Spicy Web Designer Interview with Patty Ho

Patty Ho is a web designer from Toronto, Ontario in Canada. She studied at OCAD (The Ontario College of Arts & Design) for Editorial Graphic Design and then she decided to go to Sheridan College for their Interactive Design program. She first designed for websites in 2003 after finishing schools and most recently she has been working for Torstar Digital which owns the Toronto Star Newspaper and Toronto.com among a collection of other web properties.

1. When did you first start designing websites?

I first started designing websites professionally in 2003. I was hired by a small web design studio right after I finished my Interactive Multimedia program in Sheridan College.

2. What types of web design projects are you working on right now?

Currently, I work for Torstar Digital. The company owns thestar.com, toronto.com, yourhome.ca, parentcentral.ca…etc. I mostly do the front end maintenance work for them. That work could range from designing a new micro site to designing ad banners.

For my personal freelance web design in terms of projects, I did a lot of front end design. The majority of clients want my web design template and their own in house developer to build the website. There are also a few clients that I do the full website design from front to back.

3. What challenges do you face when designing a project for the web?

Oh, definitely client’s requests. Sometimes clients will have million changes, and I always have to work it out with the clients to minimize the changes.  Most challenging part is when design a full website, I have to educate clients to deliver a strategy upon content delivery. After all, website is about delivering key information in an interactive and a user friendly way.

4. I see that you’ve done a lot of work for Canadian media (Chum TV, Much Music, etc.)  How have you found working with companies like these?

Chum (now is called CTV) is a very fast paced company. You get a various range of projects all the time.  I was there mostly creating TV micro sites and sales websites for various channel brands. The creative is set by either the client or the creative department. So most of the website I did is to follow the creative guidelines and make it an interactive piece.  I left Chum after 3 years because I was tired of being a production person that takes orders. Websites for Chum or any TV channels are part of the marketing package, and they never going to be the first to set the creative guideline.  Therefore I went to Torstar for a senior web designer position which I can be the creative lead for most of the projects.

5. I also see that you are a graduate of OCAD majoring in Editorial Graphic Design and Sheridan College’s Interactive Multimedia program where you learned about front-end coding.  Which do you prefer more, Front-end coding or the graphic design of a project?

I personally like the “design” part of the project, mostly because I hate debugging between browsers. lol

However, because of Sheridan, I gained a strong front end coding skill. This favors me when I am designing a website. I will design “around” the cross-browser problem that most people would encounter when building website.  Therefore I can deliver the website in the shortest amount of time and increase flexibility for site expansion in the future.

6. What are some of your favorite tools when designing for the web?

Photoshop, illustrator and Dreamweaver.

7. What do you hope to accomplish in your career next?  And, what drives you to achieve this?

Again, I always have a passion getting myself into a creative lead. I like to deliver the creative concept of a project instead of a production person. If I am going to work half of my life, then I might as well push myself towards a job position that can excite me while I am at it.