SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

R.Bhavesh is a User Interface design expert, a Web Strategist and entrepreneur from Surat in India. He started designing websites back in 2000 and professional he has been building websites since 2003. In recent years, Bhavesh has created a following with his Premium WordPress Theme, WP Remix which is a very versatile WordPress Theme.

1. How did you get started in web design?

Back in 1999, right after my high school education, I chose computer industry as career. Not by choice but I didn’t know what else to do. In my software engineer course, the very first semester involved basic HTML. The Internet thing was new and everyone was excited about that. Once I visited yahoo.com, I was immediately hooked up with how all of these worked. I designed my first html site in year 2000.

2. How long have you been designing websites? And, how long have you been designing for the WordPress platforms?

Professionally, I started designing sites for client in 2003.

In 2006, I started my career as freelancer. I used to get queries regarding WordPress project now and then and because I adapted table less coding earlier, making themes was easy for me.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

To keep up with the trend and to decide – what is the future? If you look, WordPress changed the way small websites were being designed just in 2 years. The same goes for table less coding, Ajax and so on. The key here is to keep eyes open and judge the opportunity.

4. Why do you refer to yourself as a Front-end developer over calling yourself a web designer?  Is it a way to brand yourself to your clients?

Because I don’t just design and code. I do plan every aspect of the front end. Also I do strategize user experience, programming flow and so on. And to be frank, i don’t take up much freelance projects but yes, I do feel I am different from other web designers and perhaps that is the way I like to be known.

5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web designer/front-end developer?

To be honest, I never went to any web design class/school. Apart from HTML, I adapted every aspect of web designing from online tutorials, with help of friends etc. So, I can say that I taught web design to myself.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

Yes. In fact the web industry changes within every 2-3 years. Back in 1999, html marquees and flashing colors were in demand and then came the flash website era. Right after that, the w3c table less coding. Then web 2.0 applications, WordPress and the list goes on.

And I think it has changed for better. Whenever a new change came, it helped the real user use the internet in better way. Also it keeps challenging the web designers and forces them to keep learning.

7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a website? Why are they your favorite tools?

- Paper and pencil.

- A folder marked “Inspire Layouts” on my computer.

- Photoshop

As I mentioned earlier, I do strategize website. I always sketch rough drafts of website and brain storm. Paper and pencil helps me do this quickly.

“Inspire Layouts” is a folder in my computer where I store screenshots of all the good websites I come across. While designing, I go through all the screenshots quickly. Doing this gives me better idea on how I can design certain block even better. For example, while designing wpremix.com website, I was desperately trying different way on how I can create a graphic for the homepage that shows the versatility of the theme and still does not take too much space. I came across the magento commerce homepage screenshot and my problem was solved. (The magento homepage has since changed).

Finally, Photoshop. Everyone knows why it is favorite tool for designers .

8. I love the work you’ve put in on WP Remix.  What do you feel are some of the big benefits of using this theme on a website for the average business owner?  And how does it benefit the web design using it?

Thanks. When I released the 1st version of wp remix in December 2007, my goal was to help web designer provide a set of all the most commonly used web page structures so that each time they are to create a new website for small business, they don’t have to code CSS/XHTML templates, don’t have to validate and once they are familiar with this theme, the future web design projects would be real easy for them as all they need to do was to decorate the ready made plain structure. (CSS/XHTML is now common but at that time, it was considered still hard cross browser compatibility issues were a real pain for hand coding beginners).

I saw WordPress was very easy and the end users were familiar with the WordPress backend as many of them used to blog. So I created wp remix that served both the purpose. I provided wide range of page templates and created this theme. For beginner web designers, it will really save them hours of time.

WP Remix has a new management since January, 2009.

Anwar Sadath is a web designer. Half way through college, Anwar, decided that going into web design was the right choice for him. For about the last 6 years he has been learning more and more about web design. Even though he says that programming was never his strong point he has developed his skills over time to code using jQuery to handle DOM manipulation, CSS and AJAX.

1.When did you get started designing websites? How long ago was that?

It was 6 years ago when I was halfway through college and I had to make a decision whether i should choose a career as “character animator” or “web designer”. I took the later and ever since I am happy being a web designer “<” “>” tags.

