Hector G. Parra: Archive

Dec 2nd

Mar 22nd

Mar 15th

1 tag

Mockup for a Health Education Tool

A couple of summers ago I was asked to prototype an Integrated Health Education / Registration-Visit Information Intake Tool for a couple of local community health clinics. My undergraduate ninjas at the time, Allen Luo & Jakkree Janchoi, helped flush out the design, with Allen finalizing and mocking it up. Basically, an incoming patient will receive a smart tablet and be able to watch...

Mar 14th

“Am I being productive or am I just being busy?”

– Timothy Ferriss

Mar 2nd

Feb 27th

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched...”

– Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn. Source: Don’t suck twice.

Feb 24th

Feb 22nd

Feb 11th

Feb 4th

Jan 20th

Academic Posters: Breaking the Rules

I was asked by my colleague a few weeks ago to create a poster for our (his really) Work-In-Progress submission to CHI 2011. I obviously agreed, but soon found myself feeling restricted. Most posters I’ve seen suck. They’re boring, contain too much text, and don’t have any color. They all seem to follow the tired ABSTRACT, METHODS, DATA, CONCLUSION format. So instead of fighting...

Jan 20th

1 note

Jan 10th

Dec 19th

Dec 9th

1 tag

Dec 2nd

2 tags

Communicating Medical Lab Data

This is how we should communicate medical lab data: so it can be understood. This particular design for Prostate-specific Antigen was by JUNG + WENIG, and was my favorite of the three, particularly because theirs included a clearly labeled sequence for digesting the information. Designs were commissioned by Wired for their The Blood Test Gets a Makeover article. On an ironic side note, The NNT...

Dec 2nd

2 tags

Wireless Health: Transforming Healthcare with...

The Center for Research on IT and Organizations (CRITO) and the Center for Health Care Management and Policy (CHCMP), both at UC Irvine, teamed up to deliver this excellent conference that covered many aspects of new health today. It’s definitely one of the better conferences I’ve been to. Interesting people and things mentioned: Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Health tweets about wireless...

Dec 2nd

1 tag

Nov 29th

Why I'm Over Graduate School (and Dropped Out)

On November 12, 2010 I turned in paperwork to withdraw from classes at the California State University, Long Beach. I listed “withdrawing from university” as my “serious and compelling reason”. When I approached my professors to acquire their signatures, they were both surprised and confused. They both stated that I was “doing well” and asked why I was...

Nov 25th

Watch

Testing iMovie ‘09 with MacBook Pro iSight. I saw some people tonight that haven’t seen me in over a year and they needed a minute to recognize me. Hell, I barely recognize me! That was the ‘observation’.

Nov 25th

Cognitive dimensions of notations →

Cognitive dimensions or Cognitive dimensions of notations [1] are design principles for notations, user interfaces and programming language design, described by researchers Thomas R.G. Green and Marian Petre. The dimensions can be used to evaluate the usability of an existing information artefact, or as heuristics to guide the design of a new one.

Oct 24th

Specifying Cognitive Interface Requirements →

Oct 24th

2 tags

Oct 22nd

Oct 5th

Question about pmap →

A little insight on why parallel map actually takes longer.

Sep 20th

A Technique for High-Performance Data Compression →

Terry Welch’s original 1984 paper describing LZW compression.

Sep 17th

Monte Carlo Pi →

An excellent resource for calculating pi by Monte Carlo method from CSU Fullerton Professor John H. Mathews.

Sep 17th

Sep 8th

1 tag

Sep 7th

ACM Journals LaTeX Style Guide →

I’m finding plenty of code, by no examples. It doesn’t seem to matter, as SIGCHI is doing their own thing.

Aug 31st

Schwarzenegger launches nation's largest... →

They mention UCIMC Dr. Gail Fernandez, pediatric psychiatrist, gadget geek. I work with her on SCSNI.

Aug 19th

UC Irvine joins statewide ‘telemedicine’ network →

Ian Hamilton, OC Register. He sat in on the UCI end of the press conference.

Aug 19th

What Is It About 20-Somethings? →

Powerful article for anyone in their 20’s, approaching their 20’s, or a parent of someone in their 20’s. Do not read if you’re approaching your 30’s! Oh the regret!

Aug 19th