Chelsea HoweInterview
Creative Director (Electronic Arts)
Adapted from Chelsea Howe's interview on Uses This, published 1 August 2015. The kit is drawn from their answers and each reason is an excerpt, lightly edited. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full interview ↗
Is this you? Claim this kit →Hardware
My main personal computer is the mid 2014 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.
The lack of hard drive space is a constant nuisance and it can't Bluetooth to Apple TV which renders it near worthless in most work meetings.
Besides the laptops, I also have a Wacom Intuos4 tablet (Model: PTK-640) and two Lacie hard drives dating from 2009 and 2014 - a backup, and a backup of my backup.
On the experimental side of things, I've got the littleBits Arduino coding kit, which essentially lets you play around with circuitry soldering-free.
Communication
Productivity
I use PowerPoint more than any other program on my computer, because it's a quick, visual way of conveying ideas which is the most important part of my job.
Notes
Coding & Development
If I'm feeling exceptionally experimental, I'll open up Pd (Pure Data).
Processing is what I use to test out more visual effects or artistic interactions.
Design
Omnigraffle is vital for wireframing and putting together game flows.
We use InVision to bring those wireframes to life.
Media
Skitch is another tool for red-lining and giving feedback, capturing and reporting bugs, or doing ultra-fast mockups.
For audio I use Reason, mostly for scoring and concepting audio design or trying to find synths that fit with the world I'm designing.
Other
On my personal computer, I've picked up Manga Studio 5 for visual work, as I'm not 100% on board with Adobe's cloud solution.
Twine is extraordinarily useful for narrative and choice experimentation.