Welcome to my website!

There’s a few major themes you’ll find here!

• Designing Paper-based Productivity Tools – I make popular tracking tools like the Emergent Task Planner in the Productivity Tools section. I emphasize concrete metrics that reveal trends over time without requiring a lot of tedious data entry. I hate ugly forms, so I try to make them as nice as possible by applying principles of visual hierarchy to make information clear and beautiful.
• Challenge of Creative Development –  I wish I was faster/better/stronger at a lot of things, and I try to maintain a positive attitude. I find learning and making new things really hard; I think it’s good to share my experience so other people on this path might know they are not alone.
• Making-Up Experiments, Projects, and Processes – When I’m stuck in a challenge, I turn it into an experiment to gather more data. Even if the challenge fails, the experiment always wins because experimental data has been acquired! Also, it’s fun to apply what I know about science, graphic design, computer programming, and psychology in novel and amusing ways :)

I strive to provide an accurate description of how I formulate and work-through challenges. Like a lot of people, I have to train myself to work through uncertainty and find my way. I believe that it’s super important to show that you don’t need to be perfect to make something cool that empowers yourself and the people you care about. Or more succinctly stated: Sharing is caring!

About DSri

As a kid I liked to write and draw. I drews lots of pictures of spaceships.

Later I spent a lot of time on my Apple II, learning to read machine language and draw computer graphics. For college I almost picked English as a major, but decided to pursue computer engineering and graphics design as part of my master plan to make lots of video games with spaceships. In the mid 1990s, I was part of a tiny startup game company in the Boston area to make a game called Crixa, and after that company folded I moved to Florida to work at Electronic Arts. I soon realized that I was not a good fit for the industry, and after a lot of painful soul searching I left the business entirely to practice interactive design.

These days I work as a freelance designer/developer using video game technology for Learning Sciences research software and interactive installations, currently with Javascript and NodeJS. I also have a side hustle selling versions of my productivity tools on Amazon.

On a personal note, I’m a second-generation Taiwanese American living in Southern New Hampshire about 40 miles north of Boston. I’m transitioning from the name “Dave” to “Sri” (pronounced SREEE), which is a long story in itself. My preferred pronouns are they/them.

I really like curry, daylight-balanced lighting, hats, cats, select rodents, gadgets that work better upside-down, temperature control of all kinds, and gear that is obsessively designed to provide utility that empowers people. I especially like excellence-seeking positive-minded people who are generous, conscientious, curious, and kind.