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Dossier presented for: Promotion to Associate Professor and Tenure
Aaron Ganci Department of Visual Communication Herron School of Art and Design
Area of excellence: Research Sections in the sample dossier: In this order: CV Candidate’s statement Research statement Examples of significant research Research load expectations and goals Future plans Individual contributions to collaboration… Significance of grants and awards Teaching statement Teaching load and goals Disseminated scholarship on teaching and learning Service statement Other sections exist in the dossier but were not included here:
• Sections where there is only a repeat of the CV entries • Student evaluations • Peer evaluations
Note that a majority of candidates chose to have one combined candidate statement (7 pages total) rather than a separate statement in different sections. These are not included:
• Internal review letters (chair, department committee, school committee, dean) • External letters • Appendices
1 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
Aaron Ganci, MFA
[email protected] | 614-460-9580 cell 154 Eskenazi Hall, 735 W New York St, Indianapolis, IN 46202
EDUCATION
GraduateThe Ohio State University Master of Fine Arts December 2011
UndergraduateEastern Illinois University Bachelor of Arts May 2006
APPOINTMENTS
AcademicIndiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Assistant Professor August 2012–PresentThe Ohio State University Lecturer January-March 2012The Ohio State University Graduate Teaching Associate Sept 2009–June 2011
Non-AcademicOnline Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) User Interface Designer June 2010–May 2015Omni Communications Group (Springfield, IL) Graphic Designer, Creative Director May 2006–July 2009
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIPS * All completed in rank
* AIGA 2009–Present* Interaction Design Association (IxDA) 2009–Present* College Art Association (CAA) 2011-2013
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT * All completed in rank
Motion Design Education Summit 2017 MODE+Ohio State 7–10 June 2017
AIGA Design Educators Conference: Converge AIGA 1–3 June 2017
Public and Engaged Scholarship to Support Excellence IUPUI Academic Affairs 24 January 2017
Dossier Preparation Workshop IUPUI Academic Affairs 22 November 2016
Excellence in Research Workshop IUPUI Academic Affairs 11 October 2016
AIGA Design Educators Conference: Frontier AIGA 7–9 October 2016
AIGA Design Educators Conference: Nuts + Bolts AIGA 15–16 June 2016
Interaction 16 IxDA 1–4 March 2016
2016 IxDA Education Summit IxDA 27–28 February 2016
Design Incubation Colloquium Design Incubation 17 January 2016
National Speaker Series: Aaron Draplin AIGA Indianapolis 12 November 2015
Midway to Tenure workshop IUPUI Academic Affairs 25 August 2015
2 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CONTINUED) * All completed in rank
Tectonic Shifts FATE 25–28 March 2015
CAA Annual Conference CAA 12–13 February 2015
NordDesign 2014: Creating Together The Design Society 27–29 August 2014
Midwest UX 2014 Conference Midwest UX 23–25 October 2014
Connecting Dots: Research, Education, Practice Conference AIGA 14–15 March 2014
Navigating the Reappointment and Tenure Journey Workshop AIGA 13 March 2014
Head, Heart Hand Design Conference AIGA 11–13 October 2013
Dossier Preparation Workshop IUPUI Academic Affairs 8 October 2013
Motion Design Education Summit 2013 MODE+Notre Dame 26–28 April 2013
Teaching
UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS (COURSE NAME LINKS TO COURSE WEBSITE)
Course Number Course Name Term Format Role Enrolled
HER-V 413 Digital Experience Design II SP 17 Studio Instructor 21
HER-V 413 Digital Experience Design II SP 17 Studio Instructor 11
HER-A 453 Independent Study SP 17 Ind. Study Advisor 1
HER-V 403 (8w2) Digital Experience Design I FA 16 Studio Instructor 21
HER-V 403 (8w2) Digital Experience Design I FA 16 Studio Instructor 11
HER-V 400 (8w1) Designing People-Centered Experiences FA 16 Studio Instructor 20
HER-V 400 (8w1) Designing People-Centered Experiences FA 16 Studio Instructor 11
HER-V 413 Digital Experience Design II SP 16 Studio Instructor 24
HER-V 302 (8w2) Production for Digital Design FA 15 Lecture Instructor 19
HER-V 302 (8w2) Production for Digital Design FA 15 Lecture Instructor 18
HER-V 302 (8w2) Production for Digital Design FA 15 Lecture Instructor 16
HER-V 403 (8w2) Digital Experience Design I FA 15 Studio Instructor 24
HER-V 400 (8w1) Designing People-Centered Experiences FA 15 Studio Co-Instructor 19
HER-L 210 Visual Design for the Web SU 15 Studio Instructor 8
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place II SP 15 Studio Instructor 18
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place II SP 15 Studio Instructor 18
HER-A 341 (8w2) Production for Digital Design FA 14 Lecture Instructor 13
HER-A 341 (8w1) Production for Digital Design FA 14 Lecture Instructor 16
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place I FA 14 Studio Instructor 20
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place I FA 14 Studio Instructor 18
HER-L 210 Visual Design for the Web SP 14 Studio Instructor 16
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place II SP 14 Studio Instructor 9
3 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
Course Number Course Name Term Format Role Enrolled
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place II SP 14 Studio Instructor 9
HER-A 453 Professional Practice Internship SP 14 Ind. Study Advisor 1
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place I FA 13 Studio Instructor 14
HER-V 410 VC5: Designing for Innovation FA 13 Studio Co-Instructor 19
HER-R 411 Advanced Visual Design for the Web FA 13 Studio Instructor 2
HER-R 201 Visual Design for the Web SP 13 Studio Instructor 12
HER-V 220 VC2: Design Methodology SP 13 Studio Instructor 15
HER-A 341 Production for Design FA 12 Lecture Co-Instructor 22
HER-V 311 Type and Image 3 FA 12 Studio Co-Instructor 22
GRADUATE TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS (COURSE NAME LINKS TO COURSE WEBSITE)
Course Number Course Name Term Format Role Enrolled
HER-V 692 Graduate Thesis Writing SP 17 Studio Instructor 1
HER-R 511 Visual Design for the Web (Grad level) SU 15 Studio Instructor 3
HER-V 692 Graduate Thesis Writing SP 15 Studio Instructor 3
HER-V 693 Graduate Thesis Studio SP 15 Studio Instructor 3
HER-V 691 Graduate Thesis Studio FA 14 Studio Instructor 3
HER-V 501 Intro to Design Thinking FA 13 Seminar Instructor 5
HER-V 502 Intro to Human Factors in Design FA 13 Seminar Instructor 6
HER-R 511 Visual Design for the Web (Grad level) SP 13 Studio Instructor 2
MENTORING * All completed in rank
Thesis Committee Advising
Student Role Dates
Ed Siefred MFA Thesis Committee Chair October 2016–May 2017
Lisa Semidey MFA Thesis Committee Member October 2016–May 2017
Jiacheng Rong MFA Thesis Committee Member October 2016–May 2017
Adrienne Brown MFA Thesis Committee Member [Thesis] December 2015–May 2016
Galo Carrion MFA Thesis Committee Member [Thesis] December 2015–May 2016
Nicholas Walters MFA Thesis Committee Chair [Thesis] October 2014–June 2015
Kaelyn Donnelly MFA Thesis Committee Member [Thesis] October 2014–May 2015
Arthur Liu PhD Committee Member [Dissertation] December 2013–May 2015
Ashley Davis MFA Thesis Committee Member [Thesis] December 2012–May 2013
Jo Lam MFA Thesis Committee Member December 2012–May 2013
4 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
Graduate Assistantship & Fellowship AdvisingStudent Role Dates
Stephany Stamatis Graduate Fellowship Advisor January 2017–May 2017
Ed Siefred Graduate Fellowship Advisor January 2016–May 2016
Nicholas Walters Graduate Fellowship Advisor January 2015–May 2015
Prianka Rayamajhi Service Learning Graduate Assistant Advisor August 2013–December 2013
Emily Stump Graduate Fellowship Advisor January 2013–May 2013
Undergraduate Honor AdvisingStudent Role Dates
Briana Campbell Undergraduate Honors Project Advisor January 2017–May 2017
Devan Himstedt Undergraduate Honors Project Advisor January 2017–May 2017
Eli Crow Undergraduate Honors Project Advisor October 2015–December 2015
Marina Pappamichel Undergraduate Honors Project Advisor August 2013-April 2014
Sarah Herbert Undergraduate Honors Project Advisor August 2012-December 2013
Kaitlyn Robison Undergraduate Honors Project Advisor August 2012-December 2013
GRANTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
Completed Teaching GrantsTitle Granting Agency Role Amount Dates
* Service Learning Assistant Scholarship IUPUI Center for Service and Learning Mentor $4,500 August 2013
* Course Development Grant IUPUI Center for Service and Learning PI $3,000 May 2013
REFEREED PRESENTATIONS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
NationalTitle Venue Date + Location
* Designing Digital Experiences Workshop [Link] [REFEREED]
University and College Designers Association (UCDA) Workshop Series
5 November 2016
Indianapolis, IN
* Becoming more than makers: the case to balance hard and soft skills in design foundations [Link]
[PEER REVIEWED]
Tectonic Shifts: Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE) 2015 National Biennial
26 March 2015
Indianapolis, IN
* Design for the Dynamic Web Workshop [Link]
[PEER REVIEWED]
Kent State University School of Visual Communication Design
18-19 October 2014 Kent, OH
5 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
REFEREED PRESENTATIONS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING (CONTINUED)
InternationalTitle Venue Date + Location
* The Forest and Its Trees: Understanding interaction design through service design activities [Link] [INVITED]
Interaction Design Association (IxDA) Interaction 16 Education Summit
28 February 2016
Helsinki, Finland
INVITED PRESENTATIONS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
LocalTitle Venue Date + Location
* Faculty–Student Mentorships [INVITED]
IUPUI Innovation and Entrepre-neurship Summer Bridge Program
14 August 2017
Indianapolis, IN
* Using Visual Design to Improve User Experience (or The Importance of Visual Hierarchy) [INVITED]
IUPUI School of Informatics, Depart-ment of Human-Computer Interac-tion
18 September 2014
Indianapolis, IN
* Working in the digital design industry
[INVITED]
AIGA Herron Student Group 7 November 2012
Indianapolis, IN
Research + Creative Activity
FUNDING IN RESEARCH + CREATIVE ACTIVITY
Total Funding in Research + Creative Activity (in-rank) $204,613
Active Research FundingTitle Granting Agency Role Amount Dates
* Smart Inhaler Mobile App Project Funding
Indiana Clinical and Translational
Sciences Institute (CTSI)
Consultant $4,500 July 2017– Oct 2017
* All IN Research and Health website Indiana Clinical and Translational
