Home | Frank Elavsky
PhD at Carnegie Mellon University investigating accessibility and data interaction. Previously: data interaction R&D at Adobe, Highsoft, Apple, Visa, + others.| Frank Elavsky
PhD at Carnegie Mellon University investigating accessibility and data interaction. Previously: data interaction R&D at Adobe, Highsoft, Apple, Visa, + others.| Frank Elavsky
How do you know if you have a place in academia? What about knowing whether you belong anywhere at all?| Frank Elavsky
People do PhDs for all sorts of reasons. But I’ve come to realize that one of mine has been that I’ve been trying to prove something to myself. I’m sure that I’m not alone.| Frank Elavsky
PhD at Carnegie Mellon University investigating accessibility and data interaction. Previously: data interaction R&D at Adobe, Highsoft, Apple, Visa, + others.| Frank Elavsky
Don’t critique Good Corp’s Super Productionizer (SP™) unless you can offer solutions to the problem. Otherwise, get out of my way.| Frank Elavsky
I’m tired of this phrase and this simple way of thinking about tools. This blog post is a wandering train of thought on the topic of what tools are and why it matters to be even slightly more mature in how we think about them.| Frank Elavsky
If words are written, if sounds are uttered, was something still *said*? How do large-language models change who we are and what it means to *do* anything? And how does the overall economy of riskless LLM-use shift honesty, truth, our climate, and the future of the world?| Frank Elavsky
The phrase 'design for all' isn't quite as bad as 'all lives matter' but there is something a little tricky about this phrase when it comes to accessibility and disability. We should probably question what we really mean by this.| Frank Elavsky
How should I decide what I do after my Ph.D: soul-sucking industry work that pays sicko money, or scraping by as a postdoc until I’m lucky enough to land some kind of magical position in academia?| Frank Elavsky
How much minimalism is too much minimalism? I explore this question and propose the most minimalist, highest scoring data-to-ink ratio on a visualization ever made as a thought piece. Why? Well novices learning to make data visualizations are often taught to avoid ‘chart junk’ and strive towards visual minimalism. But they aren’t told when to stop.| Frank Elavsky
Accessibility overlays are for suckers. But they are ruining the spirit and reputation of one of the best things about computers: personalization. So why do businesses love them?| Frank Elavsky
Large-language models aren’t just coming for our jobs, they’re coming for our thoughts and vibes.| Frank Elavsky
Driving towards a better future is hard. There is a fine line, when it comes to accessibility, between pushing people forward and pushing them away.| Frank Elavsky
There is a just-emerging conversation by big names in the field of visualization, proposing to rebrand from ‘visualization’ towards ‘data experiences.’ While I love this, folks either seem to be unaware or actively shifting the conversation from where we have been focusing the last few years: including people with disabilities. I hope we aren’t forgotten in this new turn for our field.| Frank Elavsky
Nobody who is a good person who also dislikes AI wants to hear this: Refusal and resistance are necessary, but if we don’t have power, we will probably lose. We need to resist and refuse while we still have a place at the table. And if we don’t have a place at the table, we need to invite ourselves to it.| Frank Elavsky
I’m making a text game where you play a street urchin who steals things. I also wanted to know what people thought of it, so I did some play tests.| Frank Elavsky
The more I think about myself and why I do the things I do, the more I recognize that I love systems with depth. I love systems specifically that enable possibilities through constraints. This is partially why I like numbers or visualizing data, but more to do with why I love games and tool-making.| Frank Elavsky
People with the power to fix our inaccessible web have failed to do it for long enough. Isn’t it time to imagine ways we can repair the web without waiting for them?| Frank Elavsky
What books should I read to learn data visualization? Where do I learn current trends and best practices?| Frank Elavsky
The scale of inaccessibility is enormous and things aren’t looking too good.| Frank Elavsky
I’m happy to announce my latest project, Data Navigator! Making interactive data visualizations work with assistive technologies that navigate content is complex and difficult work. Data Navigator aims to make this easier.| Frank Elavsky
