I ♥ building great & beautiful things.

Contact me

Hello.
Browse the selected projects (in chronological order) using the left nav or the top buttons.
Enjoy.

Currently living in
Tokyo, Japan

Previously
New York, NY
Boston, MA
Milan, Italy
Turin, Italy
Vancouver, Canada
Mexico City, Mexico
Seoul, Korea
Puebla, Mexico

Currently working for
Google Japan Inc.

Previously
Google Inc.
MIT Mobile Experince Lab
Experientia
Big Green
Hewlett-Packard

Interested in
Interaction Design
Design
Craftmanship
Architecture
Telling Stories
Fashion
Music
Technology
Travel
Scotch & wine
Will Ferrel's movies

Google Docs for Android

mobile app for Google Docs suite

Tokyo, Japan. 2011

Create, edit, upload and share your documents with the Google Docs app.
* Designed for Android to save you time finding your docs
* Edits to your documents appear to collaborators in seconds
* Make quick changes to spreadsheets
* View your documents, PDFs, images and more.
* Upload and convert files to the Google Docs format
* Take a photo of printed text and convert it to a Google document
* Share docs with your phone’s contacts

Google Sky Map

mobile planetarium

New York, NY. 2009 & 10

Google Sky Map turns your Android-powered device into a window on the night sky.

Figure out what you're looking at
Point your phone at the sky, and Google Sky Map will show the stars, planets, constellations, and more to help you identify the celestial objects in view. You can also browse the skies in manual mode.

Search the skies
Search the night sky for your favorite planet, Messier object, and more. Then move the phone in the direction of the

Time Travel
To see the sky at a specific date, past or future. After smooth travel to the desired year, you can fast forward or rewind in various speeds and watch how the sky changes.

Google DFP mobile

manage your ad operations while on-the-go

New York, NY. 2010

The DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) mobile interface lets you quickly check your ad operations and account performance while away from your computer. When you sign into your DFP account from your mobile browser, you’ll immediately get an overview of the most important areas of your account. With an activity stream that’s constantly updated, you can monitor all of the trafficking changes made to your account even when you’re away from the office. If you discover a problem that needs immediate attention, you can pause the line item or even contact the trafficker or salesperson - all directly from your phone.

Google DFP

advanced tools for publishers

New York,NY. 2008-2010

The new DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) from Google combines intuitive design, sophisticated algorithms, unprecedented insight, and greater platform openness to bring a new level of intelligence and usability to ad serving.

The upgraded DFP includes a wide variety of features that will help publishers to get the most value out of their online content:
A new interface that has been completely redesigned to save time and reduce errors.
Far more detailed reporting and forecasting data to help publishers understand where their revenue is coming from and what ads are most valuable.
Sophisticated algorithms that automatically improve ad performance and delivery.
A new, open, public API which enables publishers to build and integrate their own apps with DFP, or integrate apps created for DFP by a growing third-party developer community (apps under development today include sales, order management and workflow tools).
Integration with the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange's "dynamic allocation" feature, which maximizes revenue by enabling publishers to open up their ad space to bids from multiple ad networks. Dynamic allocation is described in this document [PDF].

The Cloud

interactive fiber being

Florence, Italy. June 2008

An organic sculptural landmark that responds to human interaction and expresses context awareness using hundreds of sensors and over 15,000 individually addressable optical fibers. Constructed of carbon glass, spanning over four meters, and containing more than 65 kilometers of fiber optics, the Cloud encourages visitors to touch and interact with information in new ways, manifesting emotions and behavior through sound and a dichotomy of luminescence and darkness.

Features
The cloud is capable of detecting presence and engaging with users through its multi-fiber touch interface. Tactile engagement with the individual fibers provokes a variety of responses from the cloud, ranging from ambient lighting to animation and sound. The cloud’s open-source development platform encourages users to contribute to a growing library of creative interactions that will stretch the limits of the imagination.

Technology
Mixing a powerful light source with the beauty of fiber optics, the Cloud is made with more than 15,000 individually addressable fibers. Each fiber represents a pixel that can be touched, modified, or moved in a physical way.

The cloud is equipped with 20 proximity sensors that cover the entire object. It can detect if someone is near the object, but also the direction they move, if they go to the back of the object, if they are walking around, etc. Three-quarters of the Cloud are covered with touch sensors for precise touch-area tracking. Besides that, the Cloud is equipped with two cameras and microphones for long range detections.

