Rob Davis - Web design and development

Where I am now

Graduate in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire.

My goal

Develop a career in user interface / interaction design.

Outside work

During my own time I am interested in aviation, flying and motorbikes.

Whats my favorite...?

Website - www.google.co.uk.

Web design author - Dan Cederholm.

Book - Starter for Ten by David Nicholls.

Aircraft - Shorts Tucano.

Music genre - Rock / Alternative.

Games console - Xbox 360!

I started to venture into the area of information technology when I took an A-level in IT. If I am honest I found the subject dry and limited. Therefore, in order to experience a wider variety within the area of IT I chose to study computer science. I have enjoyed the course immensely, mainly due to the opportunities and experiences that have been opened up to me.

One of these opportunities was during my third year where I took part in an industrial placement year with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in their IT department's Human Computer Interaction (HCI) team. It was here that my interest and enjoyment in interaction design grew, which opened a potential career for me to develop.

One particular area within HCI that I enjoy is user interface testing. I was able to develop this skill while on placement and continued to do so during my final year project as well as other personal projects. For some this testing process can give the feeling that your work is being scrutinised by a group of users. I think user interface testing is an essential part of software development, where the feedback received from it can be used to make positive improvements to your application.

I am a very user focused individual and practice user driven development throughout my projects. Meeting clients, conducting interviews and running workshops are all areas I have

experience in when gathering requirements for projects.

When moving into the design of a project I find sketching basic ideas not only useful for generating the structure for one particular screen, but also to formulate the navigation of the system. These drawings are then a great aid when it comes to producing low and high fidelity prototypes.

All of my projects so far have been web based. Therefore, PHP and MySQL are the technologies I have used to implement my projects. I continue to use these technologies because they are fast and cheap, they were also what I used during my year on placement.