Bio

My name is Gretchen Caldwell Rinnert, and I am a professor in the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University. I teach interaction design, motion design, as well as visual ethics, and design theory. As a graduate student at NC State, I was drawn to education and creating tools for children. My thesis was about giving pre-teen girls ways to be creative and participate together in classroom activities. I have continued this work at Kent State. Since 2015 I have been working on a suite of tools that help pre-literate children learn letters and numbers. 

 

I am one of the founding members of the MODE Summit, a motion design educators summit that takes place every two years and is a peer-reviewed, international event. I have served as the Associate Director and Undergraduate Coordinator, and I helped to establish the User Experience Design Minor in 2016. 

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Selection of Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 

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Martens, M, Rinnert, G.C. and Andersen C.(2018) “Child-Centered Design: Developing an Inclusive Letter Writing App” Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 9, Human Media Interaction, 06 December 2018, Edited by Jennifer L. Miller, Publishers: Frontiers in Psychology,  Lausanne Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02277

 

Mooney, A, Martens, M, and Rinnert, G.C. (2018) “Energetic Alpha: Co-Designing a Letter Learning Tool for Three-to-Six Year Olds” Dialectic, Volume 2, Issue 1, Summer 2018, Publishers: AIGA DEC (Design Educators Community) and Michigan Publishing, New York, NY. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/dialectic.14932326.0002.109

    

Coorey, Jillian and Rinnert, G.C. (2014) “Critical Writing Strategies to Improve Class Critiques” Visible Language (April 2014). The Journal of Visual Communication Research. 47 (3). pp. 30–51. ISSN 0022-2224. 

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Selection of Publications

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Martens, M, and Rinnert, G.C (2019) Designing for Digital Inclusion: Developing Energetic Alpha for Preschoolers Joan Ganz Cooney Center, http://joanganzcooneycenter.org NB: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is the research division of Sesame Street.

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Rinnert, G.C. Mooney, A, and Martens, M, (2018) “Energetic Alpha: A Design Continuum Created Through Collaboration” The Theory and Practice of Motion Design: Critical Perspectives and Professional Practice, Edited by R. Brian Stone and Leah Wahlin, Routledge, New York, NY. 

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Rinnert, G.C. and Martens, M, Mooney, A,  Talbot, J. and Rinnert, B. (2017) “Energetic Alpha, Playful Handwriting Practice for Children” Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, Stanford, California / Stanford University. Stanford, California, USA — June 27 - 30, 2017 . ACM New York, NY. Peer reviewed, pp. 687-691. 

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Rinnert, G.C. (2014) “Designing for a Better Patient Experience,” Experience Design: Key Concepts and Cases, Bloomsbury Academic, London, UK, Edited by Peter Benz https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/experience-design-9781472569394/

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Motion Design Education Summit 2015 Edited Conference Proceedings
Co-Editors: Murnieks A., Rinnert G.C. Stone R.B. and Tegtmeyer, R.

Routledge Taylor and Francis Group

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Recent Exhibitions and Presentations​

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• Passion Project (2018) with Martens, Mooney, Talbott, and B. Rinnert at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Conkling Gallery

• Decipher (2018) with Jillian Coorey, at University of Michigan

• Connected Learning Summit, (2018) at MIT Media Lab

• Interaction Design and Children (2017) at Stanford University

• Screentime Symposium (2016) at Illinois Institute of Technology

• Nuts + Bolts, AIGA DEC (2016) with Jillian Coorey, at BGSU

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