Sciences Institute (CTSI)
Consultant $5,000 July 2017– Oct 2017
* InterACT: A mHealth Intervention to Improve Antihypertensive Medication Taking and Timing Adherence in CKD using real-time feedback
Indiana University School of
Nursing, Beverly Flynn Award
Co-I (20%) $30,000 July 2017– June 2018
6 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
* Development and Testing of Real-time Antihypertensive Medication Adherence Feedback Messages in CKD: InterACT mHealth Intervention
Sigma Theta Tau International
Alpha Chapter
Co-I (20%) $2,500 May 2017– April 2018
* Development of InterACT-Intervention (mHealth) to promote medication adherence and blood pressure control in CKD
Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness at IU School of Nursing
Co-PI (20%) $75,000 Oct 2016– June 2018
Total Active Funding $117,000
Completed Research FundingTitle Granting Agency Role Amount Dates
* Braincare Notes IU Foundation (PI: Dr. Malaz Boutani, IUSoM)
Consultant $3,000 Oct 2016– April 2017
* Testing-as-a-Service: Static Code Analysis (SCA) Tool Study – Phase 2 & 3
S2ERC (Northrop Grumman) Consultant $9,000 May–Aug 2016
* Faculty Travel Grant Herron School of Art and Design PI $1,500 Feb 2016
* Overseas Conference Grant IUPUI OVPIA PI $800 Feb 2016
* Frank C.. Springer Family Innovative Faculty Award
Herron School of Art and Design PI $5,518 2015-2016
* IAHI Travel and Resource Support Grant
IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute PI $4,995 Aug 2014–June 2015
* Faculty Travel Grant Herron School of Art and Design PI $1,500 Aug 2014
* IU School of Medicine Work/Life Portal Project Funding
IUSM, American Council on Education & Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Consultant $7,500 Nov 2013– Aug 2014
* Faculty Travel Grant Herron School of Art and Design PI $1,000 Sep 2013
* History of Western Medicine in China Web Portal
Luce Foundation, IUPUI Dept. of History
Consultant $3,850 Feb 2013
* YouthMove Indiana Project Funding IU School of Medicine Consultant $1.700 Nov 2012–May 2013
* Faculty Travel Grant Herron School of Art and Design PI $1,500 Nov 2012
Total Completed Funding $41,863
FUNDING IN RESEARCH + CREATIVE ACTIVITY (CONTINUED)
7 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
Completed Commissioned Projects (Private Funding)Title Granting Agency Role Amount Dates
* Mobile and Web App Design Simeio Solutions Designer $5,750 Oct–Dec 2016
* WorldCat Discovery and QuestionPoint
Online Computer Library Center Designer $40,000 Aug 2012– May 2015
Total Commission Funding $45,750
Rejected Research GrantsTitle Granting Agency Role Amount Dates
* Research and Creative Activity
Grant - Category C
IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute PI $3,191 Mar 2016
* New Exploratory Travel Fellowship Indiana University PI $3,566 Oct 2015
* New Frontiers Experimentation
Fellowship
Indiana University PI $14,983 2015–2016
REFEREED PRESENTATIONS IN RESEARCH
LocalTitle Venue Date + Location
* Visualizing Progress: Designing a people-centered Implementa-tion Dashboard for Plan 2020 [Link] [REFEREED]
2015 CityCorps Fellowship Symposium
16 Sep 2015
Indianapolis, IN
* Participatory Innovation: A Pedagogical Approach to Help Student Reveal Real-World Problems [Link]
[REVIEWED]
2014 IUPUI Research Day 11 April 2014
Indianapolis, IN
NationalTitle Venue Date + Location
* The Designer of 2025 (panel) [Link][PEER REVIEWED]
2017 AIGA National Conference 12 October 2017 Minneapolis, MN
* Designing Complex Research: Using Experience Design to Plan and Organize Collaborations with the STEM and Healthcare fields [Link] [PEER REVIEWED]
2017 AIGA Design Educators Conference: Converge
1 June 2017 Los Angeles, CA
*Twenty-First Century Design Scholarship (roundtable) [Link][PEER REVIEWED]
2016 AIGA Design Educators Conference: Nuts + Bolts
15 June 2016 Bowling Green, OH
* Designing Digital Experiences in 2020 [Link][PEER REVIEWED]
2016 AIGA Design Educators Conference: Nuts + Bolts
15 June 2016 Bowling Green, OH
FUNDING IN RESEARCH + CREATIVE ACTIVITY (CONTINUED)
8 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
* The Work/Life Portal: An Innovative Tool for Faculty Benefits & Policies [Link][PEER REVIEWED]
2014 Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Faculty Affairs Conference
19 July 2014 Boston, MA
* Using participatory design research to help students
propose and design new applications [Link][PEER REVIEWED]
2013 AIGA National Conference: Head, Heart, Hand
10 October 2013 Minneapolis, MN
* From Content to Code: How Responsive Design Supports the Core Business [Link]
[PEER REVIEWED]
2013 Amigos Library Services Online conference: HTML5 & CSS3 Ready for Prime Time
2 December 2012 Online
InternationalTitle Venue Date + Location
* Exploring the curricular relationship between service experience design and interaction design [Link] [PEER REVIEWED]
NordDesign 2014 27 August 2014 Espoo, Finland
* Becoming a team player: the evolving role of design in agile development [Link]
[PEER REVIEWED]
2013 Design Principles and Practices Conference
8 March 2013 Chiba, Japan
INVITED PRESENTATIONS IN RESEARCH
LocalTitle Venue Date + Location
* Collaborations between InterACT Health and Think It Make It Lab
Indiana State Congressional Budget Committee Luncheon
13 June 2017
Indianapolis, IN
* Journey Mapping for Strategy SmallBox Design Agency 25 May 2017 Indianapolis, IN
* People-centered design inside technology research IU School of Medicine Wearable Technology Group
20 October 2015 Indianapolis, IN
* The Web and You [Link] AIGA Herron Student Group 7 October 2015 Indianapolis, IN
* Smarter User Interfaces [Link] Indy UX Salon 26 February 2015 Indianapolis, IN
NationalTitle Venue Date + Location
* Designing Digital Experiences in 2021 [Link] Millersville University Department of Art & Design Day of Design 2017
1 February 2017 Online
* Designing Desirable Products [Link] University of Central Arkansas’ Graphic Design Program
8 October 2015 Online
REFEREED PRESENTATIONS IN RESEARCH (CONTINUED)
9 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
AWARDS IN RESEARCH
Title Venue Year
* Design Incubation Fellow Design Incubation 2016
* Indianapolis CityCorp Fellow City of Indianapolis 2015
ServiceUNIVERSITY SERVICE * All completed in-rank
Department* Assistant Professor of VCD Search Committee Member Jan–Apr 2015
* Graduate Curriculum Committee Member Aug 2012–present
School* Herron Academic Affairs & Assessment Committee Elected Chair Aug 2017–present
* Herron Academic Affairs & Assessment Committee Elected Member Aug 2016–July 2017
* Herron Website Committee Member Nov 2015–Dec 2016
* Dean’s Advisory Board Guest Speaker 18 December 2014
* Herron Admissions Committee Member Dec 2012–June 2016
* 2014 Herron Open House Open House Portfolio Reviewer 27 September 2014
* 2013 Herron Open House Portfolio Reviewer 5 October 2013
* 2013 Spring Discovery Day Workshop Leader 11 April 2013
* Herron School of Art + Design High School Recruiter 3 December 2012
* 2012 Herron Open House Portfolio Reviewer 28 September 2012
University* IUPUI Campus Planning Committee Committee Member Aug 2014–present
* Dean Eickmeier Administrative Review Committee Member Aug 2016–Jun 2017
* IUPUI General Education Task force Member Aug 2013–Apr 2014
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE * All completed in-rank
Local* Open Indy Brigade Advisory Board Member March 2017–present
* AIGA Herron Student Group Faculty Advisor June 2014–present
Regional* Midwest UX 2014 Conference Event Site Advisor Jan 2013–Oct 2013
10 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE (CONTINUED) * All completed in-rank
National* Design and Culture Journal Journal Peer Reviewer May 2017
* 2018 AIGA Design Educators Conference Co-Director Apr 2017–Aug 2018
* AIGA Design Educators Community Exec. Steering Committee Member Jul 2016–present
* AIGA Dialectic Journal Journal Peer Reviewer March 2017
* AIGA Design Educators Community Converge Conference Peer Reviewer February 2017
* University and College Designers Association (UCDA) Conference Peer Reviewer February 2015
* Studies in Material Thinking Journal Journal Peer Reviewer November 2014
* AIGA Design Educators Community Grant Peer Reviewer February 2014
* AIGA Design Educators Community Beta software tester December 2013
International* 2017 Motion Design Education Summit (MODE) Student Competition Chair, Organizer Aug 2016–Jul 2017
* International Journal of Visual Design Journal Peer Reviewer August 2013
* Int’l Journal of Design Management and Pro. Practice Journal Peer Reviewer July 2013
Publications
TEACHING
Refereed* Ganci, Aaron. 2013. “Finding Real Problems: Using participatory design research to help students propose and
design new applications.” Proceedings of AIGA Educators Conferences at Head, Heart, Hand (AIGA National Conference).
(PI and sole author) [Link]
RESEARCH
Refereed Book Chapters* Ganci, Aaron. 2015. “Rethinking Visual Language in the Digital Future.” Chapter in Spellbound: Rethinking the Alphabet.
By Craig McDaniel and Jean Robertson. Intellect Lt. (sole author) [Link]
Refereed Journal Articles* Ganci, Aaron and Micheal Lahey. 2017. “Uncovering the importance of soft skills in user interface design”.
Communication Design: Interdisciplinary and Graphic Design Research. Special Issue (2017) (Under review)
(50% Co-author)
* Ganci, Aaron and Bruno Ribeiro. 2017. “On Web Brutalism and contemporary web design”. Dialectic: A scholarly
journal of thought leadership, education and practice in the discipline of visual communication design. 1:1.
(50% Co-author) [Link]
11 * Indicates completion while in rank
Aaron Ganci Curriculum Vitae
Refereed Journal Articles (continued)* Ganci, Aaron and John McCullough. 2015. “OCLC on the Responsive Web.” Library Technology Reports. 5:7. 44-47.
American Library Association TechSource. (Sole author, editorial guidance from McCullugh) [Link]
* Ganci, Aaron and Bruno Ribeiro. 2014. “Becoming a team player: the evolving role of design in agile development.”
The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice. 7:2. 11-24. (50% Co-author) [Link]
Refereed Conference Proceeding Articles* Ganci, Aaron and Youngbok Hong.2014. “Exploring the curricular relationship between service experience design
and interaction design” Proceedings of NordDesign 2014 Conference. 54-64. (50% Co-author) [Link]
Stone, R. Brian. Ganci, Aaron, Bruno Ribeiro, R. Brian Stone, and Rajiv Ramnath. 2011. “Exploring Collaboration
between Computer Science Engineers and Visual Communication Designers in Educational Settings.” Design
Education for Creativity and Business Innovation. Proc. of The 13th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design
Education. 460-65. [Link]
Stone, R. Brian, Lindsay Beach, Ganci, Aaron, Taurean Jones, Bruno Ribeiro, Emily Strouse and Elise Woolley. 2011.
