James Dishman
Interaction Designer · Creative Technologist
Summary
Interaction designer and creative technologist turning complex research and musical practices into working tools. Leads product direction, research, design, and evaluation, using AI coding tools for implementation. Completing an MS in User Experience at Kent State University.
Selected Projects
Creator and Systems Designer | Independent Project
- Created a persistent AI collaboration system for ongoing research and product development, connecting searchable memory, a project wiki, and specialist agents to carry work across sessions and between Linux and Mac.
- Designed controlled memory updates with a single writing agent and source history; connect local and hosted models through shared retrieval and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations.
- In a fixed 75-question evaluation in May 2026, wiki-first routing increased queries with relevant results in the top 20 from 23 to 73. Continue investigating missed context and testing recovery when components fail.
Creator and Interaction Designer | Independent Project / MS Capstone
- Conceived and lead development of a touch-native iPad FM performance instrument, exploring how multitouch interaction, device motion, and environmental sensing can shape sound and performance through the platform’s distinctive affordances.
- Designed held-note editing so players can sustain a chord, retarget or merge notes, and remove individual pitches; verified behavior on a physical iPad prototype built with Swift/SwiftUI and AudioKit.
- MS capstone: five-participant usability discovery study planned to guide refinement; continued development and release planned after graduation.
Creator and Product Designer | Independent Product
- Designed and released KB POMO on the App Store, integrating kettlebell exercise scheduling, demonstrations, and workout logging with Apple Watch and Apple Health.
- Built with SwiftUI; an Android port using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose is in testing.
Creator and Product Designer | Independent Research and Development
- Originated Music Atlas to address longstanding limitations in DJ music-library management; lead development of tools for organizing, exploring, and selecting music from a 51,000-track collection.
- Direct large-corpus analysis producing 51,178 sectional tonal maps across 519,685 sections; evaluate methods through controlled comparisons and reliability checks, identifying where results require human validation.
Education
Professional Experience
Title Abstractor
Nomad Land Services LLC
- Conduct property, lease, and mineral-ownership research across states and counties, tracing chains of title back past the 1850s through document analysis, deed plotting, GIS, and probate research.
- Improve research workflows through comprehensive record review, cross-instrument reconciliation, and reviewer feedback. Preserve source attribution, separate recorded facts from calculations or inference, flag conflicts, and verify client reports against template requirements.
Title Abstractor
Nomad Land Services LLC
- Led small teams resolving title defects and partnered with attorneys on complex property research.
Co-Founder and Organizer
Pittsburgh Ableton User Group
- Organize meetings, workshops, and performances for an independent Ableton Live community; serve as liaison to Ableton’s community team on expert-user workflows.
- Led design and delivery of PAUG.net, a live community hub built with Next.js and GitHub Pages.
Graduate Assistant
Kent State University, School of Information
- Supported faculty research for a UX textbook in development; organized analyses of books, course resources, and lecture inventories and reviewed the MS UX program website’s structure and copy.
Additional experience
- Smart Meter Technician, Wellington Energy, FirstEnergy contractor (April 2025 to May 2026)
- Material Handler, Osmose Utility Services (2021–2023)
- Assistant Brewer, Four Points Brewing (2019–2023)
- Earlier work in live events, AV, and print production.
Academic UX Research and Accessibility
- Audited NPR.org against 56 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 A/AA criteria and documented findings in a VPAT 2.5 report using automated checks, VoiceOver, keyboard navigation, and contrast testing.
- Contributed to a mobile usability study conducted by five facilitators with 15 participants, supporting task design, moderated testing, analysis, and recommendations.
Skills
Design and research
User experience (UX) design, mobile interaction design, user research, prototyping, user flows, information architecture, Figma, usability testing, interviews, heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthroughs, research synthesis, accessibility auditing.
Applied AI
Agent-workflow design, memory governance, retrieval evaluation, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), MCP, local inference, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Hermes, Ollama, llama.cpp.
Technologies used across projects
Swift/SwiftUI, AudioKit, Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, TypeScript, React/Next.js, Python, SQLite, Git, GitHub Actions, Max for Live.