How did you get into web design?

I have always been very creative and have been drawing and painting since I can remember. This kind of naturally led to local design projects in my small town - 'He can draw, maybe he can design me a logo too', that seems to be the small town mentality of design - so I found myself designing professionally by the time I was in high school. Web design began as sort of a side project as I explored the areas of graphic design, working my way through HTML and CSS and eventually Flash with much help from online tutorials. I don't think I ever had in mind that the web was something I would pursue past a personal level but I slowly progressed. So when some of my design clients began asking if I did web as well, I started answering, 'Yes, I guess I do'.

Do you remember the very first site you designed?

Vaguely. I did quite a few personal sites first, mostly to showcase my artwork. The very first site I did professionally was for a naturopathic doctor when I was sixteen or so and had no clue about using CSS properly or web standards, or much of anything really. It's really something I would rather forget, so don't expect me to post a link - yes, unfortunately it is still online.

You are doing a lot of Flash, is this a specialization for you?

Yes, definitely. I consider myself an artist and designer first, a developer second, so Flash has always allowed me to control the design and visual aspects completely. I think one of the reasons I have started to become successful in this area is that no matter what the design, my first priority with any client is that they can easily maintain and update their own content, something that isn't often associated with full Flash sites.

Where do you get your art for these webpages?

Generally I will design all the artwork myself.

What will be the next big development in webpage design?

In my view we have so much at our fingertips to create amazing websites, but grasping all of this at once isn't easy. There are now a number of technologies that a web developer can employ to make a very usable, dynamic, visually stimulating, timeless website - the problem is getting all of these technologies to work hand in hand. This is definitely an area that is improving in bounds with developments like Flash Remoting and Ajax - to name only two - which allow the design and programming of a website to exist more easily together. To me it often feels like you design the website in one place and program it in another and hope that both sides will compliment each other when you finally put them together. And sometimes they do, but a lot of the time you can see where design was sacrificed for usability, or vice versa. I think the next big development in webpage design will allow design and programming to exist in harmony.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Flash?

This is very relevant question to my design as I build sites 100% with Flash. The advantages of Flash to me is the ability to create a dynamic, visually interesting website. It gives you a lot more tools to deliver a site that is original and, in relation to my answer earlier, it allows the design and programming of a site to work closely together.

The disadvantages are endless - search-engine optimization is the worst, losing the use of browser navigation and bookmarking, long loading times, etc. Most of these disadvantages can be overcome by a developer though. There are tools for deep-linking which allow use of the back button, bookmarking and linking to specific pages. Search engine optimization is not an easy one but can be overcome a number of ways. Long loading time, flashy graphics and bad animation are all just by-products of the misuse of Flash; a developer with these problems should probably re-think their whole approach, or possibly career direction. This is all something I am struggling with right now. I'm still not employing deep-linking in my designs and am just getting a grasp of Remoting, but hopefully my future projects will employ these techniques.

What are your sources of inspiration?

A lot of my inspiration will come from websites that I admire and designers I look up to. Probably an equal amount though comes from seeing what I do not want to be doing, then doing the opposite. I try to challenge myself in my art and my design to keep pushing myself past my zone of comfort, and I try to do the same with my website design as well. It's not very hard mind you, as I don't really consider my web development skills as strong as I would like and am rarely in my comfort zone when building a site.

What are your favorite website designs that you did and did NOT design yourself?

I'm very self-critical, so it's rare that I end up with a site I am truly happy with. I think my favorite site I have done to date is www.traviscollier.com, simply because I had so much fun working on it with Travis and the result was exactly what he wanted. Being a Flash guy I'm naturally on the lookout for new Flash sites that are doing things better. www.sigarett.com is a favourite of mine right now. Simplicity really makes an impression on me and some of the sites I just can't stand are usually flashy, excessive monsters for cars or liquor or movies.

What was the toughest project or customer situation you've encountered?

So far I have been very lucky with my client history. I don't think I have had a client I can complain about so far. The toughest thing for me is just keeping up with the needs of my clients. I have a few projects coming up that I think will really be the most challenging I have encountered so far, involving membership systems, forums, multiple user updates, all built in Flash. I'm really trying to develop my skills and learn Remoting and get to a point where I have overcome all the disadvantages of using Flash. I'm quite intimidated.

What are your interests and dislikes in webpage design?

I love to see few ideas and designers pushing the borders of website design and taking risks. I hate seeing designers push the borders without considering usability.

Thank you, Eli, for the insights and the great creative work.

Helen Walker

Helen Walker graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and Sociology. She worked as a newspaper journalist for two years after that. Having always been interested in cyberculture and its impact on society, Helen switched to online journalism and joined Design Interviews blog in July, 2007. Ever since she's been interviewing web designers and administrating the blog. Helen is a keen movie-goer and she is also a panda lover.


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Get in touch with Helen: helen.walker4@gmail.com