“Learning Through Touch: A Co-participation Interactive Learning Module for Children with Autism.” Design
Education for Creativity and Business Innovation. Proc. of The 13th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design
Education. 684-689. [Link]
Herold, Michael, Ganci, Aaron, Rajiv Ramnath, and Bruno Ribeiro. 2011. “Work in Progress – Computer Science
Perspectives on Integration with Human-Centered Design.” Paper presented at 2011 Frontiers in Education
Conference, Rapid City, SD, 12-15 October 2011. [Link]
Refereed Book Reviews
* Ganci, Aaron. 2017. “Book Review: Taking [A]part: The Politics and Aesthetics of Participation in Experience-
Centered Design, by John McCarthy and Peter Wright”. Design and Culture. 9:1. (sole author) [Link]
Refereed Blog Articles
* Ganci, Aaron. 2016. “On design scholarship, the struggle to write, and Design Incubation” AIGA Design Educators
Community Blog. 12 February 2016. http://educators.aiga.org/on-design-scholarship-the-struggle-to-write-and-
design-incubation. (sole author) [Link]
Non-Refereed
Benzenberg, Elizabeth, Allen Cochran, Kelly DeVore, Erin Duncan, Ganci, Aaron, Bruno Ribeiro, ed. 2012. Stir
Symposium Proceedings. [Link]
Ganci, Aaron. 2011. “Redefining the Textbook: A User-centered Approach to the Creation, Management and Delivery
of Digital Course Content in Higher Education.” MFA diss, The Ohio State University. [Link]
1 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Candidate Statement
Aaron Ganci, MFA Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design, Herron School of Art and Design - IUPUI
154 Eskenazi Hall, 735 W New York St, Indianapolis, IN 46202 / [email protected] / 317-278-9443
INTRODUCTION
I respectfully submit this narrative and accompanying dossier to demonstrate my qualifications
for tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. My time at the Herron School of
Art and Design and IUPUI has been a period of tremendous growth. Before my appointment
in 2012, I was engaged in a diverse set of professional design activities—including advertising,
branding, web design, and software design—which provided me with a unique perspective on
both design practice and education. Through the following materials, I will outline the quality
and impact of my performance during my time as Assistant Professor of Visual Communication
Design at Herron. My declared area of excellence is research and creative activity. While I will
place emphasis on research in this narrative, I will demonstrate how my work in the three
areas of teaching, research, and service is necessarily interconnected.
RESEARCH & CREATIVE ACTIVITY
As a visual communication designer (VCD), I am interested in how the visual presentation of
information can enhance a viewer's understanding of the content. My research focuses on a
specific subset of VCD: user interface (UI) design. UI design overlaps with technology fields
(ex: human-computer interaction and computer science) and is concerned with the visual
presentation and organization of website and software interfaces, often referred to as digital
products. UI Design will have increasing significance in our society as the number of digital
interfaces we rely on continues to increase. UI Designers like myself work to ensure that web-
sites and software are usable, useful, and enjoyable for their users.
UI Design is one facet of a complicated digital production process and is in constant evolution.
Processes and output change at a rapid pace. These production environments can be foreign to
many designers, making it difficult for them to prepare for and navigate as professionals. It is
my objective to research the role and impact of visual communication design in the creation of
digital products and share that knowledge with the design community. I achieve this through a
three-pronged approach: 1. an active UI design practice 2. critical reflection on my process and
outcomes, and 3. dissemination of peer-reviewed scholarship that discusses the role of visual
design in digital design practice.
This method is called a practitioner-scholar approach. It is informed by Schön's Reflective Practitioner
Models and Boyer's Models of Scholarship which place emphasis not only on discovery but on the
integration of knowledge and application of that knowledge outside of academia. It is especially
effective when studying UI design as the field is evolving quickly. To fully understand the role of
design in digital environments, a researcher needs to be actively engaged in reflective practice.
STATEMENT
2 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Defining Excellence in Research The tenure guidelines in the Department of Visual Communication Design define faculty
research through three categories of work: professional practice (achievements in applied
practice), artistic work (achievements in artistic exhibition or commission), or scholarly
activity (achievements in generating new knowledge through scholarship). Due to the nature
and context of my work, I find it useful to connect two of the three categories—professional
practice and scholarly activity. Especially within the rapidly evolving field of UI design, it is
necessary to continuously use practice to inform academic scholarship.
While in rank, I have published 7 peer-reviewed publications (1 book chapter, 3 journal
articles, 2 conference papers, 1 book review)(CV p.10–11) and delivered 18 presentations (11
peer-reviewed and 7 invited)(CV p.7–9) on my research. By looking at the requirements for
scholarly activity alone, I have met the standards set by my school, which state: "The candidate
must provide evidence of...4-7 examples of new and significant research accomplishments in his own or related
fields...[and] should demonstrate excellence in terms of peer-reviewed standards in the discipline..." 1 .
My scholarly achievements are coupled with significant accomplishments in professional
practice. In a five-year span, I have contributed to 13 UI design projects that were supported
by $204,613 in grant or private funding 2. The tenure guidelines for professional activity state:
"Documentation should be provided for approximately 8 to 12 achievements and should demonstrate signifi-
cance in terms of peer-reviewed standards of excellence in the creative discipline."
As a practitioner, I use my expertise in VCD to create digital products that have an impact
on their users. In this context, impact refers to the product's ability to be useful and usable
in accomplishing a specific goal. In my case, I aim to create products that satisfy the goal of
taking action to improve one's life or community. I refer to this content as actionable information.
For example, I have designed products that enable people to connect to local service projects
(Plan 2020 3 ), change behaviors to improve their health (InterACT Health 4 ), and better their
lives through work/life benefits (IUSM Work/Life 5, 6 ).
The definition of significance in design practice can be interpreted broadly. Traditionally,
significance is achieved by producing award-winning designs. However, I define significance
through two different metrics that are more relevant to UI design: the number of impacted
users (measured through analytics 7 ), which totals over 100 million people (unique users)
and the amount of funding that I have been awarded to facilitate these projects, $204,613 (CV
p.5–7). This funding is either awarded through a competitive grant or is peer-reviewed and by a
design director or developer who has invited me to join a project.
I am proud of the work I have been able to accomplish while in rank and know that I have
had an impact on may people's lives. To help demonstrate that impact, I will discuss a few
significant examples of my research in the sections below.
Overview of Design Practice Professional practice is critical to my research and informs both my scholarly activity and my
teaching. The projects I work on come from a variety of sectors and the outcomes are just as
diverse. I have designed interfaces for mobile apps, web-based apps, and websites or portals.
A full list of projects, including their funding amount, aims, and user totals can be found on
page 4 of the Significance of grants and awards section. A few examples include:
1 See Research Load and Expectations, p.1 [Link]
2 See Significance of grants and awards, p.4 [Link]
3 See Examples of significant research, p.1 [Link]
4 See Significance of grants and awards, p.1 [Link]
5 See Examples of significant research, p.2 [Link]
6 See Significance of grants and awards, p.3 [Link]
7 See Significance of grants and awards, p.4 [Link]
3 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Plan 2020 Implementation Dashboard 8. A website I designed for the city of Indianapolis.
I was invited to work on this project through a refereed process. The site provides informa-
tion about more than 200 activities focused on improving Indy in measurable ways before
its bicentennial. On the site, citizens access information about how to get involved with
these activities and track the progress of the civic improvements.
Brackets for Good 9. A website that enables people to donate money to local charities
through a fun March Madness-style bracket game. In 2015, I was invited to provide guid-
ance on the design of the checkout process on their site. My design helped streamline the
process and increased successful checkouts by 22%.
S2ERC Static Code Analysis Tool 10. An application that I designed in partnership with
IUPUI Computer Science Professor James Hill. This tool enables software developers to
input code and checks it for security weaknesses. After the application scans the code, it
displays the results in a visual format. As a consultant on this project, my goal was to ensure
the design of these results is useful and usable.
Scholarship in Research
My peer-reviewed scholarship falls into two distinct categories: practice-driven scholarship
and theory-driven scholarship. In the sections below, I will discuss the reason for this
distinction and highlight the significance and impact of each category of work.
Practice-driven Scholarship My practice-driven scholarship is informed by individual projects, which are funded by either
grants or private funds, that enable me to use novel processes or develop unique outcomes.
I then reflect on my practice and disseminate scholarship about the project. A prime example
of this type of work is found in my collaboration with the Online Computer Library Center
(OCLC) in Dublin, Ohio. OCLC is a global library cooperative that has over 16,000 member
libraries in 113 countries. They are a leader in the digital library space. From 2012-2015, I was
invited to consult with the OCLC User Experience and User Interface group as a UI Design
expert. Working alongside their designers, I helped define a new visual framework that is being
implemented across many of their web applications. The framework that I designed establishes
a consistent visual language that enhances a user's ability to search and locate over 2 billion
local and global library item (books, articles, etc.) through the applications. These applications
are used by millions of people every month (approximately 3 million/month). We used a novel
process to integrate the visual framework into the apps, and I was able to disseminate knowl-
edge about that process. In the summer of 2015, I published a peer-reviewed article about the
experience titled “OCLC on the Responsive Web” in the American Library Association’s Journal Library
Technology Reports (CV p.10). Additionally, I gave a presentation about our design process, titled
"From Content to Code: How Responsive Design Supports the Core Business," to the 2013 Amigos
Library Services Online Conference (CV p.8).
More recently, I have furthered my research by helping build a transdisciplinary research
team—InterACT™ Health —which is made up of IUPUI colleagues from nursing, computer
science, and electrical engineering. We aim to develop new technology for the healthcare sector.
Currently, we are building a system that will help people be smarter about taking medication.
This work involves the development of a 'smart' pillbox that tracks when a person takes a pill
and then sends the data to a smartphone app, which I have designed. The system enables users
8 See visuals in Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/Evidence of Creative and Professional Activity, p.6–8 [Link]
9 See visuals in Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/Evidence of Creative and Professional Activity, p.9 [Link]
10 See visuals in Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/Evidence of Creative and Professional Activity, p.5 [Link]
4 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
to track their pill-taking behavior and define a new course of action to improve future behavior.
This project aligns perfectly with my research focus as the app connects people to actionable
information regarding their health. This work is in its very early stages, but we have already been
awarded $107,500 in development grants 11, on which I am a Co-PI (CV p.5–6). I have derived
scholarship from this research which discusses the novel design-led process that our team
utilizes. I will present this work as a peer-reviewed presentation at the 2017 AIGA Design Educators
Community Conference in Los Angeles, California (CV p.7).
Theory-driven Scholarship Through theory-driven scholarship, I reflect broadly on contemporary practice or pose theories
about how the competencies of designers may change in the future. I have disseminated these
findings to audiences inside and outside of the design community. In these examples, the
scholarship is not tied directly to one project. Rather, it is informed by the sum of my experi-
ences as a practitioner and traditional research endeavors (see Frank C. Springer Award and
IAHI Travel Grant 12).
One example of theoretical scholarship is my book chapter "Rethinking Visual Language in the
Digital Future." In 2014, I was invited to write a chapter in Craig McDaniel and Jean Robertson’s
book Spellbound: Rethinking the Alphabet, which was published by Intellect (U.K.) and distributed
by University of Chicago Press (U.S.). In the book, I speculate about how visual communication
will be impacted by emerging digital technology. This speculation discusses how designers must
be an integral part of defining future products and experiences. Research that I conducted in
conjunction with this project was recognized by my Herron faculty colleagues as I was awarded
the 2014 Frank C. Springer Family Innovative Faculty Award 12 (CV p.6).
Recently, I co-wrote an article about the emergence of Web Brutalism, a new trend in web and UI
design that runs counter to traditional notions of 'good' design by involving purposefully ugly or
complicated visual elements. In the paper, I discuss the potential ramifications of this approach
and use its existence to reflect on contemporary digital design. This piece is especially signif-
icant because it was selected, through a peer review process, and published in the inaugural
issue of Dialectic, a new design journal published by AIGA and Michigan Publishing.
