About

I'm Dave Elfving, and this is where I share projects and ideas. I'm a teacher, artist and Experience Designer living in San Francisco. I teach in the Interaction Design program at the California College of the Arts, and I've served on the board of directors at First Exposures, Gray Area, and SF Camerawork. For a long time, I worked at Apple on their interactive marketing team. If you like, you can learn more about me at LinkedIn.

Speaking

My AI Co-Teacher — Long Now Foundation, Ignite Talks 2023

Teaching Design with AI — AI User Group, AI For Designers #26

My AI Teaching Assistant — AI User Group, AI For Designers #16

Teaching

California College of the Arts — 2021 - 2026
Adjunct Professor II
I introduced new design majors to Interaction Design through two required courses. After this work, students were prepared for future projects.

Core IXD: Foundations
Introduces the fundamental concepts of interaction design: research, ideation and testing. Projects include redesigning the SF Muni ticket kiosk, and crafting an interactive physical space with augmented reality.

Core IXD: Behavior
Considers how design is informed by human behavior. We discuss the ethics of design, understand how design can deceive and consider the responsible use of AI design tools. Projects include the development of an app for better sleep, and a final project using apps and connected devices to change habits.

Gray Area — 2020 - Present
I offer workshops that pair physical computing with "vibe coding". The classes provide a shared experience of building, and an introduction to working with software and code.

The Analog Station
This a workshop-in-a-kit introduces soldering, AI coding and Arduino. Students build and take home a working audio meter / climate monitor.

The Everything Frame
An introduction to Raspberry Pi and the Linux command line; students build a fully configured wireless digital frame.

Apple University Associate — 2016 - 2019
Beyond my formal role at Apple, I worked with their internal education program, Apple University. I taught the “What Makes Apple, Apple” curriculum to new employees.

University of Illinois at Chicago – 2004-2007
I taught an undergraduate public speaking course and worked as a Teaching Assistant within the UIC department of Communication