Sii Design & Development Manager
Each day I get to be an architect, a builder and learn something new...
At Netbasic, we work as a close-knit, fast-paced team and we're never standing still. We each specialise in our own fields, but we work and learn together, and as such, achieve a fuller and more intimate understanding of what we are able to accomplish.
The Big Reveal...
posted by sii on August 26th, 2008
It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd make an appearance. Well, you know, write some words 'or something' [note the use of Jon's obligatory disclaimer (and square brackets!)].
So, we've been busy busy over the last fewdays weeks months, working our little socks off, trying to build the next best thing, and you know what? It shows.
Read this.
How long ago was that?
Now, I've been in the 'white beast' on numerous occasions, as have many of the team here, making the daily trip to Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available) to purchase lovely and 'hyper'-inducing food stuffs that help us through the hard graft of the after lunch hours.... but where's the reveal? When will we find out what lurks beyond the 'stripy blur' that vanishes from the car park at the end of each day?
Come on mate, sort it out.
We're waiting.
So, we've been busy busy over the last few
Read this.
How long ago was that?
Now, I've been in the 'white beast' on numerous occasions, as have many of the team here, making the daily trip to Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available) to purchase lovely and 'hyper'-inducing food stuffs that help us through the hard graft of the after lunch hours.... but where's the reveal? When will we find out what lurks beyond the 'stripy blur' that vanishes from the car park at the end of each day?
Come on mate, sort it out.
We're waiting.
Getting Real Brown
posted by sii on June 16th, 2008
Well I'm back. I've just had a lovely 2 weeks in Javea, tanning up on the Spanish coast, and now I'm pumped up and ready to go. I've been filling myself with ideas from the book 'Getting Real' by 37signals and I'm secretly quite proud of how much of their 'Real' philosophy we already follow at Netbasic.
From a design perspective, the most interesting idea I've read about is 'Epicenter Design' - Start from the core of the page and build outward - and it makes so much sense. If we were manufacturing a car, we wouldn't craft a sexy outer shell and then try and mount the engine inside. That would force us to limit the performance of the car. Or hack a nasty hole in the bonnet and patch it up later. We'd decide which engine we were going to need, then design the sexy outer shell around it. So that means two jobs done in the right order and three jobs if not. Proof that designing the engine first is the right thing. But in a website, what is the engine?
It could be two things. To a developer, the engine could be the database or even the framework. But to a designer perhaps, the part of the page that people use the most is the engine. Not the header or navigation (though these would be used a lot), but the bit of the page that is the reason the page is there. The bit that if missing would render the page useless. The car stationary. And no-one getting anywhere fast.
From a design perspective, the most interesting idea I've read about is 'Epicenter Design' - Start from the core of the page and build outward - and it makes so much sense. If we were manufacturing a car, we wouldn't craft a sexy outer shell and then try and mount the engine inside. That would force us to limit the performance of the car. Or hack a nasty hole in the bonnet and patch it up later. We'd decide which engine we were going to need, then design the sexy outer shell around it. So that means two jobs done in the right order and three jobs if not. Proof that designing the engine first is the right thing. But in a website, what is the engine?
It could be two things. To a developer, the engine could be the database or even the framework. But to a designer perhaps, the part of the page that people use the most is the engine. Not the header or navigation (though these would be used a lot), but the bit of the page that is the reason the page is there. The bit that if missing would render the page useless. The car stationary. And no-one getting anywhere fast.
Effin & Jeffin
posted by sii on May 19th, 2008
All morning James has been effin n jeffin, piss, fart and grunting, and generally making unhappy noises from across the office.
I would too if I sat like this.
I would too if I sat like this.
Sii...
Getting an early night ahead of a big day.
Never-ending story
sjcdesign.com came to life in 1996 and in all this time it's not settled on an outfit, a means of transportation, or what it enjoys doing the most. It's my site. And it's happy. Enough said.
Design
In recent years, I've found that for a lot of my design reading, A List Apart really is the ticket. There are a wide variety of topics covered and some really interesting solutions revealed.
Technology
I get a lot of stick in the office for using a Mac, but thankfully the experience is never so painful that I fancy giving it all up and going back to a blue-screening PC. In fact I'd say 90% of the time, using my Mac is 310.8% more enjoyable than making up statistics about using a PC.
"Sii is our multimedia junkie. He is that rare combination of talented artist and superlative scientist. His talents know no bounds.
He has programmed, sketched logos by hand, produced video presentations in flash and has even found the time to design websites!"
He has programmed, sketched logos by hand, produced video presentations in flash and has even found the time to design websites!"