Professors
Multimedia Studies Professor
Jay Laird has been working with computers since 1981, when he found himself face to face with an Apple ][+. First he tried to write a game on it, then he decided he needed some better tools and set about writing them instead. That pretty much set his dual careers in user interface design and game design in motion.
No explanation except insanity can be found for the other careers he keeps up on the side, including writing movies (The Strangler's Wife) and comics (Star Wars Tales: Do or Do Not). In his spare hours -- when he should be sleeping -- Jay writes about technology for various publishers and teaches programming, design, and animation at Northeastern University.
Ann McDonald
Multimedia Studies Professor
Ann McDonald is an Associate Academic Specialist at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches in the Graphic Design and Multimedia Studies programs. She focuses on educational interactive projects that can best be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration. Her exhibit and interactive design work for clients such as The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The New England Aquarium, and The National Health Sciences Consortium have offered wide audiences access to complex topics. Her recent collaborations with Jay Laird, students and her six-year-old twins have pushed her into the world of games.
She studied at the Institute of Design and then earned a BFA from the University of Washington beginning her career as an information and environmental graphic designer, creating an award winning body of work. Subsequently she received a MFA in graphic design from Yale University. Her design interests continue to stem from a desire to inhabit an information space.
