Identity, Inclusion and Social Responsibility w/ Tess Mendes Artwork

NOMADS: The HCI Podcast!

Connie and Sunny, two HCI grad students talk to professionals from diverse and rich backgrounds in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. As you see, we'd like to call ourselves NOMADS as we have been moving from place to place, away from our comfort zones, friends and family not only for opportunities and wisdom, but mainly because we want to make these societies more Equitable, Humane and Accessible through HCI and Technology! While HCI, Design and Tech are considered to be niche and fancy, I think we are responsible to create outreach about what we do and why it matters for all the 7 billion people(in the long run, of course).

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NOMADS: The HCI Podcast!

Identity, Inclusion and Social Responsibility w/ Tess Mendes

September 04, 2020 • Sunny M • Season 1 • Episode 1

NOMADS welcomes Tess Mendes as our first ever guest on our podcast! In this episode, we talk about Tess' unique backstory from pre-med to urban planning to UX, embracing her Latinx identity, social responsibilities of HCI, minimalism as a philosophy, and one of Tess' projects that has helped the people in the state of Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic. What sort of backgrounds do you all come from? How have other parts of your identity influenced your practice in your respective field?

Connect with Tess Mendes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessamendes/
https://www.tmendes.com/

For further info on what we discussed:

"User Experience as Legitimacy Trap" by Paul Dourish https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/november-december-2019/user-experience-as-legitimacy-trap
"White" by Kenya Hara https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6545885-white
New online dashboard provides COVID-19 risk and trend data, helps inform MI Safe Start plan: https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/0,9309,7-387-90499-530119--,00.html
Muji Design Studio and Minimalism: https://www.muji.com/us/about/?area=header
Dr. Colleen van lent and Web Design for Everybody: https://www.collemc.people.si.umich.edu

About US:
Sunny and Connie (Co-host) are grad students majoring in Human-Computer Interaction and are passionate about designing experiences to empower people around the world.