Interview with designer/developer Ryan Downie
Front-end designer, developer and lover of Expression Engine, Ryan Downie has taken a few minutes to answer some questions. Lets go…
Garry: Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions Ryan. Firstly can you let us know a little bit about yourself e.g what your skills are, what your main role is and your interests.
Ryan: Not a Problem, I always try and find time for interviews. I am a website designer, front end developer and ExpressionEngine developer from NorthWest England.
My main role is designing and bringing websites to life, either static or dynamic. I enjoy both designing and front end development just as much as each other, so thats really where I spend my time.
Garry: We see updates from you regarding working for agencies but also some freelance work, what have you been up to this last year?
Ryan: Well as hard as it seems to believe this is only my second year as a design professional, so its been a really hectic year. It started out working for Carrotmedia and then ventured on to freelance due to unfortunate circumstances, but I got to work with some great freelance clients.
I have joined the agency called Armitage Online (you recently featured the site in your showcase). And things have been going from strength to strength now.
I only freelance for close online friends at the moment, people such as Adii, Mark Forrester and Obox design as my time is valuable and each project I have undertaken has been fun. I look more towards fun projects then high paying ones.
I have also just completed a design off for .net magazine, that was really fun too.
Garry: You’re obviously a lover of Expression Engine. What it is about EE that makes you tick and what is it that makes you choose this over other platforms such as WordPress?
Ryan: I love ExpressionEngine as its so robust, the custom fields make creating full dynamic sites a breeze. Right out of the box you can make nearly any type of site needed. The community is still small and easy to get involved in, someone once called it “the MacWorld of a few years ago”, just cannot remember off the top of my head.
I cannot really comment on Wordpress as I am sure it has great features I just didn’t spend the time. As PHP is a little over my head compared to ExpressionEnngines native templating language.
Garry: I follow you on Dribbble and this seems to be a growing trend among the design community. What are your thoughts on sharing snippets of work with everyone and does the feedback you receive help?
Ryan: Thanks for the follow, I wouldn’t call it a trend. People have been sharing design snippits for an age on sites such as Flickr et al.
Regarding feedback, it helps but its a little hard to show small amounts. I tend to go to my online friends over IM and get good feedback. That stage really helps.
Garry: As a daily user of Twitter, do you enjoy the interaction with other designers/developers? I personally have had some help from you in the past on Twitter, have you had help from other dev’s for any issues you have had?
Ryan: I am never off twitter! I enjoy the interaction with users not just designers or developers but people as a whole. Thats why we are in this game right?
I always get help on twitter, it can be asking for feedback on latest dribbble shot or how to add a dynamic entry id for a page on EE. But I do believe its a two way street, you have to help people out too.
Garry: I really enjoy the large text and vivid colours in your designs. Do you see this as a trend in design at the moment? Also, what trends do you predict for 2011?
Ryan: Thanks for the kind words, I wouldn’t see it as a trend. More of the web evolving. We now know that users will scroll, so the fold has gone out of the window.
Trends for 2011! we are not even out of 2010 yet, still have a long way to go. Something I wouldn’t like to predict.
But I would say the web is moving in a direction to media queries. The web is no longer seen via just a 17” desktop screen. It is being accessed by smart phones, iPads and large screens so it will make sense to design for scalability.
Garry: As a designer and developer we see you active on Twitter and Dribbble etc. One thing we don’t see is a personal blog on your own site which I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in. Do you have any plans to do this?
Ryan: I get asked nearly daily about why don’t I have a site, I do need one and one is in the works. It is just finding some free time to do this in. I am also a bad client to work for. As it will be my personal site I have designed a few and scrapped them. I think I am just going to have to buckle down and finish one.
Garry: In the last couple of years we’ve seen a large increase in mobile internet usage on smart phones, iPad etc. Do you now consider the mobile market in your designs?
Ryan: Its something I am looking in to. As stated in a answer above the web is moving more to being accessed on more devices.
Garry: Do you read and keep up to date with the design and dev world with books, mags and blogs? If so, any recommended reading?
Ryan: I read blogs now and again, most come from twitter. Regarding books, I have started looking at theory books such as typography and grid systems.
I don’t tend to read much dev books anymore as a lot of just repeating whats online.
For magazines I tend to pick up .net magazine, but I now love picking anything up just to look at design of pages and elements. Virgin Rail is one of the best I have seen for a long time.
Garry: Everyone uses different tools and have their own unique set up. What’s your current setup and what tools do you use to get your stuff on the net?
Ryan: Well as a agency designer and a freelance designer I work on mac’s with the same set up on both; Coda, Photoshop, Versions and Beanstalk (for SVN) and the only thing differs is the machine itsself. I use a 27” iMac at work and a 13” Macbook Pro with a 26” screen at home. Both use wireless keyboards and Magic Mouse.
A big thanks to Ryan for taking the time answer some questions. Ryan is always around on Twitter to dish out some help and guidance so follow him here. Also go and follow him on Dribbble to see some snippets of his awesome work.