Located in downtown Florence outside the Fortezza da Basso. the Cloud is part of the “Redesigning Fashion Trade Shows” project that Pitti Immagine launched with MIT Mobile Experience Lab in January 2007. It is a long-term project that will creatively rethink the trade show concept and will propose innovative technologies, perspectives and sensory experiences for fashion trade shows.

pitti.mobi

physical into virtual tagging

Florence, Italy. January 2008

pitti.mobi is an innovative, breakthrough mobile service that delivers compelling, dynamic interactions for improving fashion trade-show experiences. Using mobile phones and the internet, buyers and sellers can exchange contact information, catalogues, and media.

Concept
Core concept of business information exchange between buyers and sellers improving trade show experiences with navigation systems, rating systems, tourist guides, etc.

Hardware
Our first prototype phone application was implemented on Nokia’s E65 smartphone. This device was chosen based on its small form factor, technical features, slidable keys, and fashionable looks.
The phone software works over any type of Internet connection, however we opted to use Wi-Fi instead of cellular due to cost considerations. In particular it would require each phone to have a data plan from a wireless service provider.

Software
The pitti.mobi application has been developed to run on Java(J2ME)-enabled devices that allow program access to camera, phone, and Wi-Fi functions. The application communicates with the server using the phone's Wi-Fi connection and data is maintained and interacted with online using the Drupal content management system. This first prototype is capable of running on any of Nokia’s N and E series phones and can easily be installed on a phone by sending the pitti.mobi application package via Bluetooth from a computer. We successfully installed the software on numerous other Nokia smartphones such as the E51 and E90. The software can be made to run on other makes and models of phones, provided they have the required features mentioned above.

Smart badge

redesigning fashion tradeshows

Florence, Italy. June 2007

Smart badge is a concept/prototype that helps improve the fashion shows experiences. Its an information management system that uses an RFID custom made leather badge to tag physical spaces inside a trade show. The information is saved in an online space that servers as an information management website.

Brief
How can fashion trade shows be redesigned? Concepts for communication, information, business, space and orientation for the Pitti Uomo Fashion trade show in Florence, Italy

Definition
The Experience Room (virtual handshake) was a prototypical environment representing a possible future of Pitti Uomo fairs:Trade show guests will interact with new, stylish leather badges to physically tag their preferred exhibitors.Relevant personalized information may be displayed on an on-site interactive table or may be remotely accessed online to facilitate buyer-seller connections and business.

Wanderlust

mobile social networking

Milan, Italy. December 2006

Wanderlust is a mobile service tailored for creative people that use their identities and needs (in terms of time and distance) to allow them to immerse in new or unexplored spaces as well to meet people with similar interests. Wanderlust enhances community behaviours by providing suggestions from people and places that can be relevant to you (ad-hoc social networking) using a knowledge management model. Complete dissertation here.

Brief
How to facilitate human relationships, better connect people, communities, knowledge and their physical environment within a mobile realm through the support of mobile devices. Master thesis graduate project

Research
Wanderlust is supported by four main areas of research that are: Knowledge management and collaborative learning, location-based mobile experiences, identities & personality and social networking:mobility communities and spaces.

Design process
The concept generation phase was done in parallel with the research and focus-area phase in a constant loop for refreshing and validating the ideas. At the beginning of the process the initial concepts started from a broad point of view, emerging from the research focuses that were: identity and personality, ad-hoc communities, and knowledge management. The main interest was concentrated on enhancing the community values such as communication, cooperation, endorsement and mediation through a series of tools or models following the knowledge management and social learning framework, the high resolution of information of existing web services filtered with the timely delivery of abbreviated information of the mobile and finally the identity management and the self representation between spaces. More here

Prototype 1
This prototype is designed as a distributed system following the three tier architecture, adopting the following technologies for each of the tiers: 1. data (Database) uses MySQL Community Server
2. application logic (executes most of the tasks related to the business application) Implemented in Java using JDBC to access the database and Web services to expose the functionality of the system
3. presentation tier (presents the information to the end users possible in different platforms and devices) A Flash RIA communicates with the server (Apache Tomcat & Axis) via WebServices (communication model between applications based on XML) which implement open standards and protocols (HTTP and SOAP). More here

