Emil Milanov from Serbia rocks user interfaces everywhere!

Emil Milanov is a 28 year old freelance graphic and web designer from Zrenjanin, Serbia in Europe spends his time and expertise in web design and web applications styling and reworking user interfaces. He started professionally designing for the web in 2002 but he has been designing officially since 1999 when he created his first website in high school. Emil originally studied marketing before he found himself designing websites. I had a chance to ask him about his approach designing user interfaces and how he started and here is what Emil had to say.

Emil, how did you get into web design originally?

It was back in 1999 during the dial up internet era when I was in high school. On information science class students had a project task and I choose to create web site (which by the way sucked) and simply got hooked.

How long have you been designing websites professionally?

I’m not sure how do you define professional, but if you mean when I started to charge for my work it was back in 2002.

What are some of your favorite technologies to work with on the web today?

Personally I find that design is not about technology but about communication and common sense. Technology is there just to speed you up. Everything I do can be made with paper and pen, but if Photoshop is your friend it can make things more efficient. As for the code I write my own XHTML / CSS using Coda, product from Panic company and regarding content management there are tools such as WordPress or Expression Engine.

When it comes to user interface design what is your approach? How do you involve your clients with the process? And, what value does it add to a web design project?

Interface design is all about effective communication. At my opinion the most important things here are having the message, proper use of space and typography. Client message helps me to create creative concept. Proper use of space is something that makes distinction between good design and great design. Point of designing with space is to create consistency and distinction of design elements on one hand and dynamic on the other. Grids help a lot there.

When working with clients, I like to make things clear and define interface design as simple business process which consists of three phases: input, process and output. Point of input phase is to define client’s message, collect all the content and define what action is needed from the end user. Creative process is the stage where actual design happens, and output is the final product which is usually balance of what client wants and what client needs.

Where and what did you study in school? Has it helped you to improve as a web designer?

I studied marketing at Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, Serbia. It hasn’t helped me to improve as a web designer directly, but everything you learn can help in some point of time. Design is not about knowing all Photoshop tricks but about thinking and using skill wisely.