HAX Lab

Some awesome submissions and future HAX Lab work coming in from Penn State IST 256. We see many HAX Lab Interns in 2025.

# copy this to make a new site with 2 pages and publish it to surge.sh! npm install --global @haxtheweb/create hax site newsite --y --no-i cd newsite hax site node:add --title "New Page" --content "<p>Easy Peasy</p>" --y hax site site:surge

Since my last post, I had a productive meeting with Bill Rose, the Product Owner at HAX Lab. We had a long discussion hashing out details, refining ideas for each use case, iterating on the wireframe design, and discussing areas for further improvement. After our conversation, we decided on a design where the filtering menu is on the side, descriptions in each card and links leading to the demo within the description (check out the wireframe images below). These wireframes have come a long way and I’m excited to start building them! There are still a few key areas that need attention while continuing this project — including micro-copy, defining the different attributes of each template, and reviewing our existing themes. But I’m making steady progress! This week, I began laying the foundation for the project. I used the HAX CLI to create the initial structure, generating the necessary project packages through terminal commands. Now, within the .json files I will start building out web components for each element in the wireframe.

Here at HAX Lab, we’re leveraging our new CLI (command line interface) to build courses on the fly, using GenAI-generated content. Oh yeah, and then take your OER (open educational resources) course and hook up a chat to it. Student chat. Faculty quiz questions generated (with answers). All done using course content to help reduce hallucinations. Come see the stuff we’re building to help empower students and faculty.   What could be next? Hmmmmm. Tell us what features you want to see.   Check out the demo: https://lnkd.in/eJB8G942   Github repo: https://lnkd.in/ejfmKf9u   #haxtheweb #edtech #genai #edu

Making the web easy for anyone to publish and own their presence.

So many filled pages of a notebook it MUST be a well researched idea! This will add the concept of 'skeletons' to HAX by visually creating a searchable dashboard for users to select their use-case. It's about making things more visible that is already there! Great work so far and more to come! https://lnkd.in/eUKEsgAh

Over the past two weeks in the HAX Lab, I’ve been focused on quantifying SimpleColors across various elements in webcomponents to ensure they align with Penn State's Design Standards. Maintaining consistency in color and design is important for creating cohesive and accessible user experiences. At Penn State, we use DDD (Develop, Design, and Destroy) as a core framework for implementing themes and design across our platforms. By aligning with this standard, we’re able to maintain the visual identity while enhancing usability and accessibility across digital experiences.

This week at the HAX Lab I worked on querying my Pinecone database and attaching metadata.

Bill Rose was so proud to show me his usage of the spotify-embed tag to mock up content in HAX Lab . The rapid iteration and prototyping live what will be there is something that often must be experienced to understand why it's such a big deal for users. Left is the output, drag and drop to assemble. To the right is the HTML HAX wrote. Easy to read, maintain, and remix. That's HAX. Try it today in your browser: https://hax.cloud/ #pennstate #innovation #edtech #edu #ngdle #education #webdev #webcomponents #hax

A couple of weeks ago Nathan Inman and I started working on a Inforgrpahic plan to maximize involvement in HAX Lab with Professor Bryan Ollendyke. Our first step has been to create a multi-question survey, involving inclusive questions directed to different stakeholder groups currently involved in HAX. We are almost complete with the final draft of those questions and hope to be launching it out via email very soon! Our next step is to collect the necessary data to create the infographic , showing specifically how HAX Lab has improved the quality of work, efficiency level and overall skill level of users! #qualitativereseach #HCIlinks #infographic #HAXLab