tomek_zemla

I am building a calm, serious English vocabulary learning application for mostly adult, motivated individuals. The opposite experience to Duolingo. No dancing mascots or childish sound effects. I am betting on attracting young professionals, academics, white-collar types that like books, language and the experience of a white page with classic, black typography.

Strangely, through iterative prototyping, the app evolved into something that my testers (and teachers) are calling... a game. I see it as a good thing, and I am adapting this language. The free version is about 'play,' and the paid version is about 'study'.

Reach out if you would like to chat!

Data Interfaces Designer

Location: Montreal, Canada

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, Three.js, D3, Canvas API, Node.js, MongoDB, OpenAI API, Anthropic API, Claude Code

Keywords: UX, UI, Information Design, Data Visualization, Interface & Product Design

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixelbox

Email: tomek@pixelbox.com

I am a former software developer who, over the years, transitioned to product design roles. I specialize in data visualizations and design of interfaces to complex data and computation systems.

I worked on a variety of software projects using big data, ML / AI / LLM, computer graphics and sophisticated algorithms. I am a generalist designer who gets along with technical and multidisciplinary teams and fits well in R&D laboratories and startup environments. In recent years, I have worked on a number of cybersecurity products.

I make data and computation visible.

https://www.pixelbox.com/about/PortfolioTZ.pdf

https://www.pixelbox.com/about/ResumeTZ.pdf

https://www.pixelbox.com

The Product Designer link above does not work...

I continue iterating on my vocabulary builder for ESL (English as a Second Language) students: https://www.dictionarygames.io.

A modern take on ESL (English as a Second Language) vocabulary building flashcards. It might also be fun for native speakers who like language games. It is in beta and feedback is very welcome - iterating to improve it... https://www.dictionarygames.io

I am super grateful for all the feedback and not defensive. Discussing to understand the experience of users...

Also... Note that the cursor indicates if you typed the correct puzzle answer before you submit it. It prevents users from suggesting words that are correct answers, but not the solutions to the given puzzle.

English is my second language so I do not create the content for the puzzles. The data comes from different publicly available sources. A quick search on Google for 'Thesaurus implode' gave me this: The thesaurus for "implode" offers several synonyms, including collapse, crumble, buckle, cave in, shatter, and fail. These words describe the act of something falling inwards or breaking apart due to pressure.

I am not 'rejecting' the alternative design. I am choosing one design path over another. I have a specific vision of how I want this application to work. It is designed to 'push' users to discover new vocabulary. It's not exactly a game, although it feels a bit like that. It's a new take on an ESL vocabulary practice workbook.

Most words in English have synonyms. Some have long lists of them. The puzzles are designed to make you discover (or just recall) specific words. Accepting a semantically correct alternative defies the purpose! It also makes it easier, and the learning happens when it is hard.

If the question is about finding synonym to pretty and you provide beautiful, it's great. But the puzzles are designed so you discover splendind and stunning and ravishing and glamorous and lovely and... etc.

The puzzle is about finding a specific (one) word for each game/question. In your case abundant was the answer. The cursor indicates correct/incorrect word before it is submitted preventing you from giving a good answer - bountiful - which is NOT the solution to this specific puzzle. It's designed to push the students to find alternatives, i.e. yet another word that can be a solution until they find the correct one. In other words it does not accept multiple solutions by design.

Note that the question is never a single example or definition, but a starting question plus multiple clues and hints. These help to clear up ambiguities and guide the student towards the correct puzzle answer.

Working on finding these issues...

Designing an ESL learning app for the global village is a challenge.

The data comes from various open source, academic, etc databases. If you look up Oxford dictionary you will find for example: adverb INFORMAL•BRITISH very; extremely. "he is jolly busy"

This is why it's still in BETA...

It’s free.

Why is that?

There is a famous photograph from the White House of Obama stopping to fist bump a janitor with a mop. It would be a great illustration for this blog post.

It has been noted by number of analysts that it is surprising that Ukraine still has access to Internet. Everybody expected cyber warfare to be a major part of the invasion. One of the possible explanations mentioned: Russian army and its covert operatives need it.

Yes, here... http://www.pixelbox.com/love

Austin Kleon wrote a great book "Show Your Work!" discussing this approach of sharing, communicating and exchanging creative ideas. He frames the problem in a similar fashion and brings all kinds of nuanced aspects of the issue into the discussion.

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis. It was originally the first PhD theses written in a form of a comic book. It is a study on how we gather, communicate and invent knowledge using images.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/07/20/thinking-thro... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unflattening https://www.amazon.com/Unflattening-Nick-Sousanis/dp/0674744...

That is an interesting question and could be empirically determined with an experiment.

I had an interview with a recruiter for an apparently (from what I hear) good AI company in Montreal, Canada. Their business is happening so they need to find a lot of people of various specialities. So they hired some ultra junior and not very bright full time recruiters. They are the ones that make lots of initial rejections stopping good candidates from actually getting to the proper subject matter interviews. The recruiter was confused because I applied for a UX/UI design position - my focus last 10 or so years - but I actually studied computer science so I have lots of coding experience not only design skills. This is an actual quote from the conversation: 'So, I see you _also_ have programming experience, but you applied for UX/UI design position, so I am not sure it is _good_...'.

I did manage to navigate through completely retarded 45 minute HR conversation and got invited for the interview with the director of UX. From the moment I walked in the guy was ultra uncomfortable and shy because he was obviously 15~20 years younger than myself. Also clearly never interviewed people before. I never heard back from them, but I see that the position is still open...

Location: Montreal, Canada

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixelbox

Email: See LinkedIn

Website: http://www.pixelbox.com

I am a creative technologist with a hybrid background in computer science, design and visual arts. I am looking for a contract or permanent position with an interesting group of people working on innovative projects.

My skills and interests are in:

generative arts and design, user interfaces, data visualization, information design, user experience, conceptualization and prototyping

Technologies: JavaScript, TypeScript, WebGL, ThreeJS, Raphael, SVG, D3, Processing, Canvas API, ActionScript, NodeJS, jQuery, MEAN, Heroku, Java, Python, C++, PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, Bootstrap, Foundation, HTML, CSS, XML, JSON, REST, Electron, Flash/Flex/AIR, Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Balsamiq, Axure, iOS, Android, SVN, Git, UNIX/Linux, Windows, Mac OS X

Is there scripting and/or API in this version? Or any plans to add it soon?

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz that just came out is fantastic fun full of good science - she is a science writer. It also got positive reviews from William Gibson and Neal Stephenson.

This link might be useful for comparison: http://colormind.io

For some it is a status symbol. Ask any teenager how make/model of the smartphone designates their social status at school... It is similar with other items. You can buy (second hand) jeans for $10 and you can buy designer jeans for $1000. Both are suitable to wear in most situations. Some people have no choice. Some don't mind spending (wasting?) $1000 on the high-end version. The features are not always the reason people buy things and this nowadays includes smartphones.