Reflection and Future Directions I am proud of the contributions I have made to the field of design and the impact my
work has had on people's lives. I have seen noticeable growth in my abilities to design,
communicate, and write. I am excited to further my career in a few specific ways.
Moving forward, my work will continue to be a blend of practice and scholarly activity. As tech-
nology continues to advance, I will expand my research to involve emerging areas of UI design
that involve artificial intelligence, ubiquitous sensors, and enhanced 2-D or 3-D displays. I am
especially interested in using these new technologies as a tool to customize visual experiences
for users. I am eager to explore this emerging area and investigate its impact on design.
I also look forward to collaborations that are just now beginning. In my experiences so far,
collaborative projects have been an especially rewarding aspect of my work. New relationships
with both InterACT™ and the AIGA Design Educator's Steering Committee (DEC) will provide
unique opportunities. InterACT™ plans to expand aggressively in the next few years. We aim to
explore opportunities for commercialization and expand our research through larger funding
11 See Significance of grants and awards, p.1 [Link]
12 See Significance of grants and awards, p.2 [Link]
5 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
from NIH R-21 and R-01 grants. On the AIGA DEC, I am helping lead an investigation into a proj-
ect called “Designer of 2025.” In this project, I will investigate what competencies are necessary
for designers to thrive in the future. This research will result in widely disseminated schol-
arship that builds upon my previous research in this area, the first of which being at the 2017
AIGA National Conference (CV p.7), where I will lead a panel discussion on the topic in front of a
national audience. The findings from this work will inform designers and educators about how
our skill set may shift in the coming years.
I am excited about the next chapter of my research career. I have built a strong foundation of
research accomplishments and partnerships in a short amount of time. I am confident that
I will build upon these accomplishments and continue the success I have enjoyed during my
first few years at Herron.
TEACHING
I view teaching as an extension of my research. My classrooms serve as a springboard where
I can discuss experiences from both practice and scholarly activity. The connection between
research and teaching is beneficial for both me, as it helps me reflect on my practice, and for
my students, as it gives them an authentic view of contemporary design.
When I came to Herron, I was charged with improving the school's offerings in digital design.
The VCD department was in need of course content about web design, interaction design,
and digital production. I was excited to take on this challenge and have been successful in my
efforts. In total, I have developed 6 new courses 13 , 14. In these courses, I teach students about the
roles, responsibilities, processes, and output in contemporary practice.
The success of my teaching efforts is evidenced through my student evaluations. Quantitatively,
my evaluation scores are consistently high, with a global average of 4.49 out of 5 15. The writ-
ten comments provide a more comprehensive view of my teaching. I appreciate constructive
critique from students and integrate their suggestions when appropriate. In aggregate, their
comments reveal the rigor, quality, and relevance of my courses. This is evidenced by a recent
unsolicited email from a student:
"...I have taken a few of Aaron Ganci’s courses and have always found them to be inspiring yet extremely engrained in real world applications...As a soon-to-be graduate, I do not believe that there is any other teacher...that would help
students gain a better understanding of UI/UX Design more than Aaron could."
Teaching philosophy, goals, and outcomes My teaching philosophy is driven by a desire to see students succeed as VCD or UI design pro-
fessionals. To become successful in today’s design industry, new designers must be equipped
with a robust methodological approach. I shape my student's methodology by creating course
experiences that help them become empathetic, optimistic, integrative thinkers, and digitally-
centered. This mindset better prepares them for the realities of a digital, experience-based
design industry. By following this philosophy, I can give my students the tools they need to be
successful both now and in the future. Below are a few examples of how I have integrated these
principles into new courses that I have developed.
In Production for Digital Design (HER-V 302), students learn contemporary production
methods (coding, video production) and learn how to be successful members of production
teams. In the course, students build websites and motion design pieces (digitally centered).
13 See Teaching Load and Goals, p.1 [Link]
14 See Course Development, p.1–5 [Link]
15 See Student evaluations of teaching–aggregated, p.2 [Link]
6 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
In Designing People-centered Experiences (HER-V 400), students learn how to design
complex physical or digital experiences (integrative thinking) that address the needs of
people (empathy). Students are challenged to solve complex situations that seem unfixable.
For example, I have asked them to redesign the voting experience. To succeed, they have
to approach the problem and believe that they can make an impact (optimism).
In Digital Experience Design II (HER-V 413), students utilize the sum of their acquired
skills and demonstrate them through a capstone project (integrative thinking). In these proj-
ects, students are challenged to solve people's problems (empathy) by leveraging
digital technology (digitally centered).
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning As I develop novel approaches to teaching, I seek ways to disseminate that information to the
design community. In total, I have published 1 peer-reviewed article, given 7 presentations
(2 peer-reviewed, 2 invited, and 2 peer-reviewed workshops). Two of these scholarly activities
provide clarity about the goal of my scholarship of teaching. In my course Visual Design for the
Web, I asked students to use co-design research methods to inform the design of a website,
a novel approach. I published about that method as a peer-reviewed paper in the Proceedings
of the 2013 AIGA National Design Conference (CV p.8). Also, I delivered a peer-reviewed presentation
at the 2016 IxDA Education Summit (CV p.5) in Helsinki, Finland that outlined how to integrate
methods from related fields (namely service design) into the process that my students use
to develop UI designs.
SERVICE
Service is an important aspect of my professional and academic life. My service activities enable
me to understand academia, advocate for Design, help Herron prepare for the future, and build
research communities. Additionally, my reputation as a practitioner and researcher has opened
new service opportunities that allow me to impact the design community as a whole.
Service to the University and School I have been fortunate to serve on some impactful committees and projects for IUPUI and
Herron. Since 2014, I have served on the IUPUI Campus Planning Committee where I assisted
in the review of the IU Bicentennial Strategic Plan to estimate its impact on the Indianapolis
campus. My involvement was particularly relevant as several aspects of the plan effect art,
design, and technology. In 2013-14, as a member of the IUPUI General Education Task Force,
I was able to add input on university policy about general education courses and provide
guidance on which Arts and Humanities courses will count for general education credit.
In 2013, as a member of the Herron Admissions Committee, I helped inform the development
and integration of a new school-wide assessment structure, including the re-implementation
of an entrance portfolio requirement. As the incoming faculty-elected chair of Herron's
Academic Affairs and Assessment Committee, I will continue this work and help keep the
assessment structure current. Through this committee work, I have helped develop a rubric
that will be used to evaluate Herron student progress at each stage of their undergraduate
career. In 2016, I also played an integral role in the process of redesigning Herron's website.
With my expertise in UI design, I informed the school's decisions about the new website
throughout the process.
7 Statement
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Service to the profession I find professional service especially rewarding. Most of my professional service is centered
around AIGA, the United States' oldest and largest professional membership organization
for design, with 70 chapters and more than 25,000 members. In 2016, through a competitive
process, I was selected to join the national AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) Executive
Steering Committee. As a member of this committee, I help oversee impactful activities that
advance design education, including yearly national conferences and research grants. I have
also served as the faculty advisor to the AIGA Herron student group since 2015. In this role,
I connect students to valuable professional resources in the Midwest region and supplement
their classroom experiences.
I am especially interested in service that facilitates communities of research. In the Fall of
2014, I served as a facilities coordinator for the MidwestUX 2014 conference. In that role,
I was able to help connect over 400 digital designers from around the Midwest U.S. region in
Herron’s building. In 2016, I was invited to join the steering committee for the MODE (Motion
Design Education) Summit which seeks to build a community of scholarship for motion
designers, a specialized subset of digital design. Looking towards the future, I will lead the
planning of the 2018 AIGA Design Educators Conference. Our team of Herron faculty was
selected through a national peer-reviewed process to host the conference on IUPUI's campus.
As the co-director of the conference, I will oversee most aspects of the event, collaborate with
a variety of colleagues, and manage students to put together an experience for more than 100
design educators from around the word. My professional service is a benefit to both my career
and Herron's reputation in the design community. My involvement in these activities helps the
profession, furthers my career, and reinforces Herron’s reputation in the design community.
SUMMARY
My time at Herron and IUPUI has allowed me to grow as a researcher, educator, and designer.
I have made significant progress in establishing a reputation at both the national and interna-
tional level. I look forward to strengthening that reputation as I continue my research agenda,
teaching, and service. Herron is an ideal setting for me as I continue to strive for excellence in
the area of UI design research and continue my investigation into the role of design in digital
production. These are essential areas of study that will have a great impact on the design
discipline. As an educator, I am proud of my ability to use my research to inform my teaching.
I will continue to use my research findings to help Herron become a leading program in digital
design. I am fully committed to the pursuit of excellence in my professional and scholarly work
and aim to positively affect Herron, IUPUI, and the design community. I am grateful for this
time of growth, my time at Herron, and for your consideration of my promotion and tenure.
1 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Research & Creative Activity
SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN RESEARCH
I have had an active research agenda that has allowed me to develop a national reputation in
the field of User Interface (UI) Design. Through a cycle of professional practice and scholarly
dissemination (a practitioner-scholar approach), I aim to research the role and impact of visual
communication design in the creation of digital products (websites, mobile apps, software, etc). While in
rank, I have contributed to 13 UI design projects that were supported by $204,613 in grant or
private funding 1. The digital products that were created in those projects have been used by
over 100 million people. As a scholar, I have published 7 peer-reviewed publications (1 book
chapter, 3 journal articles, 2 conference papers, 1 book review)(CV p.10–11) and delivered
18 presentations (11 peer-reviewed and 7 invited) (CV p.7–9).
RESEARCH SECTION OVERVIEW
The enclosed sections are a collection of distinct content which supplement or substantiate the
information in my CV. Examples of my design work can be found in the Appendix Additional
Evidence / Evidence of creative activity. When possible, I have provided a web URL to access docu-
ments in their full form. Those links are indicated thusly: [Link].
RESEARCH APPENDICES
Further evidence for my research performance can be found in the Research and Creative
Activity Appendices folders on eDossier. The following appendices have been included:
Research or creative publications/works
Research presentations [Link] ....................................... Correspondence or notices of acceptance
Research publications [Link] ......................................... Notices of acceptance or full articles
Grant related materials
Grant related materials [Link] ....................................... Award notices, Full grant proposals
Reviews of candidate's books, creative performances, exhibitions
Letters of support for creative activity [Link] .................. Letters from clients or colleagues
Additional Evidence
Evidence of creative activity [Link] ................................ Visuals/screenshots of creative projects
Product Usage Statistics [Link] ...................................... Analytic data for creative outcomes
INTRO
1 See Significance of grants and awards, p.4 [Link]
1 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Examples of significant research
My research approach allows me to have an impact on both public and academic communities
on an international scale. In total, my work has been used by more than 100 million people 1.
In the examples of peer-reviewed scholarship below, I will demonstrate the significance of this
work through two lenses. First, practice-driven scholarship is directly informed by individual
projects where I take on a funded UI design project and respond directly to a novel process or
outcome that resulted from the work. Second, theory-driven scholarship is disseminated to
reflect broadly on contemporary design practice. In these examples, the scholarship is not tied
directly to one project. Rather, it is informed by the sum of my experiences as a practitioner.
1. PRACTICE-DRIVEN SCHOLARSHIP
The examples in this section involve three phases: being awarded UI design project funding,
creating a functioning product that is used by an active audience, and producing scholarly dis-
semination that reflects on my design process or output. Within this cycle, my work is validated
or reviewed at each phase: the proposal for work is reviewed and accepted by either internal or
external funding opportunities, the viability of the design is validated by usage statistics, and
the scholarship is peer-reviewed or refereed.
