Michael Tseng

Bio:

Founder of Turf Geography Club, interaction designer by day, and amateur pixel pusher at night. (Michael often speaks in third person.) He'd like to help advance humanity towards the frontier by pioneering with a Best Made Co. axe in one hand and an iPad in the other. Michael prides himself on his gaming skills (7x gm, 85 mage, 60 bard, & Cal im). In a past life he worked on digital advertising.

• Title: Designer
• Age: 28
• Location: SoHo
• Contact: @Gravitational

What is the best thing you have ever done in your life?

Best thing ever done is kind of a big question. At one point I thought it was traveling to Hawaii to work for a well known athlete. But since then I've realized that on paper it was impressive but by no means my 'best' thing. Maybe it was the Asian work ethic that drove me to delight in professional achievements. I've realized that the best thing I've done is move to NYC. The last time I felt this level of belonging was back in design school.

You are currently raising funds on Kickstarter for a project of yours, Turf Geography Club: An iPhone Game.  Where did the concept for this game come from?

Turf is the result of my fondness for the location based services foursquare and gowalla. As a seasoned explorer I love that I can document the places that I've been and even share them with friends. As a gamer I desire a way to tie games into my everyday activities. I think location based mechanics can be leveraged to create unique user interactions.

What people, places, and/or things inspire you?

Another difficult question to answer. I tend to draw inspiration from everything. Whether it's nature itself or other designers. A large source has been stand up comedians. There's a great video online of Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis CK just chatting about their craft. These are masters of interaction design who are constantly deconstructing human behavior.

When is the last time you took a vacation? And where did you end up going?

I'm long over due for a vacation. I plan to take a 2 week road trip west. Theres something alluring about the open road, larger than life attractions, and crappy motels. On another note, last New Years I went to Barcelona with my family so I don't count it as vacation.