Demo App - Find Restaurants Near Me
I wrote the app pictured below to demonstrate my responsive web development skills. I also wanted to create something fun and useful for friends and potential clients.
If you say “yes” when the app asks for permission to read your location, it displays a list of restaurants near you, sorted by proximity, closest first. I use it many times a week when I want a quick list of restaurants within walking distance.
It works on desktop web (Mac and PC) as well as mobile (iOS, Android, etc.).
The image below is a screen shot of the app, not the app itself.
To use the app, CLICK HERE when you’re browsing this page on your phone, Mac or PC, to open the app in a separate web browser window. You can then save it as a favorite, or add a shortcut to your Home screen.
Click the “Tech Stack” top-level menu item in the app if you want to know how it’s built. Please feel free to share it!
Demo Chat Bot - Find Restaurants Near Me
As an alternative to the app shown above, I wrote a chat bot based on Microsoft’s Bot Framework.
CLICK HERE TO TRY THE CHAT BOT
It runs on all major desktop web browsers and mobile devices.
Commercial App - Invisible Solutions Lens Browser
I was hired by keynote speaker and author Stephen Shapiro as a content strategist for his book Invisible Solutions: 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems.
I created the title for the book, and provided guidance on the book’s structure and feedback on its contents.
In addition, I created a responsive mobile and web app that allows readers of the book to explore cards whose text and video content teach the book’s 25 “lenses”, ways to reframe business problems.
TRY THE LENS BROWSER SOFTWARE. It works on Mac, Windows and all major mobile phones and tablets.
Stephen and I are currently collaborating on user research and UX design to develop chat bot software which will provide a more engaging experience for the user. We’re proud of the Lens Browser, which is an example of what Stephen calls a “tell me” tool. It provides information. Books and speeches are also “tell me” tools.
The Lens Bot will be an “enable me” tool. Our goal for the Lens Bot is for Stephen’s Fortune 50 clients to tell us that they are able to reframe their own business problems in ways they are not able to without the Lens Bot. We believe that effective reframes are a vital first step in solving tough, important problems.
Commercial App - MindModel
Back in 1996, I had an idea for software that would allow the user to create useful relational databases without doing any programming.
This patent application I filed explains the details of the design.
The basic idea was to allow the user to import or enter data based on a pre-defined sentence structure.
For example, the user would choose “person” from a list of types, then enter the person’s name. We offer over 250 other commonly-used types, including organization, concept, skill, etc.
The user would then choose a verb which most closely matches their intent. We provide 700 verbs, divided into categories, such as personal relationships, work relationships, education. Let’s say the user chooses “works for”.
MindModel “knows” that there are a limited number of things a person can work for: person, organization, group, etc. So MindModel presents a short list of types for this part of the statement.
The user then chooses the organization the person works for, if it’s already in the db, or enters the org name.
That’s it. MindModel now knows about the person, the organization and the connection (relation) between them, without any programming.
We’ve sold licenses to Tivo UK, US Navy, United Nations, Partners HealthCare International, some well-known music artists and others.
MindModel is Windows desktop software. We do not currently have mobile or Web versions.
We offer a free 30-day, fully-functional trial version of MindModel Windows desktop software, so please CLICK HERE TO TRY IT OUT if you’re interested. :)