Fred's posts
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
The challenge The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) has an online presence that spans several websites. These websites are very diverse in purpose and they serve a wide range of people. At the same time, it's important that there is continuity when…
Figma's Color Contrast Checker
Figma's built-in color contrast checker is so helpful! I used to rely on a few different plugins to check color contrast. Some of those had features Figma is missing, but I love how integrated the Figma tool is. The line and dotted pattern to indicate…
Update — #Open-To-Work
An update to my #Open-To-Work post is in order. Turns out, we retained some of the contracts that we thought were ending. While the situation in public health communication and govtech design is still volatile, it looks like my tenure at CommunicateHealth can continue for…
How cool is this dataviz project?!
National Eye Institute: Interactive Eye Graphic
The challenge The eye is a complex organism and the various stages of diseases and conditions affect the individual parts in specific ways. We created an interactive eye graphic tool that shows an anatomically correct eyeball in different angles and with different stages of cer…
U.S. National Water Safety Action Plan
The challenge The U.S. National Water Safety Action Plan (USNWSAP) has a clear mission: Prevent drowning in the United States through evidence-informed action. In order to achieve this a database of 98 Action Recommendations was created. Making this database easy to navigate and implement is…
#Open-To-Work
The morning of November 6th 2024, I told my partner Laura: "This isn't just horrible news in general, it's probably going to cost me my job". Turns out that was true. So, as I prepare for what's next, I'm officially "open to work". As you…
Bite-sized book review: Playground — Richard Powers
I came close to not finishing this a few times. I didn't dislike it but never really got into it. The ending felt a bit gimmicky.
Does listening to an audiobook count as "reading"? I'm not sure it does. Either way, I listened to Craig Mod reading his (audio)book Things Become Other Things while working in the yard. Craig made the opposite move from me, he emigrated from the US. I immigrated here instead. It felt perfectly appropriate to listen to Craig's story while tending to my little suburban piece of America.
Go give it a listen, or read the actual book. I highly recommend it. If you listen to the audiobook, don't miss the photos, they're in the extras.