My name is Stuart Giles, and I'm an accessibility-minded front-end developer and UX designer currently working remotely from Hawaii.
If you'd like to request a copy of my resume or get in touch with me about a project or position, please send me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
Check out the code at Github!
As part of an ongoing effort to keep my work up to date and expand my skillset, I've been learning additional technologies and gaining familiarity with back-end development, so as to better understand that side of web development and allow me to work more efficiently with back-end developers. Part of that research involved increasing my familiarity with command line operations, as well as learning more about how to use Node to implement routing and work with a database.
I created this blog primarily as a way to study the Node routing module Express and cement the practice of RESTful routes to APIs in my head. Because it is a learning piece, it doesn't differ much from the average blog anyone could make with a generator as far as primary functionality is concerned; the intent was to define the routes and HTTP requests myself in order to implement "Create, Read, Update, Delete" (or CRUD) function by hand. The front-end of the blog was created with Bootstrap. I feel that the process of coding this functionality really forced me to have a more concrete understanding of HTTP and its various request methods, which has enriched my front-end work, especially concerning asynchronicity.
Full-size poster image: WebP, PNG
I display a selection of materials from this project here, but if you're curious and want to know more, by all means email me and I would be happy to show you any of our research or any other materials from the process—except for those which are confidential, of course.
Robin is a project undertaken by the indefatigable Avery Bell, the endlessly creative Sara Correa Bell, and myself as part of our coursework in the Master of Human-Computer Interaction + Design program at the University of Washington. We each put hundreds and hundreds of hours into this capstone project, researching it part time over the spring quarter and ideating, designing, and prototyping it full-time over the summer quarter. Going into the project, we sought to answer a difficult question: what do you do when you have a serious problem that you can't tell anyone about? This is a conundrum faced by many people who are silently suffering from a condition called vaginismus, which causes extremely painful involuntary tightness of the pelvic floor muscles.
As all three of us came from an academic research background, we agreed that research was key to developing full understanding of the problem we were attempting to address. We started with compiling a bibliography of peer-reviewed medical and psychological research on the topic of pelvic floor tightness, and from there proceeded to conduct many, many interviews with specialists and experts in the area, including physical therapists, medical doctors, a sex therapist, a sexologist, staff from our sponsor Revel Body, and personnel from multiple startups in the wellness space. Later, during the summer, we would also interview several sufferers of pelvic floor tightness, as well as their loved ones.
We didn't want to limit ourselves during ideation, so our ideas sometimes went way afield; we could always figure out a more reasonable way to achieve a similar goal later. The ideas that made it to the final round of cuts ranged from as mundane as a mindfulness and breathing app to as wild as an augmented reality body tour guided by a special glove—strangely enough, our craziest idea actually ended up being closest to what we ended up deciding on. The AR aspect had to go, but the glove, which then became wearable muscle sensor pads for the index and middle fingers, ended up more or less staying, along with a companion app to guide the user through exercises.
None of us had experience or skill in silicone casting, so for our user testing we engaged in a bit of Wizard of Oz prototyping, using a JimmyJane Hello Touch X from our sponsor and hiding the branding, and pretending in user tests that it was operational as a muscle tension sensor to get genuine reactions from users. We also confirmed with a local electromyography and sensor expert that our fingertip sensor concept was possible to manufacture with current technology. Finally, we conducted card sort studies to narrow down muscle tension feedback and visualizations for the companion app. This was also the point at which we conducted interviews with pelvic floor tension sufferers, who we recruited from relevant Reddit and Facebook communities.
With regards to the end of the project, four major items needed to be presented: a full-size poster, a concept video, a high quality slide deck for presentation, and high-fidelity prototypes of the device and app. We all worked together on all of these aspects, but my primary responsibility was the design and layout of the poster, the full version of which I linked above, as well as taking the lead on public speaking regarding the project.
In the end, I'm truly glad I was able to be involved with this project. I worked with extremely talented people and learned an immense amount about the process of design. It took an almost unbelievable amount of dedication and work, but this was a valuable experience in seeing a design all the way through to the end.
Sponsored by Premera Blue Cross to design a system for post-appointment provider feedback. My role in this project was primarily research and presentation.
I crocheted a stuffed doll of the Earl of Lemongrab from the cartoon Adventure Time who screamed the character's various unpleasant catchphrases from the show when his hand was pressed. An Arduino with wave shield was used for the audio component.
Information visualization project visualizing data from bicycle counters around the city of Seattle and mapping their incidence with other factors.
Mockup of the tablet interface for a theoretical redesign of Instructure's Canvas LMS software. Produced very quickly as part of a rapid iteration grad school project. Better text contrast came later.
3D render produced by the talented Riyaz Javanmardi for a project we did together. The render, which was later 3D printed, was for a theoretical device that scanned food for allergens, with a detachable top containing an epinephrine injector for emergencies.
A sampler of various smaller projects I've been involved with. If you would like to see or know more about any of them, please feel free to email me and I will gladly provide further details, pictures, research material, etc.
