Rachel Rose

Welcome to my personal portfolio.

Creativity is key

I write (blogging, and journaling, mostly, but I have a number of published articles.) I dj and compose music. Like most creative people, my interests are wide-ranging. I write songs, which are really poems set to music. I am a self-taught acoustic guitarist, bassist, producer, and singer. I am currently studying “Neuromúsica” with Jordi Jauset.

Personal Portfolio

When I was studying User Experience, we were encouraged to create a personal portfolio. I have used this domain for years but reorganized the content to suit this purpose.

User Experience and Music Technology

Music production is hard! In so many ways, electronic music production AKA home/bedroom studio is incredibly difficult to learn (as is learning to play an instrument, of course). As an auto-didactic music producer, I can assure you that UX is not front and foremost in the minds of music technology interface designers. Without having studied it in depth (yet), I would say that the User Experience has improved since the early days. But, it has so very far to go. Some general comments would include low-contrast interfaces, “hidden” drop-down preset menus (there is quite a minimalist vibe in a lot of music apps and plugins), and lots of TRAs (three-letter acronyms, the anathema of user-focused techies everywhere).

Since this is my portfolio, I will point out that the menu above links to my other websites. I maintain all of them myself, using WordPress and some great plug-ins. I believe that a good grasp of information technology is fundamental to running a small business of any kind. So, I keep hacking and learning.

User Experience and Wellness

The rush to online wellness apps and classes during the pandemic may have degraded the UX of said classes. This is only my opinion, my bias, so I want to find out if it is true. Hence, I am studying the UX of online wellness.

Are you an online wellness user or professional? Would you like to share your experience? Please fill out my UX User Survey!

In my abundant spare time (ROTLF) I would love to dig into the UX of music technology apps and websites, and then blog about it. Watch this space.

Online vs. In-person

Does migrating from an in-person class to an online class degrade the UX? If so, I want to find out how, how much, and how this can be solved. I want to know! I also ask myself if it is better to access a remote class and at least get on your mat. Is the absence of personalized instruction an impediment? Are people more consistent about their yoga/qigong/pilates/etc practice if they can practice from home?

Old is new, is old, is new…

My passion is linking modern science to ancient wisdom. What goes around, comes around. I love taking the esoteric and obscure and making them modern, meaningful, and understandable. Simplicity is the key to understanding anything, and communicators like me have a big role to play in keeping an increasingly complex world user-friendly. Read more about me on my about page.

Thanks for your visit. I hope that you like my portfolio. If you like what you see here, please consider signing up for the occasional email.