📌 Project: Defense, Automotive & Immersive UX Systems
👤 Role: Industrial Fabricator · UX/UI Pioneer · Human Factors Specialist
🏢 Company: Applied Minds (Multi-disciplinary design & technology innovation studio)
📆 Timeline: Feb 2004 – Nov 2008
⚡ Focus: Defense · Aerospace · Automotive · Human Factors Research
🛠 Services: UI · UX · CX · User Research · Prototyping & Fabrication
🎯 Impact: Designed and prototyped advanced interfaces for high-stakes environments, including General Motors’ situational awareness dashboard, earning the 2007 GM Concept Award. Delivered UI for Northrop Grumman’s Portable Command Center, 2.5D Terrain Table, and TouchTable visualization systems, shaping future battlefield and aerospace workflows. Contributed to immersive and experimental experiences for Sony, NASA, and Apple, merging storytelling, design, and engineering. Combined hands-on fabrication with human factors research to pioneer interaction systems that influenced next-gen automotive and defense UX.
2.5D Terrain Table
I worked as an industrial fabricator on a terrain table featuring a touch-enabled menu system and over 3,500 pins that adjust to geo data coordinates. In the video, you can see how selecting a location causes the map to focus and visualize elevation data. This allows users to understand geographic information without language barriers. The device has numerous applications.
TouchTable
As an industrial fabricator at AMI, I built these tables from scratch in the workshop. The TouchTable is an advanced system where multiple users can visualize, navigate and analyze large amounts of information. Two or more TouchTables can be networked, allowing people in different locations to work together in a common virtual space.
One of my first projects at AMI involved developing intellectual property for car concepts for GM. Below, you can see early innovations in user experience design, including personalized navigation and audio, as well as safety considerations like reach radius and line of sight. Applied Minds' advanced technology R&D for GM culminated in the creation of a full driving demonstration vehicle, featuring groundbreaking interfaces that were novel at the time but are now standard in many production vehicles.
GM Car Design: Reach Radius, Line of Sight Safety
Safety Heat Map of Car Zones
Measurements of IC and Console
Flash Info Visualization displaying Reach Areas
Early TouchScreen Console UI
Early Touch UI with Primary Actions
HVAC UI Concept for Temp & Strength
HDD UI Concept for Audio
IC Concept Persona Type 1
IP Car Concepts Industrial Build
Fabrication In-car Mockup Placement
Future facing in-car concept
Navigation IP Concepts
GM hired us to design a new navigation experience for an 8-inch diameter screen. Given the limited space and the novelty of touch screens at the time, we developed side-rollout menus to maximize functionality. Our design incorporated features like navigation, points of interest, and personalization, which were key initiatives.
GM Car Concept Address Entry
In 2003, touch-enabled interfaces were limited to 9 keystrokes before lockout due to NHTSA safety concerns. Despite the primitive look of the UI in Flash, we developed workaround concepts using predictive text entry to find destinations with fewer keystrokes.
IP Digital Flywheel Song selector
Finding new ways to streamline tasks made combining innovation with personalization exciting in my early career. Here, you can see a Flash-animated concept showcasing how virtual dials could be used to select songs.
GM Personalization IP Concepts
Before smartphones, the first touch screens were in cars with limited functions. Here you can see several concepts around user personalization including wallpapers and presets