PLAN 2020 BICENTENNIAL IMPLEMENTATION DASHBOARD
USERS (UNIQUE)* SESSIONS* FUNDING FUNDING SOURCE
26,837 51,296 $20,000 Indianapolis CityCorps Fellowship
LINK http://plan2020.com/
ROLE Primary Investigator
DATES Website launched in June 2016 and is still active (9 months)
SUMMARY & IMPACT OF
PROJECT
I was selected to design a web portal for Plan 2020 through a refereed process.
The web portal connects 40 partner agencies with the citizens of Indianapolis.
This site creates access for citizens to become engaged with over 200 initiatives
around the city to improve Indianapolis in measurable ways before 2021. The
Plan 2020 initiative is an innovative approach to city planning and was recently
awarded the Silver 2017 National Planning Achievement Award for Best Practice from
the American Planning Association.
IMPACT OF SCHOLARSHIP
Insights from this project were shared with the Indianapolis community at
the 2015 CityCorps Fellowship Symposium. My presentation, Visualizing Progress:
Designing a people-centered Implementation Dashboard for Plan 2020 [Link] (CV p.7)
used this project as a case study to discuss why it is important to keep users in
mind when designing websites. The presentation is available widely online.
* Statistics as of July 2017
RESEARCH
1 See Significance of grants and awards, p.4 [Link]
2 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Examples of significant research (continued)
ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC): WORLDCAT DISCOVERY
USERS (UNIQUE)* SESSIONS* FUNDING FUNDING SOURCE
~3,000,000 unavailable $45,000 Online Computer Library Center
LINK https://ucla.on.worldcat.org
ROLE Consultant
DATES Worked on live product between Aug 2012–May 2015, (2 years, 9 months)
SUMMARY & IMPACT OF
PROJECT
I was selected to act as an expert consultant, embedded in a larger
design team at OCLC. I assisted the team in defining a new visual design
system for library search engines2 that are used by over 16,000 libraries
worldwide.
IMPACT OF SCHOLARSHIP
Through working on this project, I was able to disseminate reflections
about the role of visual design in large web development teams in a
journal article, OCLC on the Responsive Web [Link] (CV p.10), and a national
presentation, From Content to Code: How Responsive Design Supports the Core
Business [Link] (CV p. 8). Both venues have national reach and can be
accessed online.
IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WORK/LIFE BENEFITS PORTAL
USERS (UNIQUE)* SESSIONS* FUNDING FUNDING SOURCE
479 1261 $7,500 IUSM, American Council on Education & Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
LINK http://faculty.medicine.iu.edu/worklife/
ROLE Consultant, Student Mentor (PI: Krista Hoffmann-Longtin, Ph.D.,
IU School of Medicine)
DATES Launched in Feb 2015 and is still active (2 years, 2 months)
SUMMARY & IMPACT OF
PROJECT
This project improves work-life balance of IUSM faculty and staff
by enabling them to access their benefits more easily. I led a team
of undergrad VCD students to plan and design a web portal that is
publicly available and actively used by IUSM employees.
IMPACT OF SCHOLARSHIP
The process that was used to design this website was presented at
a medical conference in 2015. The presentation, The Work/Life Portal:
An Innovative Tool for Faculty Benefits & Policies [Link] (CV p.8) is available
online for designers working in healthcare to learn from my process.
* Statistics as of March 2017
2 See visuals in Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/Evidence of Creative and Professional Activity, p.14 [Link]
3 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Examples of significant research (continued)
2. THEORY-DRIVEN SCHOLARSHIP
Some of the scholarly output I have generated is informed broadly through practice and other
traditional research activity. This scholarship involves a reflection of contemporary process or a
projection of future design ability. The examples below illustrate the impact of this scholarship.
ON WEB BRUTALISM AND CONTEMPORARY WEB DESIGN
AUTHORSHIP Aaron Ganci, MFA and Bruno Ribeiro, MFA (California Polytechnic State
University)
VENUE Dialectic: A scholarly journal of thought leadership, education and practice in the
discipline of visual communication design [Link]
FORMAT Journal Article
DATE 2017
SUMMARY This paper was the result of extensive practice-based creative work.
As a practitioner, I study contemporary trends of visual design in digital
user interfaces. In this paper, my co-author and I reflect on dramatic shifts
in these trends and outline recommendations around them for the visual
design community.
IMPACT Dialectic is a new journal from AIGA, the leading design organization in the
United States. This paper was peer-reviewed and selected to be a part of the
inaugural issue. The article is openly available online to add to the public
discourse about the role of visual design on the web.
RETHINKING VISUAL LANGUAGE IN THE DIGITAL FUTURE
AUTHORSHIP Aaron Ganci, MFA
FORMAT Book Chapter (in Spellbound: Rethinking the Alphabet by Craig McDaniel and Jean
Robertson) [Link]
DATE 2015
SUMMARY I was invited to contribute a chapter to this book about visual language.
In it I use my expertise in digital design trends to speculate on how visual
communication might evolve in the near-future.
IMPACT The book was published by Intellect Ltd in the UK and is distributed by
University of Chicago Press in the US. It is widely available in domestic and
international venues. This chapter adds to an ongoing theoretical discourse
about the role of visual design—and designers—within emerging media.
4 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
LETTER OF SUPPORT DESCRIBING MY IMPACT ON THE PLAN 2020 PROJECT.
200 East Washington Street, Suite 1901 │ Indianapolis, IN 46204 │ www.indygipc.org │ 317-327-3860
March 20, 2017 Eva Roberts Professor and Chair of Visual Communication Design Herron School of Art and Design Indiana University, IUPUI Dear Professor Roberts, I am writing to discuss the significant contribution Aaron Ganci made to our Plan 2020 initiative. The Plan 2020: Bicentennial Agenda is a collective impact framework, bringing government, non-profits and citizens together, so that partners support each other, generating greater success and positive change in the Indianapolis community. Resulting in over 200 action steps, the planning process produced a coordinated approach for strengthening neighborhoods (places), community (prosperity) and families (people) for the purposes of making Indianapolis a healthier, more resilient, more inclusive and more competitive City. Aaron was invited to join the project in 2015 via a competitive call for participation in the CityCorps Fellowship Program. He was awarded $20,000 to fund the design, development and implementation of the Plan 2020 dashboard website, which tracks over 40 partners, 200 action items and affiliate projects. The website that Aaron designed is an integral part to the success of Plan 2020. Serving as a central hub, the website facilitates transparency around the many initiatives happening throughout the city, and the status of their completion. Aaron had direct impact on the success of Plan 2020. Through his design process, he was able to deal with complex content and present it in a way that was accessible and useful, without sacrificing elegance. He also had the forethought to make the website easy to maintain and scalable, in order to incorporate more partners and action steps in the future. Mr. Ganci is a talented professional. We were fortunate to work with him throughout the Plan 2020 planning process. Sincerely,
Elizabeth White Executive Director Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee
Letters can also be found in Research Appendix/Reviews of candidate's books, creative performances, exhibitions/Letters of support for creative activity
5 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
December 16, 2014 Eva Roberts, Department Chair, Professor Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI Eskenazi Hall, HR 152 735 West New York Street Indianapolis, IN 46202 [email protected] Dr. Roberts, I am writing to provide documentation and support of Aaron Ganci’s work on the IU School of Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development Work-Life Portal Project. This project was funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and American Council on Education. The Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) was one of only five medical schools to receive the $250,000 award. The awards are designed to fund innovative faculty recruitment, retention, and work/life balance practices in medical schools across the country. In our proposal for the Sloan Award, IUSM set forth the goal of improving communication and education about institutional policies and resources across the health system. Based on our research for the award, many of the policies currently exist to provide faculty with the tools they need to achieve balance in their work. However, information about these policies, programs, and resources is disparate and (at times) even incorrect. About the Project With the help of Mr. Ganci and his students, the IUSM Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development set out to address these challenges. Mr. Ganci provided pivotal oversight and mentoring to three interns on the Work/Life Portal project. The interns used design thinking methodology to help IUSM tackle the problem of communicating a myriad of work/life information. Using a series of techniques, Mr. Ganci and the students met with our faculty in surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews to answer the following research questions:
• How do people search for benefits info? • How do people browse for benefits info? • What mental models do they when grouping types of information? • What information is important to them?
Under Mr. Ganci’s mentorship, the student developed a flexible, easy-to-use, online portal to aggregate questions about and resources for new and prospective faculty, such as benefits, leave policies, and child care. The elements of the project (such as our FAQ database engine) were guided by the design thinking discovery process led by Mr. Ganci.
Project Outcomes The primary audience of the Work/Life Portal is approximately 2,000 current faculty physicians and research scientists at IUSM. Our secondary audiences would be prospective faculty, including students, residents, and fellows considering working for IUSM. The portal includes a wide range of information including faculty benefits, administrative policies, dual career resources, as well as creative tools such as a geo-map that indicates popular housing areas for faculty and local cultural offerings (restaurants, parks, museums). Mr. Ganci and faculty from the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development presented this project at the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Faculty Affairs conference in July, 2014 in Boston, MA. Student Outcomes Under Mr. Ganci’s leadership, this project was designed to meet the learning goals of visual communication students. In our estimation, Herron students are much more than graphic designers. Rather, they are trained to manage complex communication needs of institutions. Mr. Ganci worked with the students to conduct research on an unstructured situation with an undefined problem, to help our organization to hone-in on the core cultural issues faced by the institution. We believe this project provided the student interns with a real-world scenario in which they were able to apply their research and communication strategies to design a tool to meet the needs of a complex organization (the academic medical center). Our student interns developed a breadth of skills including: communication, problem-solving, working with diverse constituents, professionalism, and critical thinking skills. In recent years, IUSM has been able to significantly improve its work-life resources for current and prospective faculty. The work-life portal developed by Mr. Ganci and his students is a cornerstone of this initiative. It will serve as the primary access point for current and prospective faculty who are in search of information pertaining to administrative policy and work-life resources. Physicians working in academia face different issues than traditional faculty, and Mr. Ganci and his students were able to tailor this project to fit our unique audience and situation. I welcome any further questions you might have about the project or Mr. Ganci’s involvement. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely,
Mary E. Dankoski, Ph.D. Executive Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professional Development Indiana University School of Medicine
LETTER OF SUPPORT (ABRIDGED) DESCRIBING MY IMPACT ON THE IUSOM WORK/LIFE PORTAL. Full letter can be found in Research Appendix/Reviews of candidate's books, creative performances, exhibitions/Letters of support for creative activity
6 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
LETTER OF SUPPORT DESCRIBING MY IMPACT ON THE OCLC PROJECTS.