Prototype 2
This prototype demonstrates a user’s different identities represented by physical tokens (reels). Each reel is mapped to an identity; when this reel is introduced to the View-Master it will play a video showing the contents and attributes of this identity.
Components:original View-Master (red), epo wood body, arduino board, RFID reader & antenna. More here

Prototype 3
This prototype uses the View-Master original interaction to cycle through a series of photographs. The mobile phone screen substitutes the original reels shown on the View-Master, the keyboard of the mobile was hacked and connected to a pushbutton.
Components:original View-Master (blue), epo wood body, nokia 2650 mobile phone, and a push-button. More here

Drop action

transaction widgets

Milan, Italy. December 2006

DropAction is a set of widgets which allow you to make transactions by dragging and dropping icons. The widgets always give you virtual feedback by creating new sets of icons.

Brief
If the Interface with computing could be re-designed for today's culture of use, what would the OS be like and how would it function? Design an OS or a function or a behavior or a vision concept.

Objective
interaction to the bare minimum.

Assumptions
existing services add metadata to their images, logos, icons etc. Widgets share a common information

Scenario 1:
seamless/economical transaction by just dragging and dropping the widgets through her desktop.

Scenario 2:
social interaction, two personas sharing their music library by dragging and dropping their icon from an existing service Skype into the music widget.

Scenario 3:
social/economical transaction, merging scenario 1 and 2.

Kitbox

service design

Milan, Italy. December 2006

Kitbox is a new service that lets you build, personalize and share your kitchen. Kitbox is a rental service that is focused “on the go” market. For people that change or move from one place to another, people that live in transitional states (e.g. students in a foreign countries, singles, singles that become couples, etc). The service is supported by the shape of the kitchen itself it’s constituted by a series of modular boxes building a living space that enables you actions related to the kitchen such as cooking, social behaviors, eating, among others.

Brief
Built in are by definition all the "white" appliances designed, produced and sold to be integrated in the kitchen furniture system. Two essential dimensions we have to think about when designing these products are the aesthetics and the experience. For built-in appliances, aesthethics and experience are deeply connected to each other and interdependent. The key to a successful project will be a integrated and consistent approach to both of these two dimensions.

System
Kitbox is a new approach to the existing idea of the kitchen. The system provides a kitchen that you don’t adapt to but it adapts to you. The kitchen is redefined as a series of modular, integrated units that resemble the actual kitchen. The system is target to specific niches but it can be expanded and used by everyone. The system can open new business opportunities with strategic partners

Identity in flow

redesigning the airport experience

Milan, Italy. December 2006

Identity in flow is a system that takes place in an airport, where many different people come into contact and bring their identities into the space with them and how the space can suggest and adapt to the user needs.

Brief
Our identities are changing due to our constant exposure to enabling technologies. Our old physical identities, fixed to a house, an address, a tax number, private, detached, individual, introvert, seems increasingly at odds with our new electronic identities, mobile, self-published, publicly exposed, extrovert, shared, accessible, communal. Evaluate the evolution of hardware, software and services paradigms through these lenses: Social angents of... integration, collaboration, activism, control, play and network.

System flow
In fig.2 (right) is the system flow of a person. This is how the system works as a service with touch-pints. It starts with people having identities and bringing them into a space. With each identity a person bring a unique configuration to every space. The space takes part of the identity and can do main things: Suggest, the system can indicate, recommend, remind, give options, etc. Adapt, and change according to the preferences or needs of each user. The person then reacts to these events and emits a behavior.

Scenario
The scenario is about changing the airport experience. Your boarding-pass becomes your primary identity inside the airport and how it gives you access to different types of personalized information. There is a different level of dialogue and communication to the user: one more explicit through airport screens and the second more implicit through a personal device. The airport adapts to user needs and it suggets, indicate, remind, etc.

Hop-in

ride-sharing service

Milan, Italy. December 2006

A ride-sharing service that facilitates on-demand encounters between drivers(with their own cars) and ride-seekers.The service involves the city as an active player providing benefits to the driver as well as security to the users. The service enhances the social in-car encounters between drivers & seekers.

Brief
Explore the research framework of SMART MOBILITY intended as a complex system that includes at least three main elements: 1 the VEHICLE as the main interface between human beings and services; 2 the INFORMATION and SERVICE NETWORK as enabler of personal/social activities;3 the ENVIRONMENT, the physical infrastructure intended as a connective tissue linking personal behaviours and network.

