Backcountry Interaction Design

I gave a quick presentation in my Interaction Design Methods class for an assignment today, and I wanted to put it up here because it brought together two of my passions - skiing, and interaction design! I have worn my avalanche transceiver on countless occasions, and I've had the good fortune to have never used one in an emergency situation (I can thank my prudent backcountry risk management, too!). I used Dan Saffer's excellent book, Microinteractions, as a framework to break down exactly how the interface of my avalanche transceiver is built around safety and ease of use. If you've never gone backcountry skiing, the (equally excellent) interactive NYT article, Snow Fall, can give you a good idea just how crucial a role tools like avalanche transceivers play, and the sort of extremely stressful situations they are used in.