January 13, 2015 Eva Roberts Department Chair, Professor of Visual Communication Design Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI 735 W New York St Indianapolis, IN 46202 Hello, I am writing on behalf of Aaron Ganci, a member of your faculty, and a part-‐time User Experience Designer on my staff here at OCLC since 2011. Aaron is a talented interactive designer and an indispensible member of his project teams, who look to him not only for branding and visual direction, but also for shaping the product experience of thousands of OCLC member customers. Aaron is a co-‐owner of the OCLC User Experience Style Guide, a standards document that he helped to create and continually maintains, which is used to enforce consistency of user experiences across multiple OCLC products. His patient collaboration, confident recommendations, and ability to clearly articulate complex user experiences make Aaron a valuable contributor to our work and to the culture of our department. Sincerely, Amy Morrison OCLC Sincerely, Amy E. Morrison Manager, OCLC UX/UI Design & Research
Letters can also be found in Research Appendix/Reviews of candidate's books, creative performances, exhibitions/Letters of support for creative activity
1 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Research load, expectations, and goals
EXPECTATIONS
The Visual Communication Department at Herron defines research and creative activity through
three sub-categories. I have chosen to align myself under the categories of Scholarly Activity and
Applied Professional Design Practice. The specific language around excellence in each area states:
Scholarly Activity
The candidate must provide evidence of a completed scholarly book /or/ 4 to 7 examples of the candidate’s
new and significant research accomplishments in her/his own and/or related fields, published in journals/
books, films, exhibitions and/or documented as refereed conference papers that present research at
professional conferences (in print or electronically). Whatever the medium, the research and the forum
for publication should demonstrate excellence in terms of peer-reviewed standards in the discipline for
quality and visibility...The candidate may provide documentation of accomplishments that complement
a candidate’s independent research (e.g., book reviews, encyclopedia entries, exhibition catalog entries,
editing or translation of documents, short pieces of design criticism, research grants and awards).
Applied Professional Design Practice
Documentation should be provided for approximately 8 to 12 achievements during the period under
review for promotion with tenure; the professional activities should demonstrate significance in terms of
peer-reviewed standards of excellence in the creative discipline.
To be successful, a candidate must meet the standards of just one of these sub-categories. The
nature of my work has enabled me to satisfy the requirements for the Scholarly Activity category
and simultaneously approach excellence in the Practice category.
GOALS
I aim to study design practice through an integrated cycle of professional creative activity and
academic scholarship (a practitioner-scholar approach). After reflecting on my active design
practice, I disseminate new knowledge about contemporary practice and processes to the
design community. As a practitioner, I design digital products (apps, websites, etc.) with a clear
research question: How might I use visual design to improve a person's ability to access action-
able information. In this context, actionable information is that which enables someone to take
action to positively impact themselves or their community. For example, in the Plan 2020 website
I designed 1, users can quickly act on information about community service projects in their area.
The diagram below illustrates this flow of activity and highlights the impact of achievements in
each phase.
Funded Design Projects
13 projects with
$204,613 in project funding
lead to which informs
100 million+ people use my designs to access actionable information
7 peer-reviewed publications and 18 presentations
Impactful Design Outcomes Scholarship
RESEARCH
1 See Examples of Significant Research, p.1 [Link]
1 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Future plans for ongoing research
My time at Herron and IUPUI have been marked by tremendous growth. I have worked hard
to form lasting collaborative relationships and build a national reputation in my field. The
foundation that I have built during my probationary period will enable me to advance my
career in significant and interesting ways moving forward.
My work will continue to involve a cycle of practice and scholarship. I am driven by a desire
to find new ways to use visual design to enhance a person's experience with digital technology.
As I enter the next phase of my academic career, I feel a sense of renewal and am excited to
advance this agenda in two distinct areas:
Visual Design + Technology + Health
The relationships that I have formed through projects with InterACT™, BrainCare Notes
(a mobile app I designed with IU School of Medicine researchers to help the caregivers of
dementia patients track symptoms), and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences
Institute (CTSI) have opened an exciting new line of inquiry. By partnering with healthcare
researchers, I am beginning to investigate how to accurately measure the impact that
design has on patient health. I am actively seeking ways to investigate how design can best
influence healthcare interventions. This research will result in new knowledge that will
enable designers to position themselves inside healthcare projects. IUPUI is an ideal place
to do this work with our commitment to health and life sciences. Moving forward, the
InterACT™ team will be integral to this work, and we are in the early stages of applying for
NIH grants to support our efforts.
Designing with next-generation technology
The next several years will be marked by dramatic advancements in technology: more
precise sensors, advanced machine learning, new forms of display through augmented or
virtual reality, and the ability to interact with computers through more diverse inputs like
voice or motion. There are hints of these advancements today, but as they become more
commercially viable, designers will increasingly be asked to leverage capabilities of these
technologies in their solutions. Extensive research is still needed to understand the
designer's roles, processes, and deliverables in these environments. I look forward to
investigating this area through a diverse set of practice-based inquiry. I have two pieces of
scholarship already in development on this front. First, an article discussing the increasing
importance of soft and 'malleable' design skills, which is under review with the interna-
tional journal Communication Design (CV p.10). The other is a panel discussion that I will lead
at the 2017 AIGA National Conference titled The Designer of 2025 (CV p.7).
I am excited about the next phase of my research and am confident that I can continue to
have an impact on the design community. I truly believe that visual design can improve digital
products and in turn improve people's lives in measurable ways. The pace at which technology
is advancing makes this is an exciting time to be working in UI design. I feel fortunate to be
working in this area at this moment and am happy to be able to help expand the field's
growing body of knowledge.
RESEARCH
1 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Individual contributions to interdisciplinary work
Collaboration is a critical aspect of my work. Within collaborative academic settings, I typically
act as a design consultant where I provide expertise on user interface design or design research
methods. As a practitioner on these projects, I have had a significant impact on the final deliv-
erables associated with the larger research project. I have built collaborative relationships with
colleagues in Medicine, Nursing, Computer Science, Engineering, Informatics, and Liberal Arts.
InterACT™ HEALTH SMART PILLBOX SYSTEM
YEAR MY ROLE PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR(S)
2016-
presentCo-Primary Investigator (20%); inform
methodology, provide UI design expertise,
lead co-design research activities for
mobile app that connects to a 'smart' pillbox
which tracks medication taking behavior.
Rebecca Bartlett Ellis, Ph.D., R.N.
ACNS-BC, IU School of Nursing;
James Hill, Ph.D., IUPUI School of
Science; Euzeli Dos Santos, Ph.D., PU
School of Eng. and Tech., IUPUI
BRAINCARE NOTES MOBILE APP
YEAR MY ROLE PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR
2016-17 Consultant; provide UI design services and
expertise, lead student designers on mobile
app that helps caregivers track the progress
of dementia patients.
Malaz A. Boustani, MD, MPH,
IU School of Medicine
Richard Holden, PhD,
IU School of Informatics and Computing
STATIC CODE ANALYSIS TOOL
YEAR MY ROLE PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR
2016-17 Consultant; provide UI design services and
expertise for web-based code analysis tool.
James Hill, Ph.D.,
IUPUI School of Science
IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WORK/LIFE BENEFITS PORTAL
YEAR MY ROLE PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR
2014-15 Consultant; provide UI design services and
expertise, lead student designers in design
of web portal that publishes employee
benefits information.
Krista Hoffmann-Longtin,
IU School of Medicine Office of Faculty
Affairs and Professional Development
HISTORY OF WESTERN MEDICINE IN CHINA WEB PORTAL
YEAR MY ROLE PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR
2013-14 Consultant; provide UI design expertise
for web portal for history researchers.
William Schneider, Ph.D.,
School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI
RESEARCH
2 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Documentation of contributions to interdisciplinary work: InterACT™
Academic Departments 600 Barnhill Drive Indianapolis, IN 46202-5218 (317) 274-2040 fax (317) 274-2411 www.nursing.iu.edu
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
April 11, 2017 Eva Roberts Department Chair, Professor Visual Communication Design, Herron Indianapolis, IN, 46202 Dear Ms. Roberts: It is my pleasure to write this letter of support for Aaron Ganci, as he is seeking promotion and tenure in the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. Aaron is an integral part of our collaborative research team. Aaron has led the design portion and has been involved in the ongoing development of InterACT™ Intervention, a mobile health intervention, that is designed to help people with chronic conditions manage their medications, improve adherence to their prescribed regimen and control blood pressure. I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Aaron now for 1 year in several grant-funded research activities for InterACT™ Intervention and plan to continue our collaborative efforts as we seek external funding for our collaborative research. We were first introduced to one another in the late fall of 2015 because of our association with the mobile health interest group in the IU School of Medicine. At that time, Aaron presented to the group on design-centered methods in the mobile health space and I was beginning to establish collaborations to develop a smart pillbox that could be used in my medication adherence research. Recognizing the need to involve a designer with experience in mobile technologies on my team, I invited Aaron to join our collaborative research team in the spring of 2016. Over the last year, working collaboratively, we have received 4 awards for funding totaling $108,500 to support development and testing of InterACT™ Intervention. Our InterACT™ intervention uses a smart pillbox and connected smartphone app that our team has collaboratively developed. Aaron has been an integral part of our team from the start and he has developed all of the design components of the smartphone app beginning with paper prototypes, which have now been integrated into the app. Not only has Aaron been integral in the design of the intervention, Aaron has used design thinking approaches to lead our team through planning activities for the randomized controlled trial that we will undertake in the future. Aaron’s design approach resulted in a patient journey map that will assist our team in the submission of an external grant and implementation of the study. As our approach to designing interventions is iterative and based on a co-design process, which engages patients in designing meaningful interventions to support medication adherence, Aaron will continue to play a significant role with his expertise in generative design thinking. Herron School of Art and Design is fortunate to have Aaron Ganci as a faculty member and I look forward to continued and future collaborations with him. Sincerely,
Rebecca J. Bartlett Ellis, Ph.D., R.N. ACNS-BC Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Nursing 600 Barnhill Drive, E423 Indianapolis, IN 46202 email: [email protected]
3 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Documentation of contributions to interdisciplinary work: Professor James Hill
!James H. Hill
723 W. Michigan StreetSL 280
Indianapolis, IN 46202
April 30, 2017
Dear Prof. Roberts,
I am writing this letter of recommendation in strong support for Aaron Ganci for promotion and tenure in the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. My interaction with Aaron Ganci began over a year ago on a collaboration between Dr. Rebecca Ellis, Dr. Euzeli dos Santos, and myself to design and implement a novel approach to improve medication adherence. It is called the In-terACTTM Intervention. Aaron has been a critical asset to this collaboration as the leader or all de-sign efforts. For example, he led the team in a design mapping exercise that allowed us to better understand our research objective. Likewise, he led the design effort for the mobile application that we are using in our research study, which was then implemented for Android by students from my lab.
While working Aaron on the InterACTTM Intervention, I requested his expertise on a project called SCATE, which was funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The goal of the SCATE project was to evaluate the quality of static code analysis tools, which are tools used by Software Engineers to locate potential security vulnerabilities in source code. Aaron expertise was used to design a reporting dashboard to interpret and visualize the data we gathered about each static code analysis tool. The amount of data generated by SCATE could be as little as a few KiloBytes (KB) or as large as a GigaByte (GB).
Aaron provided several designs that allowed us to view the data at multiple levels of granularity. This was important given the amount of the data we needed to understand. An novel aspect of Aaron’s design was color scheme. For example, Aaron selected colors that would be visible to someone who is colorblind. His rationale for this design choice was that his research had shown that many males are colorblind, and my field (i.e., Software Engineering) is a male dominated field. He therefore wanted to ensure that persons who were colorblind did not have a different experience since color was a critical feature in understanding the content presented on the SCATE dashboard.