Objective
Transform the car ride into a new social platform. Reducing car usage among cities
Efficiently distributing values for all the key players of the service (the city, ride givers and ride seekers)
Democratic, open source ideals. Free, trust and reputation based economy
Safe and practical benefits. Social - meeting new people, sharing and giving
On demand and ubiquitous p2p supported network

Scenario
in this scenario you can see a day in the life of little Judy. She just found out about hop-in and she tries it out. First by logging into the service, looking for a ride, and finally enjoying the ride. On the other hand, Rachel is the ride-giver that its on it's way shopping and she finds out she has some extra time. Rachel then decides to broadcast herself as available, and later on she picks up Judy. Rachel obtains a more pleasant driving experience and she gains points for municipality use (free parking, discount on tolls, etc).

Colour cloud

hands on design

Milan, Italy. December 2006

Color cloud is an interactive installation that spits magic seeds from a color changing cloud into a magic pond (a floor projection) that later will display a series of animations of growing flowers. The interaction is through a handle attached to the cloud that you just have to pull and a the cloud will begin changing colors, spitting seeds into the pond and starts incrementing the sound of the song "She's like a rainbow of the Rolling Stones".

Brief
This project was completed as part of the physical interaction design course taught by Massimo Banzi in May 2006. The assignment was to build an sketch installation in one week, based on the retail context.

Technologies and source code:
Arduino source code
Eyesweb patch (source code)
Flash source
flosc
serial proxy

How it works
RGB numbers are sent through the arduino board to the stirp of LEDs that its in the cloud for the color changing. The cloud is activated by a tilt sensor that lies inside of it, powering also the spitting-seeds motor. At the same time, the arduino board is writing the same data into the serial port. Flash later will read this numbers using the serial-proxy and use them for two reasons: paint the flower of the same color of the cloud and control the volume. The server is running eyesweb that is tracking the position of the seeds that land on the projection. Eyesweb sends this data to flash via OSC in a XML like format with FLOSC. Flash receives this data for later knowing exactly where to draw the animation of the flower. Finally, whenever a seed lands into the pond, a flower is drawn.

Components:
arduino board octocoplers usb webcam projector RGB LED strip cloud plastic container DC motor tilt sensor usb extension cables x 2 mosfets x 3 seeds server speakers

Ring my bell

mobile social networking

Milan, Italy. December 2006

Sometimes we get absorbed by computers and we don´t pay attention to any other action surrounding us. Ring my bell is project that brings the metaphor of interrupting a task with the sound (or annoyance) of a bell (sometimes used by maids, at restaurants or hospitals). When you ring this magic bell, your partner's computer screen will start vibrating and emitting ding! ding! sounds making it impossible for she/he to continue working :p

Brief
This project was completed as part of the physical interaction design course taught by Massimo Banzi in May 2006. The assignment was to create a one day prototype using a usb keyboard hack and parts of cheap chinese toys.

Technology
When the bell is played, the clapper activates a low tech circuit as it makes contact with the inside walls of the bell (covered with alluminium foil). This action will trigger a signal that will go through an octocopler (the octocopler transforms this signal into a switch) that will activate the remote control of the chinese hacked toy tank. The signal will travel wirelessly until it reaches the chinese hacked toy tank that instead of moving forward will activate a keypress into the usb hacked keyboard. This keypress is read in the computer with Flash that will react by shaking the screen and emitting annoying bell sounds.

Components
usb keyboard hack
remote controlled tank
low tech sensor (bell covered with alluminium)
remote controlled base for tank
octocopler x 2
cow bell
cardboard
laptop computer

Send me a kiss

mobile social networking

Milan, Italy. December 2006

Sometimes we get absorbed by computers and we don´t pay attention to any other action surrounding us. Ring my bell is project that brings the metaphor of interrupting a task with the sound (or annoyance) of a bell (sometimes used by maids, at restaurants or hospitals). When you ring this magic bell, your partner's computer screen will start vibrating and emitting ding! ding! sounds making it impossible for she/he to continue working :p

Brief
This project was completed as part of the physical interaction design course taught by Massimo Banzi in May 2006. The assignment was to create a one day prototype using a usb keyboard hack and parts of cheap chinese toys.

