Studying in the Netherlands gave me the opportunity to take a step back from web based user interface design. In the context of more physical products and industrial design we had to think about interaction beyond the screen. Having said this, I realized how much I enjoy and miss designing 2D user interfaces. And so during this study period I began thinking and creating a new design tool for prototyping rich UIs.

Sometime in high school it all started for me when I found a potential client in a newspaper clipping with a number of domain names and ten times the ideas to ride the dot com boom. And so I began learning to build web sites. First they were simple brochure ware sites. Then, they evolved into more complex database driven sites relying on more complex forms of back end and front end programming. I learned a great deal. Unfortunately only a few of these web sites survive to this day. However, what is important to underline is that during these very days my balanced interest in technology, design, and usability in the context of the web was being born.

Just in between high school and university, I caught an opportunity to work for my first web design studio where I worked in a team environment. I mainly worked with HTML and graphic applications, as well as supported a number of simple CGI scripting initiatives.

Working at Devlin was a good thing. My ideals finally received the chance to collide with reality. Throughout that one cumulative year of full-time work, I was primarily active in the web production & web programming departments. Closer till the end, the usability department began emerging and I received my first exposure to user-centered design. Unfortunately the contract expired once the dot com bubble began bursting.

I enrolled in a design programme which was strongly tied to a graphic design tradition. It was good. I learned to use the visual language to prioritize information, create meaning, and convey messages clearly and legibility. There was also a strong lean on typography. This school has provided me with skills which I use to this day as an interface designer.

As part of a work-study programme, I took up a small part time job with my university. Here I designed and delivered a number of course web sites for various faculty needs. This was just one more opportunity to exercise some design skills while in school.

After graduating, I have returned to Devlin for another contract. This time, I fully worked within the usability department where my typical tasks included: setting up, carrying out, documenting, and presenting findings for various usability studies. The key learning during this experience was a desire to find new ways of bringing usability testing sooner into the design process.

At this little energetic company I joined in helped out from design to production. First I was given a nice big screen monitor and designed their brand identity. Once that was in place, I took on the task of structuring their web site, as well as jumping into visual design of the interface. As the months moved on, I finally supported the developers with front end code as we were building the new site. What did I learn? One key learning was to distance myself from design concepts during critique as well as present alternative interface ideas.

This contract was short but sweet. One of my first assignments was to revisit and rethink traditional IA artefact's, such as: flow diagrams, site maps, and wireframe schematics. I was able to use my graphic design background and clash it against information architecture. One important take away around this time for me was when I began thinking of making design documents easier to change (ex. stopped using arrow links in between boxes which solidify documents).

Finally, one more project included the creation of a heuristic evaluation of a government web site. Somewhere along this time I also learned not to use the words "perhaps" or "maybe" inside recommendation documents. :)

At Unikron I received the opportunity to once again juggle interface design with web development, with a lean towards technology. The technological context was centered around streaming video, and I received the chance to exercise my programming skills as well. Somewhere at this time the Flash programming became so advanced, that I discovered my limits with Actionscript. At Unikron, I began feeling a desire to continue expanding my career more so in the direction of user interface design with an emphasis on interface usability and usefulness.

Here was my first time to work for a larger company. At Sapient I was mostly responsible for delivering wireframe schematics and eventually working front end code. In this consulting environment, one thing which was novel to me was Sapient's ability of creating a uniform vision for clients through workshop activities. Larger clients, larger teams.

Working in Australia on the YellowPages site in an agile environment was a great experience. Developers would throw spontaneous requests at me, and I would have to respond with just in time design. I loved the energy. This ability to really converse with the developers was a biggest take away for me, and it is something I would really like to do again in the near future. Having an opportunity to think about interface ideas around the way people search and browse was also exciting.

I began working for Tribler on a part-time basis to support the team with design work for their open source P2P software product. I was responsible for both visual and interaction design work at the same time. Working for Tribler also allowed me to exercise my design skills while studying, which was great.

In late 2009 I've started an independent freelance business by offering services in the field of interface design. The area of my speciality spans from early phases of conceptualizing all the way to detailed visual design, prototyping and evaluation. At the same time, on the side I am keeping in touch with the community by building fluidIA.org and running Wireframes Magazine.