Lastly, I can speak to interacting with Aaron outside of research. In the Fall, I teach Software En-gineering, which is a junior, senior-level course. Likewise, Aaron teaches a senior design course. In Fall 2016, Aaron and I decided to try an educational experiment with our courses by conducting a joint group project. The rationale behind this decision is that Computer Science students in my course engineer a system in a group project, but are not experts in design. Likewise, Aaron’s stu-dents work on software designs, but do not implement their designs. The goal of this experiment was therefore to allow the Computer Science students and Herron School of Art and Design stu-dents to complement each other in a 8 week long group project. More importantly, we wanted the students to gain real-world experience since designers and engineering students must work to-gether in industry, but are never given the chance to experience the challenges of this kind of col-laboration in school.
!James H. Hill
723 W. Michigan StreetSL 280
Indianapolis, IN 46202
April 30, 2017
Dear Prof. Roberts,
I am writing this letter of recommendation in strong support for Aaron Ganci for promotion and tenure in the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. My interaction with Aaron Ganci began over a year ago on a collaboration between Dr. Rebecca Ellis, Dr. Euzeli dos Santos, and myself to design and implement a novel approach to improve medication adherence. It is called the In-terACTTM Intervention. Aaron has been a critical asset to this collaboration as the leader or all de-sign efforts. For example, he led the team in a design mapping exercise that allowed us to better understand our research objective. Likewise, he led the design effort for the mobile application that we are using in our research study, which was then implemented for Android by students from my lab.
While working Aaron on the InterACTTM Intervention, I requested his expertise on a project called SCATE, which was funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The goal of the SCATE project was to evaluate the quality of static code analysis tools, which are tools used by Software Engineers to locate potential security vulnerabilities in source code. Aaron expertise was used to design a reporting dashboard to interpret and visualize the data we gathered about each static code analysis tool. The amount of data generated by SCATE could be as little as a few KiloBytes (KB) or as large as a GigaByte (GB).
Aaron provided several designs that allowed us to view the data at multiple levels of granularity. This was important given the amount of the data we needed to understand. An novel aspect of Aaron’s design was color scheme. For example, Aaron selected colors that would be visible to someone who is colorblind. His rationale for this design choice was that his research had shown that many males are colorblind, and my field (i.e., Software Engineering) is a male dominated field. He therefore wanted to ensure that persons who were colorblind did not have a different experience since color was a critical feature in understanding the content presented on the SCATE dashboard.
Lastly, I can speak to interacting with Aaron outside of research. In the Fall, I teach Software En-gineering, which is a junior, senior-level course. Likewise, Aaron teaches a senior design course. In Fall 2016, Aaron and I decided to try an educational experiment with our courses by conducting a joint group project. The rationale behind this decision is that Computer Science students in my course engineer a system in a group project, but are not experts in design. Likewise, Aaron’s stu-dents work on software designs, but do not implement their designs. The goal of this experiment was therefore to allow the Computer Science students and Herron School of Art and Design stu-dents to complement each other in a 8 week long group project. More importantly, we wanted the students to gain real-world experience since designers and engineering students must work to-gether in industry, but are never given the chance to experience the challenges of this kind of col-laboration in school.
!The result of this experiment and experience yielded positive results. For example, a majority of the students suggested that we start a continuation course that allows students continue their 1
projects for a entire semester. Because of the positive experience, we will be conducting the joint group projects in Fall 2017.
As the department considers Aaron Ganci for promotion and tenure, I would highly recommend him without hesitation or qualification. He is a valuable member of our InterACTTM Intervention, and educational efforts between the Department of Computer Science and Herron School of Art and Design.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
James H. HillAssociate Professor Department of Computer and Information SciencePurdue School of ScienceIndiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Email: [email protected]
The combined course had approximately 70 students.1
1 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Significance of grants and awards
During my time at Herron, I have been awarded $204,613 in individual or collaborative funding .
This funding supports the design and development of creative work, student involvement, or
travel. Grant funding is a critical part of my research as it facilitates an ongoing design practice.
InterACT™ INTERVENTION DEVELOPMENT FUNDS
FUNDING AGENCY ROLE FUNDING DATES
IU School of Nursing (Center for Enhancing
Quality of Life in Chronic Illness and Beverly
Flynn Award) and Sigma Theta Tau
International Honor Society of Nursing
Co-PI (20%) $107,500 Sept 2016–
present
SUMMARY These grants represent a promising area of future work. As part of a research
team involving IUPUI collaborators from Nursing, Computer Science, and
Electrical Engineering, I will assist in the development of a new 'smart'
medication system (a connected pillbox and mobile app) that will help people
improve their medicine-taking behavior and overall health. Specifically,
I am contributing my expertise in user interface design, experience design,
and co-design research methodologies to design a mobile app that facilitates
the experience.
IMPACT This grant is foundational funding that will enable our team to prove that
our system is viable and effective. With our findings, we will be competitive
in applying for NIH grants. In the initial phase of work, we will develop both
hardware and software that can be used by healthcare researchers nationwide.
RESEARCH
The InterACT™ Health research team with a prototype of our pillbox system. From left to right: Dr. James Hill, Aaron Ganci, Dr. Rebecca Bartlett Ellis, Omar Nezamuddin (PhD student), Dr. Euzeli Dos Santos Jr.
2 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Significance of grants and awards (continued)
FRANK C. SPRINGER FAMILY INNOVATIVE FACULTY AWARD
FUNDING AGENCY ROLE FUNDING DATES
Herron School of Art and Design PI $5,518 2015-2016
SUMMARY I was granted this award by the Herron faculty through a refereed process.
The Springer award is the highest recognition of research that is awarded
by the school. It funds a project that will help advance a new line of inquiry.
In my case, I used it to investigate the role of design with advanced digital
environments such as embodied interaction (using physical movement
to interact with computers) and ubiquitous computing (the integration of
miniature computer sensors into everyday objects, enabling them to observe
their surrounding, connect to the network, and talk to one another or us—the
Nest thermostat is an early example of this technology).
IMPACT This work enabled me to understand future design environments more deeply.
Ultimately, this work informed two presentations (Designing Digital Experiences in
2020 [Link] (CV p.7) and Designing Digital Experiences in 2021 (CV p.9)) both of which
inform designers on what competencies will be necessary in the future.
IAHI TRAVEL AND RESOURCE SUPPORT GRANT
FUNDING AGENCY ROLE FUNDING DATES
IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute PI $4,995 2014–2015
SUMMARY Funding to support an investigation on contemporary practices in digital design.
Supported travel to San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago to interview
designers in their work environments.
IMPACT The insights I learned about contemporary practice (including processes,
skills, and trends) from this research have informed presentations (Designing
Digital Experiences in 2020 [Link] (CV p.7)) and publications (On Web Brutalism and
contemporary web design [Link] (CV p.10)). The scholarship from this research is
openly available online. In 2016, I partnered with a colleague, Professor Michael
Lahey (Kennesaw State University), who was doing similar research and began to
build on my early findings from this study. We have co-authored a journal article
titled "Uncovering the importance of soft skills in user interface design" that is
currently under review with Communication Design (CV p.10). My observations
from this research have also influenced my teaching as they provide me with a
more complete view of current practice.
3 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Significance of grants and awards (continued)
IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WORK/LIFE PORTAL PROJECT FUNDING
FUNDING AGENCY INVOLVEMENT FUNDING DATES
IUSM, American Council on Education
& Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Consultant $7,500 2013-2014
SUMMARY Funding to support the development of a web portal that enables IU School of
Medicine faculty and staff to learn about and utilize their work-life benefits.
The project was aimed at improving the work-life balance of IUSM faculty and
staff by enabling them to access their benefits more easily.
IMPACT The website that was created1 with this funding was the culmination of a much
larger research project at the School of Medicine. It enables IUSM employees
to access and act on useful information about the benefits that can improve
their lives in meaningful ways. I was also able to impact students as I involved
three Herron honors students in the project. This was an ideal interaction with
students because I was able to help them navigate a real-world development
experience to better prepare them for their future work environments.
HISTORY OF WESTERN MEDICINE IN CHINA WEB PORTAL
FUNDING AGENCY INVOLVEMENT FUNDING DATES
Luce Foundation, IUPUI Dept. of History Consultant $3,850 2013–2014
SUMMARY Funding to support the development of a web portal2 that provides medical
humanities researchers with access to historical documents. My design
activity was the culmination of a large project that had the goal to "promote
the study of the history of Western medicine in China...by sponsoring research
as well as making historical resources more readily available...in libraries...
[and] on the web."
IMPACT The website that I designed for this project has been used by more than
10,000 researchers in both the U.S. and China. It enables researchers to
quickly search thousands of historical documents to aid their research.
It is also available in both American English and Chinese. The site is a
critical piece of the overall research project let by IUPUI Department of
History Professor William Schneider, Ph.D.
2 See visuals in Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/Evidence of Creative and Professional Activity, p.11 [Link]
1 See visuals in Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/Evidence of Creative and Professional Activity, p.12 [Link]
4 Research
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Significance of grants and awards (continued)
OVERVIEW OF FUNDED DESIGN PROJECTS – IMPACT & SCOPE
The funded projects I have worked on are wide-ranging and fall across a variety of sectors.
The table below provides a breakdown of each of the projects. For each one, I have
described funding information, identified what actionable content is available for these
users, and demonstrated significance via user engagement statistics3. This data illustrates
that my designs are actively used by people all over the world.
SECTOR PRODUCT FUNDING ORGANIZATION ACTIONABLE
CONTENT
FUNDING YEARS USERS* SESSIONS*
Education and Library
WorldCat Discovery
Online Computer Library Center
Library holdings
$45,000 2012-15 ~3,000,000 †
QuestionPoint Online Computer Library Center
Library patron queries
- ~3,000,000 †
History of Western Medicine in China Portal
IUPUI Dept. of History Historical documents
$3,850 2014 10,296 14,232
Work/Life Benefits Portal
IU School of Medicine Benefits information
$7,500 2013 479 1261
Public Plan 2020 Implementation Dashboard
Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee
Service projects
$20,000 2015-16 26,837 51,296
Nonprofit Checkout experience redesign
Brackets for Good Charitable donations
$0 2016 7,482 †
Organization Website
YouthMove Indiana LGBTQ support
$1,700 2013 † †
Healthcare Smart Inhaler Indiana CTSI Health data $4,500 2017 ‡ ‡
All IN Website Indiana CTSI Public health initiatives
$7,000 2017 ‡ ‡
InterACT Pillbox InterACT Health Health data $107,500 2015-17 ‡ ‡
Brain Care Notes IU Foundation (PI: Dr.
Malaz Boutani, IUSoM)
Health data $3,000 2016-17 ‡ ‡
IT and Security
Simeio IO (Corporate Identity Management)
Simeio Solutions Digital identity details
$5,750 2016-17 ~100,000,000
◊
†
Static Code Analysis Tool
S2ERC (Northrop Grumman, DHS) (PI: Dr. James Hill, IUPUI)
Error reports $9,000 2016-17 ‡ ‡
* Statistics as of July 2017 (Session=individual site visit by any user) † Statistics unavailable ‡ Product still in development
◊ Simeio is an IT security company. Their quoted statistics are abstracted as a security measure for their clients.