Technology
When the bell is played, the clapper activates a low tech circuit as it makes contact with the inside walls of the bell (covered with alluminium foil). This action will trigger a signal that will go through an octocopler (the octocopler transforms this signal into a switch) that will activate the remote control of the chinese hacked toy tank. The signal will travel wirelessly until it reaches the chinese hacked toy tank that instead of moving forward will activate a keypress into the usb hacked keyboard. This keypress is read in the computer with Flash that will react by shaking the screen and emitting annoying bell sounds.

Components
usb keyboard hack
remote controlled tank
low tech sensor (bell covered with alluminium)
remote controlled base for tank
octocopler x 2
cow bell
cardboard
laptop computer

Style.it

web redesign

Turin, August 2007

A web redesign for the one of Conde Nast companies in Italy. Style.it is based on the design of Style.com. This project was done in Experientia.

Requirements
The client was looking for the proper way of merging 3 of their biggest magazine websites: Vogue, Vanity Fair and Glamour under one common visual language.
The final look and feel is a fresh modern website that can easily be tweaked to be either upscale or mainstream. Big images and clever advertising made the site into a very bold and consistent communication medium.

Technology
The client was very interested in exploring new ideas of promoting community building and social networking. Special attention was dedicated to the blog and forums section. The site was build using a CMS, HTML, CSS and flash.

Hacienda de ovando

web design and corporate identity

Puebla, Mexico. 2008

Hacienda San Pedro de Ovando is an old Mexican Hacienda located in the central part of Mexico. Dating from the XVIII century, the client just renovated it seeking a new kind of business converting the Hacienda into a mixture of boutique hotel and eco-tourism.

Requirements
The client was looking for a very classical branding, pushing the idea of eco-tourism and renovated facilities at the same time.

Results
The deliverables were a corporate identity guidebook including the detail execution of several communications as well as a precise way of the logo, typography and color usage.

The color palette is mainly of green and warm colors combined with a serif font to bring the classical look and feel. The logo, is a combination of an antique O with a ligature.

The website was made in HTML, CSS and flash.

Eidon

corporate identity - print

Mexico. September 2008

This design was made for the launch of Eidon software, one of Mexico's biggest software factories. The challenge was to communicate in a spontaneous and bold way the beginning of a new era for a big enterprise. Another challenge was that Eidon is the merger of other 4 software companies.

Deliverables
The final campaing was inspired by the natural elements. The simplicity, beauty and equilibrium were all part of the brand core values - making this analogy fit in a perfect way.

Big green

web redesign

Vancouver, Canada 2005

Design proposal for Big Green corporate website

Onni

web redesign

Vancouver, Canada 2005

Series of redesigns of corporate flash websites for the canadian market. (Architecture and Real State)

HP corporate

print and web

Mexico city, Mexico 2004-2005

Series of corporate executions for HP spanning from magazine ads to Intranets. This was made for both the Imaging and Printing Group and Corporate Solutions Group.

HP Marketing Communications intranet for the enterprise and small and medium business segments. The main objective was to communicate Worldwide initiatives, offer key tools to marketing and sales force. This intranet was made with HTML, JAVASCRIPT, CSS, MYSQL, and JAVA.

HP print

print

Mexico city, Mexico 2005

Series of print executions for HP SMB (Small Medium Business) segment. The common denominator in these executions are the warm-colorful approach and the usage of illustrations.

HP creative

print

Mexico city, Mexico 2004

Series of posters (90*60 cm) representing HP Mexico key strategic alliances in the corporate market segment. Clients like:
- nextel
- inegi
- cervecería cuauhtemoc moctezuma
- grupo peñoles
- accival
- banco azteca
- profeco
- tequila herradura
- roche

HP mission space

web-flash

Mexico city, Mexico 2005

Flash website forHP top accounts as an electronic invitation to HP's Golf tournament at Orlando Florida.
Role: Website designer and developer.

CII-BID

web-flash

Washington, US 2004

Flash site for CII. A company that promotes and supports the development of the private sector and the capital markets in its Latin American and Caribbean member countries by investing, lending, innovating, and leveraging resources as the institution charged with fostering the development of small and medium-size enterprises to further sustainable economic development.

Louis Vuitton

print

Mexico city, Mexico 2005

Invitation and series of tiles for LV Mexico.

Czerwony

print

Puebla, Mexico 2006

Corporate identity for the restaurant Czerwony.

Illustrations

print

Mexico city, Mexico 2000-2006

Illustration demonstrating HP's Adaptive Enterprise Business model for a business magazine.