This portfolio page is meant to showcase some personal projects, along with other efforts that may not have fallen directly in my job description.
Professional work samples available upon request.
Please contact david [dot] panarelli [at] gmail [dot] com.
Personal Project: Heart Rate Monitor & plan for new triathletes
I set a goal for myself to complete an Olympic-distance triathlon before my 30th birthday this fall. As I began researching training plans, I quickly learned the importance of monitoring your heart rate, but I was frustrated by the solutions available to do so. Some aim to be your personal trainer in a box, telling you what exercises to do when. Some are intensely complex with incredible computing power.
Overall, it seems the marketplace has put its energy towards on-device computing power rather than clear, well-executed analysis ad feedback. Most are geared towards professionals who have a robust knowledge of the scientific principles of fitness and the associated jargon. To make matters worse, the data visualization is generally poor. Nike+ does a great job with visualization, but is only geared towards running and does not account for heart rate monitoring. No one seems to be hitting the sweet spot for triathletes with an execution that is both approachable and powerful.
As an experiment, I am conceptualizing triathlon training program that utilizes heart rate monitoring as a training metric. This would rely on simplified hardware in the form of cadence counters for cycling, pedometers for running, a heart rate sensor for all sports, and possibly GPS. The idea is to forgo much of the on-deice calculation found in today’s heart-rate monitors in favor of improving the visualization and analysis possible with this stream of simple, yet powerful data. Now if only I can actually get myself moving…
Tendr: A service for managing credit card debt on the fly
Let’s face it: credit cards are awesome. They are the worst kind of awesome. You can use them anywhere, they give you rewards and services, and they’re shiny. But their sexy virtual money is just too easy to spend. Using a credit card is easy, but having a credit card can be problematic.
I observed and identified several aspects of credit card use that can lead to a growing credit card balance. I came up with a simple txt messaging system that would enable the cardholder to pay of the purchase immediately or pay another amount. the name “Tendr” comes from the concept of “legal tender.” This would provide a smoother avenue for managing debt and benefiting form the rewards programs associated with most credit cards.
You can see scenarios, a persona and a use case on the Tendr page of this blog.
Visualization: Jay-Z Flow Chart
Inspired by the Graph Jam meme, I created this flow chart of Jay-Z lyrics. For those of you concerned, this flow chart contains explicit lyrics.
Death of a Fruitcake
RTCRM, we tried to do something lighthearted to wish clients and friends a happy holiday season. As the chill of winter settled in and 2006 drew to a close, my colleague Scott had the idea that it would be wonderful to motivate everyone to relieve some of the stress that builds up during the holiday season. Why not take it out on the most maligned of holiday confections: the fruitcake.
I was the point person for the project, working to refine the concept and produce the 9 videos of fruitcake mayhem and destruction. I also worked with colleagues to produce the accompanying website.
Enjoy one of the more popular videos, Death by Rap Battle.
The videos were picked up by BoingBoing, the Yahoo 9 (no longer in service), and even our local morning news.
Digital Media Experiment
Living for 30 days in the winter of 2006 with no books, newspapers, magazines, radio. No ‘old’ media, only the internet.
It’s important to note the context of this experiment: YouTube was in its infancy. Hulu was “Hulu?”. The notion of watching a video online still conjured images of tiny, pixelated blobs purporting to be entertainment. It may seem pointless now, but at the time it was pretty interesting.
The experiment received media attention from PBS’ Mediashift, the Washington Post, and DCist.
Presentations
Presentation (Excerpt): The Spectrum of Social Media (November, ’07)
This is a portion of a presentation I did in late 2007 for a group of colleagues at a marketing firm to help bring the company up to speed on the popular, and somewhat still emerging trend of social networks. This portion of the presentation aimed to shed light onthe fact that technological social networks have been around for a long while, and that embracing new technology was a new way of looking at many old or existing relationships.
Presentation: What is a Podcast and why do I care? (September, ’05)
This is a presentation I created while working at a marketing firm to educate colleagues on podcasting. This was done in September of 05, a time when “podcast” was a hot buzz word in the marketing space, but very few people actually knew what it meant. The aim of this presentation was to give my colleagues the information they needed to discuss this new technology with confidence, at a time when there was very little industry familiarity with the channel itself. I used casual, approachable examples and simplified visuals to communicate these concepts.
Recent Comments