I am fascinated with the people and their endeavours with computers. Helping them accomplish their goals is my imperative.
As a user interface designer I design mostly complex software applications but also love to design web sites and all things mobile.
I enjoy little things in life. Coffee is an essential part of my working process and red wine an unavoidable ingredient of pleasant evenings. When I was a kid I played tennis but today I play squash. When I was a kid I listened heavy metal - and I still do. Before I learned to talk, I painted. I had my first exhibition when I was 12 and made my first software application in 1990, when I was 15. It was awful.
Design process
My process involves problem framing through various research techniques, exploring and creating concepts, testing them with users and creating visual design. I code, too.
1Understanding the problem, context and users is the foundation of a good design. In this pahse I try to discover users' goals, business requirements, constraints and opportunities. The techiques I mostly use are interviewing and observing people, task analysis and business requirements analysis.
2Exploring is the most interesting part of my work. Through various ideation techniques I create a variety of ideas which I visualise and explore through sketching.
3After exploring ideas I believe in, I validate them through wireframes and/or testing prototypes with users. After validation I usually go back to ideation. Let's be honest, no one gets it in the first iteration.
4Creating visual design and HTML&CSS is a creative but tricky phase. It can actually overlap with previous phase(s) if necessary. Business people mostly have difficulties in understanding rough sketches so Ileave that for collaboration with designers and developers.
5This is where formal delivery takes place along with presentations, training and support.
Former developer
My programming career started in early '90 and was very successfull. I was working on many interesting projects and gained college diploma in computer science. But during the years, a passion for design prevailed over technology and I slowly shifted to design. Today, I successfully use my former experience in development, not only in my design process, but also in understanding development teams and relationships in software industry.
Blogger & writer
I love to write about the things I do and like. But I find writing more frustrating than pleasurable. My english sucks, I always struggle to find enough time for writing, and I am never satisfied with the outcome. But, hey, things are somehow moving forward. I'm quite happy with what my blog became. I never thought it would be anything greater than a place for my friends to make fun of me.
I write for other blogs too, and I even co-authored a book!
Speaker
During the past couple of years I had great pleasure to participate in several conferences in my region. Since the audience was primarly developers, I mostly talked about front-end development with jQuery but had a few speaches on design, too.
Artist
Art is an inseparable part of me. I was drawing cars in perspective when I was only 5. Who knows where I would be today if I took that path. But I didn't. When I was 12, I met a computer. And since then I am imbued by the war between the art and the computer. And just when I thought the war will exhaust me I discovered user interface design. Some of my paintings and drawings can be found on my flickr gallery.
Why warp speed?
Warp speed (or warp drive) is a theoretical speed, much faster than the speed of light. How would it work? Warp speed technology is not an actual speed, rather, it creates an artificial "bubble" of normal space-time that surrounds you while bending space-time continuum outside the bubble. Bending space-time would allow you to travel at a velocity greater than light. So why does this matter?
Well, the Universe is a dangerous place - there are many asteroids that might devastate the life on Earth. Just like every other star, our Sun will die in the far future. We, humans, are already making serious damage to our planet. This is why we would need to look for a new home.
Reaching the speed of light or warp speed opens possibilities for human race to explore the Universe and find earth-like planet that we might colonize. In a not very near future that will probably be the only way for human race to survive.
We can't invent such technology now. But if we set this as our ultimate goal, the goal that will permeate our lives, we might make it someday.