3 For more detail, see Research Appendix/Additional Evidence/ Product Usage Statistics [Link]
1 Teaching
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Teaching
SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN TEACHING
I view teaching as an extension of my research. My classrooms serve as a springboard where I
can discuss experiences from both practice and scholarly activity. Over the last 5 years, I have
been focused on improving Herron's offerings in digital design (web design, interaction design,
and digital production). In total, I have developed 6 new courses1, 2. The success of my teaching
efforts is evidenced through my student evaluations which show a global average of 4.49
out of 5. Additionally, as I develop novel approaches to teaching, I seek ways to disseminate
about my methods to the design community. I have published 1 peer-reviewed article, given
7 presentations (2 peer-reviewed, 3 invited, 2 peer-reviewed workshops).
TEACHING SECTION OVERVIEW
The enclosed sections are a collection of distinct content which supplement or substantiate
the information in my CV. Examples of student design outcomes can be found in the Appendix
Additional evidence / Evidence of student learning. When possible, I have provided a web URL to access
documents in their full form. Those links are indicated thusly: [Link].
TEACHING APPENDICES
Further evidence for my teaching performance can be found in the Teaching Appendices folders
on eDossier. The following appendices have been included
Teaching Publications
Teaching Presentations [Link] ........................................ Correspondence, or advertisements
Teaching Publications [Link] .......................................... Full papers
Sample of course material
Sample of course materials [Link] .................................. Syllabi and assignment sheets
Student course evaluations
Student course evaluations [Link] .................................. Unabridged student evaluations
Peer evaluations
Peer evaluations [Link] .................................................. Unabridged peer evaluations
Unsolicited letters from former students
Unsolicited letters from former students [Link] ............... Emails or messages from alumni
Additional evidence
Evidence of student learning [Link] ................................ Student outcomes from coursework
INTRO
1 See Teaching load and goals, p.1 [Link]
2 See Course development [Link]
1 Teaching
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Teaching load and goals
TEACHING LOAD
Throughout my time at Herron, I have taught a 3-2 load with contact hours ranging from
12.5-22.5 hours per week. Over 10 semesters, I have averaged 3.9 courses per semester.
However, some of those courses are only 8-week courses. A full list of my courses,
including independent studies and internship supervision can be found on CV p.2–3.
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT
COURSE # COURSE NAME SECTIONS COURSE SITE STATUS
HER-V 302 Production for Digital Design Basics of producing web and video artifacts.
6 Link New course
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place II †
VCD Capstone: solving complex problems with design4 Link New course †
HER-V 403 Digital Experience Design I †
Basics of digital design process + mobile app UI design3 Link New course †
HER-V 413 Digital Experience Design II †
VCD Capstone: solving complex problems with design3 Link New course †
HER-V 400 Designing People-Centered Experiences Intro to experience design + journey mapping
3 Link New course
HER-L 210 Visual Design for the Web Introduction to web design from a design perspective
3 Link New course
HER-R 411 Design for Interaction: Object and Place I †
Basics of digital design process + mobile app UI design3 Link New course †
HER-V 410 VC5: Designing for Innovation Intro to design research methods
1 Link New course
HER-V 220 VC2: Design Methodology Intro to design process
1 Link
HER-V 311 Type and Image 3 Visual and typographic systems
1 Link
GRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT
HER-V 692 Graduate Thesis Writing 2 Link
HER-R 511 Visual Design for the Web (Grad level) ‡
Introduction to web design from a design perspective2 Link
HER-V 693 Graduate Thesis Studio 2 Link
HER-V 501 Intro to Design Thinking Historical and contemporary view of Design Thinking
1 Link
HER-V 502 Intro to Human Factors in Design Intro to relevance and use of human factors in design
1 Link
TEACHING
† Digital Experience Design I + II are renamed versions of Design for Interaction: Object and Place I + II. They represent one newly developed course that had two different names. ‡ Visual Design for the Web (Grad) is an augmented version of the undergrad section.
2 Teaching
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Teaching load and goals (continued)
TEACHING GOALS
My teaching philosophy is driven by a desire to see my students succeed as design professionals.
To become successful in today’s design industry, new designers must be equipped with a strong
methodological approach. I shape my student's methodology by creating course experiences
that help them become empathetic, optimistic, integrative thinkers, and digitally centered.
Each of these characteristics intentionally align with an IUPUI Principle of Undergraduate
Learning (PUL). PULs "provide a principles-based framework for the learning outcomes that
every [IUPUI] undergraduate student should attain." More information about PULs can be
found on IUPUI's website [Link].
CONNECTIONS BETWEEN GOALS AND PULS
MY GOAL IUPUI PUL SAMPLE LEARNING OUTCOME
Leverage
Empathy
Understanding Society and
Culture (recognize their own
cultural traditions and to
understand and appreciate the
diversity of the human experience.)
Develop empathy with the users
of proposed design solutions
by integrating the concepts of
usability, usefulness, and context
(From HER-L 210) [Link]
Optimistic
Outlook
Critical Thinking (applies the
process of disciplined thinking
by remaining open-minded and
adjusting thinking based on new
information);
Values and Ethics (Make informed
and principled choices and to foresee
consequences of these choices)
Draft a plan on how to address
weaknesses in an experience
(From HER-V 400) [Link]
Be Integrative
Thinkers
Integration and Application
of Knowledge (Use information
and concepts from studies in
multiple disciplines in intellectual,
professional, and community lives.)
Establish purposeful relationships
among elements of a solution
and between the solution and its
context (From HER-V 400) [Link]
Be Digitally
Centered
Intellectual Depth, Breadth,
and Adaptiveness (Examine
and organize disciplinary ways
of knowing and to apply them to
specific issues and problems)
Use digital experience and
interaction design industry
terminology knowledgeably.
(From HER-V 403) [Link]
1 Teaching
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Disseminated scholarship on teaching and learning
Disseminating new knowledge about design education is important to me as an educator. My
scholarship in teaching and learning is focused on the transfer of new knowledge from my
research agenda into curricular recommendations. Specifically, through this work I aim to
inform the design education community about useful or practical ways to integrate authentic
digital design activities into courses. While in-rank, I have published one peer-reviewed
conference article, given7 presentations (2 peer-reviewed, 3 invited, 2 peer-reviewed workshops (both
competitively refereed by design-led organizing committees). Details about a few significant pieces of
scholarship can be found below; a full list can be found on CV p.4–5.
THE FOREST AND ITS TREES: UNDERSTANDING INTERACTION DESIGN THROUGH SERVICE DESIGN ACTIVITIES
VENUE LOCATION URL
IxDA Interaction '16 Education Summit Helsinki, Finland Link
SUMMARY The Interaction Education Summit is affiliated with the international
Interaction conference series held by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA).
IxDA has international reach. Designers from some of the world's leading digital
companies (Google, Facebook, Adobe, etc) attend Interaction conferences.
IMPACT In this peer reviewed presentation, I discuss how I integrate theories from
Service Design (a tangential field to UI design) into my courses. This is a novel
process and adds to the public discourse about best practices in digital design
fields. The presentation is available openly online.
BECOMING MORE THAN MAKERS: THE CASE TO BALANCE HARD AND SOFT SKILLS IN DESIGN FOUNDATIONS
VENUE LOCATION URL
Tectonic Shifts: Foundations in Art: Theory
and Education (FATE) 2015 National Biennial
Indianapolis, IN Link
SUMMARY Foundations in Art: Theory and Education is an educational association that has
national reach. Their annual conference attracts art and design educators from
all parts of the United States.
IMPACT In this peer reviewed presentation, I discuss findings from both my professional
practice and research I conducted with an IAHI travel grant1 that point to the
need for designers to have advanced interpersonal skills in the workplace. The
presentation added to the discourse about contemporary design competencies
and makes suggestions about how to integrate soft skill development into the
classroom. The presentation is openly available online.
TEACHING
1 See Significance of grants and awards, p.2 [Link]
2 Teaching
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Disseminated scholarship on teaching and learning (continued)
DESIGNING DIGITAL EXPERIENCES WORKSHOP
VENUE LOCATION URL
University & College Designers Association
(UCDA) Workshop Series
Indianapolis, IN Link
SUMMARY UCDA is a professional organization for designers working in academia in North
America and around the world. It provides outlets for professional and personal
growth and advocates for designer and educator roles within their institutions.
It has strong national reach and impact within the design community. They host
a competitive (applications are peer-reviewed) workshop series every year in
locations throughout the country.
IMPACT This was a one-day workshop where I utilized teaching methods that I have
developed in my courses to teach a group of professional designers about the
fundamentals of designing people-centered websites and applications. In the
workshop, I examined the processes, tools, and outcomes designers are using
to shape contemporary digital experiences. The workshop was publicized
nationally and the 25 open seats sold out well before the event. The contents of
the workshop are available openly online [Link].
Aaron Ganci (top left), leading the Designing Digital Experiences workshop in Herron's design studios.
1 Service
Aaron Ganci Area of Excellence – Research & Creative Activity
Service
SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN SERVICE
Service is an important aspect of my professional and academic life. I have been fortunate to
serve on some impactful committees and projects for IUPUI and Herron (CV p.9). On campus,
I have served on 7 school or university committees and been involved in several other singular
service activities. Additionally, my reputation as a practitioner and researcher has opened new
service opportunities that allow me to impact the design community as a whole (CV p.9–10).
In the design community, I have served on 4 executive steering committees for various design
organizations and been a part of 8 peer-reviewer panels for conferences or journals. I also serve
as the faculty advisor for the AIGA Herron Student group.
SERVICE SECTION OVERVIEW
The following sections are a collection of distinct content which supplement or substantiate the
information in my CV.
SERVICE APPENDICES
Further evidence for my service performance can be found in the Service Appendices folders on
eDossier. The following appendices have been included
Other evidence of service/engagement
Other evidence of service [Link] ..................................... Correspondence and documents
INTRO
From: Ganci, Aaron MTo: Applegate, RachelCc: Lee, KarenSubject: Re: Using your dossier as a model/example?Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2018 9:05:06 PM
Hi Rachel-
Of course! I’m happy to help. Thank you for the kind words. I know I looked at severalexamples when preparing my dossier.
Do you need me to prepare anything on my end?
Best,Aaron
On Jun 20, 2018, at 3:49 PM, Applegate, Rachel <[email protected]> wrote:
Aaron, I am new in the position of assistant vice chancellor for faculty affairs. In that role, I amresponsiblefor organizing and presenting materials that can help faculty be successful in promotionand tenure.Your dossier was identified by the campus P&T committee last year as being a goodmodel forothers.I have reviewed it, and it seems really really nice: in fact, your background in visualdesign is certainly apparent! Makes me jealous…. Are you willing to give permission to have your dossier posted for faculty?….”Your dossier” would consist of:CVCandidate’s statementResearch statementExamples of significant researchResearch load expectations and goalsFuture plansIndividual contributions to collaboration…Significance of grants and awardsTeaching statementTeaching load and goalsDisseminated scholarship on teaching and learningService statement…………………….no external letters, no evaluation letters, no appendices……all in one pdfThis is a little different from past examples, where, for example, only the research area
would bepresented for someone who went up for excellence in research. I feel it is useful forcandidates tolearn how to express their OTHER areas, as well.I am trying to solicit / present examples from a variety of schools, ranks, and areas ofexcellence.What do you think? Examples are the most sought-after form of assistance, and manycandidatesdo not have someone to help who is ‘nearby’ and also recent.Sorry for the mid-summer email! I have a lot of prep work to do in the summer. Rachel ApplegateAssistant Vice Chancellor for Faculty AffairsAssociate Professor, Library and Information ScienceOffice of Academic AffairsUniversity Hall (INAD), Suite 5002301 University BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46202 [email protected]
