrian mall and Monticello are must-sees.
• Visiting the Outer Banks and staying at a great bed-and-breakfast, the Cypress House Inn. Enjoyed going up Currituck Beach Lighthouse, watching an Outer Banks Daredevils game, grabbing a quick dinner (with a beer) at the Outer Banks Brewing Station, and a more low-key dinner at The Colington Cafe.
• Summer vacation on Cape Cod.  Enjoyed watching the rain-shortened 2009 CCBL All-Star game at Fenway from the covered grandstand behind home, and showing Rebecca around Cape.
• Running. I used to think only bionic humans ran more than 1/2 mile. Now I’m running 5K with ease, but there are no marathons in my future.
• Labor Day weekend in Equality, Alabama. I consider this my first introduction to the deep south and lakeside living. Trivia fact: Patriots LB Adalius Thomas was born in Equality.
• Islamorada and Key West, Florida in late October. It was my first time in the southernmost state. I think about the great Cuban food at El Meson de Pepe every now and then.
• I worked over 100 hours in a week with a trip to Chicago. It was tiring, but oddly fun at times.
• Rebecca and I took a quick weekend trip to Oak Island, NC before Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to exploring the Wilmington area more.
• I spent another Thanksgiving in Georgia with Rebecca’s family, but this time we ate at a buffet restaurant near Helen, GA. The food wasn’t great, but the reunion part was interesting. Cirque de la Symphonie in Atlanta was amazing.
• Christmas festivities in Raleigh, including two parties in one night and watching The Nutracker by the Carolina Ballet.
• Another Christmas on Cape Cod, but this time there was snow on the ground! I used some fake gift boxes again, but only had a 25% success rate this year instead of last year’s miraculous 80% success rate. Oh well.
• And, finally, I’ll be headed back to Raleigh before the year-end to host a New Year’s Eve house party with Rebecca.

Some of the highlights at this year’s fair:

• Pig lickers (chocolate dipped in bacon) — They mostly taste just like chewy chocolate with a hint of salt.
  
• The Barrel Monster (near the gardens/flowers) — This is surprisingly nearly identical to the famous Barrel Monster of Hillsborough Street.
  
• Rubik’s Cube Cake — It’s in the back behind some of the more elaborate cakes.
  
• 211 lbs. watermelon — I don’t remember seeing these last year, but the pumpkins were a little disappointing so this drew my attention.
  
• The food. — I had: a ham biscuit, hot chocolate (it was Swiss Miss…), BBQ plate with potatoes and apples, apple cider, fried cookie dough, and roasted corn. They were out of fried mac & cheese all day in the only two places we found that had it. We took home some fudge.
  

It started to rain a little heavier at about 2pm when were making our way back to the car. It was also noticeably more crowded, so I’d recommend our strategy of going on Sunday morning. We did a couple rides: a Ferris wheel and the “Super Shot” (a free fall tower).

I put my complete set of fair photos on Flickr.

When I started college at RIT, I entered with the thought that I would exit as a web developer. I wasn’t completely happy with that thought because it seemed like a job where I was headed straight toward a cubicle with little human interaction. My first class in college, “Introduction to Human Factors”, changed everything. While jobs in human factors seemed few and far between at the time (and sometimes still do to this day), it seemed a lot more exciting to do research in the field and then make informed design decisions. I fell in love with research-inspired design, which is what we call it at HumanCentric.

Admittedly, it’s hard to stay on top of the latest research in the field. Google Reader and iTunes are constantly updating with new articles. Interactions, UX, and Ergonomics in Design sit on my coffee table and desk.  But, I also have a growing list of books on my Amazon wishlist that aren’t in the library and I haven’t been able to obtain. Since the list has been growing out of control recently, I’ve started looking for a number of them around the office. I’m currently borrowing How We Decide from a former colleague. A good portion of the books I’m looking for are in the “Win A Usability Library” package.

One of the more recent phenomenons in the usability community is the establishment of UX book clubs. They’re a great idea, but getting your hands on the books can be a challenge! I have been looking into starting a Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill UX book club/book sharing group. This would keep me on my toes and hopefully others as well.

