How did you get into web design?

I started out in web design back in college. My first website was a project that was part of the computers module in my accounting degree. From there I started designing the students union website, personal websites, etc. before getting a part time job in a small design firm, while I was still at college. I never looked back since. It was something I really enjoyed and got a challenge out of... I knew I wanted to work in this industry.

Do you remember the very first site you designed?

Oh yeah... built in FrontPage, no less! It was a formula 1 website for the 2000 season. I had to pick a topic for the project in college and as I had an interest in F1, I decided to do it on that. The site had a lot of cool stuff? dhtml cars driving onto the page, words flying on to the page, etc. but when I look at it now... oh god, my eyes... frames, tables, embedded sound!

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

I've been doing property websites since 2001. I think I've about 30 plus under my belt at this stage. I've got my own custom CMS built for managing the websites now, that's gone through a few versions over the last couple of years. I also have a style to my property websites, which is user centric, and last year I won a Golden Spider Award - largest web awards in Ireland, www.goldenspiders.ie - for one of my client websites, www.raymondpotterton.com. I'm kind of proud of that, you know!

Where do you get your art for these webpages?

I get most of my photography and illustrations from iStockPhoto but for custom work, I have a few designers that I work with that produce some really nice stuff for me.

What will be the next big development in webpage design?

Gosh, I've no idea... I didn't see Web 2.0 coming, never mind 3.0!

What do you think about Flash technology?

I think flash has it's place in websites. It can be used to go effect in a hybrid environment ? where you have your xhtml skeleton, css, and seo right first, then you add flash to enhance your design.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Flash?

Being from Ireland, we still have a lot of users on narrowband but broadband is still widespread. We still have to take these people into account and make sure our page sizes are not too big. Therefore one disadvantage can be larger file sizes. Another would be SEO restrictions and usability restrictions. However, on the plus side, Flash brings a whole interactivity to the web that other techniques cannot match.

What are your sources of inspiration?

I'm big on CSS Showcase Feeds. I get my daily dose of cool designs from www.cssmania.com that I add to my own collection at www.davidbehan.com/inspiration/.

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

Ones I did... I like www.raymondpotterton.com, www.gorhomes.ie, and www.patmcgovern.ie. Ones others have done, I suppose have a look at my inspiration pages at www.davidbehan.com/inspiration/.

What are your interests and dislikes in webpage design?

I love meeting new clients, creating design concepts, doing xhtml/css chops - challenge of getting new techniques to work, putting something new together with js, databases, ajax, asp, etc. I enjoy most areas. I'm not a fan of filling in content page by page, but a lot of the time I can hand over the CMS for this to be done by the client.

Thank you David for the great designs and your viewpoints on design.

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