Research-Inspired Design is the HumanCentric blog, where the whole company (usability specialists, industrial designers, graphic designers, software engineers, and interaction designers) share our thoughts on user experience. Check it out, and put it in your RSS reader!

http://blog.humancentric.com/

Seven things about me you may or may not know:

1. I started my college education at Cape Cod Community College -  I was not ready to make the leap from high school to a 4-year college. I needed more time to evaluate my options and think about what I wanted to major in. During my year at Cape Cod Community College, I took all liberal arts classes and CLEP tests. With CLEP, I was able to earn credit and test out of a handful of classes (including three English classes, History, and an introductory computer class). I graduated with an Associates in Arts after one year and transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology.
2. I went into college wanting to be a Web Developer – However, in the fall of 2002 I took an introduction to Human-Computer Interaction class. This class, and another undgraduate class in Interface Design, led me to pursue two Masters programs and a career in usability/human factors.
3. I don’t have cable or satellite TV – I don’t watch enough TV to warrant subscribing to cable. I have cable Internet, and use an HD antenna so I can watch the networks. I have Boxee installed on my Apple TV so I can watch some television shows available free on the Internet.
4. I drive an ’07 Volkswagen Rabbit – When car hunting in ’07, I wanted to switch from an SUV to a passenger car. I couldn’t fit in any Hondas, Toyotas, Saturns, Nissans or Subarus. I fit great in the Volkswagen Rabbit (formerly called the Golf, and called the Golf everywhere outside North America).
5. I helped turn North Carolina into a blue state – The last time North Carolina voted for a democratic president was Jimmy Carter in 1976. All polls pointed to non-native North Carolinians making the difference (e.g. mync.com poll).
6. My last name is the most popular Finnish last name – There are many famous people in the world with the last name “Wirtanen”, including Carl A. Wirtanen (astronomer), professional hockey player Petteri Wirtanen, World’s Strongest Man Janne Virtanen,  Ville Virtanen (aka Darude), and others (full list on Wikipedia).
7. I grew up on Cape Cod in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Barnstable is most famous for the home of the Kennedy’s. All of my immediate family lives on the Cape, and I visit regularly. My great uncle, Frank Wirtanen, captained a boat for the Kennedy’s. His name is used by Kurt Vonnegut in a short non-fictional travel account in Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons and his name was borrowed for the novel Mother Night (there is also a 1996 film version where John Goodman portrays Frank Wirtanen).

Now it’s time to tag 7 more people.  Here they are,

1. Vanessa Battaglia – Fellow Boston UPA member and Bentley grad student (@vbattaglia)
2. Kyle Bedell - Former co-worker/student at computer camp in summer 2003 and Bentley grad student (@trokair)
3. Zarla Ludin – Former co-worker at Bentley’s Design and Usability Center and Bentley grad student. (@ludinz)
   
4. Jackson Fox – Fellow Tri-UPA member (@jacksonfox)
5. Heather Hynes – College friend from RIT (@heathershae)
6. Coley – College friend from RIT and Internet celebrity (@c)
7. Tiffanie Shakespeare – Fellow CHI ’06 Student Volunteer and usability professional (@lime124)

The rules:
1. Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

How did my family react to receiving these gift boxes from The Onion?

In order to have a little fun over my Christmas break on Cape Cod, I decided to package a select few presents inside these gift boxes. On Christmas Eve, four boxes were distributed. One, the Sounds of the Rainforest Smoke Alarm, went to my grandmother for her to open on her own. Three of the boxes were used at the annual Christmas Eve party at my Aunt and Uncle’s Yarmouthport home. My Uncle Eddy received the Visor-Ganizer (pictured above), my Aunt Margaret received iFeast (pictured above), and My Aunt Jeanne was subjected to the Kleen-Stride (also, pictured above). My Uncle received his gift first and caught on after reading that he could have “7 lbs.” on his visor. My Aunts, however, seemed content with their unique gifts. The iFeast stayed in its box for half of the evening, because the iPod, for their dogs, probably “had to charge”.

On Christmas morning, my mom received the Professional Whisk Set with 28 Whisks. Even after seeing the three boxes the previous night, she didn’t catch on immediately that this was a joke. Meanwhile, my grandmother called to say thank you for the Smoke Alarm, because they needed a new one. At that point, my family packaged up the whisk set (with two oranges and a new CFL bulb) to give them at Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, it was also thought to be a real gift. Even after its citrusy and environmental innards were uncovered, the smoke alarm, which has a remote with a “snooze button”, was still thought to be real.

Overall, it was a successful experiment and provided a lot of laughter on Christmas Eve. I am headed back to Raleigh on Monday morning, and will be back to work on Tuesday!

For a few weeks I will be living like Steve Jobs in 1982 (below, right).