2. You talked to me about your love of jQuery earlier. Why do you prefer to work with this particular JavaScript library?

I am not very good at programming and the only thing tried in programming was validations. That’s when I happened to go through the jquery, the simplicity in which it handles DOM Manipulation, CSS Selectors and AJAX, impressed me a lot. Since then I choose jQuery as my favorite framework amongst all the web applications I did.

I use Vaakya as a replacement to PHP, since it’s a relatively new technology it has its limitation when comparing with PHP and its numerous web extensions, So the challenge was in creating a rich UI and better interaction. Thankfully, jQuery CSS selectors helped me in confronting these issues and give a much need visual appeal and interaction to the web applications I created.

3. What do you feel creates excellent usability on a website or web application?

I believe developing test prototypes through an iterative design approach can create the most useful and usable Web site / application. User interaction as well varies through the application pattern, so there is no such thing like a standard interface but it’s the iterative design process helps to substantially improve the usability.

The use of familiar formatting and navigation schemes makes it easier for users to learn and remember the layout of a site and this helps to a certain extend. I believe websites and applications should be designed to facilitate and encourage efficient and effective human-computer interactions

4. What are some web technologies that you could not live without?

CSS has created a world of good for web designers; it’s funny to remember when I used inline style markup during those old days. XHTML, jQuery, JavaScript, XML, SVG and Action Script were the ones which I really used a lot in my projects. As far as the tools are concerned Adobe Creative Suite is the one and only answer to all my design prayers.

5. What inspires you to create web designs the way that you do?

I carry a notebook—as most designers do—where i record creative ideas. It contains sketches of that brilliant design which never happens and it is in these babies, the larger designs evolve. The eighties retro style, music, movies, magazines has all been inspiring to me. “Deviantart” and “flickr” are inspirational sites where you get to see a lot of inspirational design from great designers.

6. What are some things that you want your clients to know about you when you become involved in a web design project?

Web Design is carried out in response to a need from the client and inevitably needs a lot of planning. The parameters for the site may not be clear the first time with the clients and with my creative ability and practical understanding I have to solve the design issues. Acquiring insights into the clients business is an important part of informing the client about the design process.

As a designer, I need to make a reasonably accurate assessment of the size and complexity of the job and give the clients a brief of the design process and what is the message that needs to be communicated.

The best thing about digital design is that it allows exploring endless variations of ideas and color themes where time is usually at a premium and decisions have to be made quickly.

7. Are you a formally educated (University or College Educated) or a self-taught web designer? Do you feel that your choice has made you a better web designer and given you the tools to succeed? Why or Why not?

It’s a mixture of both. Formal education gave me a know how on the technology aspect which later inspired me take up this career. The best thing about a self taught designer is the struggle initially to come up with rapid solutions. This, later on gained momentum coupled with industry standards and latest trends in web technologies.

I was in touch with other web designers where we exchanged ideas and new trends, all these designers came from a similar background so our network was vital for our growth as individuals.

Abhishek Mishra is one of the guys behind MADETOKILL a two man web studio based in Bangalore, India. Together he an Shaabi have began to build a web design firm that is focused on creating some excellent websites and web applications for their clients. Even though MadeToKill has only been in business for the past 7 months now but they’ve been designing websites and web applications for the past 7 and 8 years respectively. Together, Abhishek and Shaabi are building MadeToKill on a daily basis through attention to quality and flexibility for their clients.

1. When did you first start designing websites? When did Shaabi been designing websites?

I’ve always loved doing art be it with crayons or with a light pen and have been passionate about computers & programming ever since I saw a computer . This goes back to the year 2000 when I started programming. And soon, I started dabbling with some Photoshop. This opened yet another unexplored space to explore – the web. Shaabi and I started working on CodeFire – a secure web app to host programming contests in universities. That taught us a lot about HTML, CSS, and PHP. Things keep getting better and better ever since as we keep working on new projects each day.

Shaabi started designing websites way back in 2001. He’s been more into the functionality side of web design since the beginning. He loves coming up with amazing ideas on how to model and organize the database and creates custom frameworks from scratch for any project that we do.

We are software engineering students, and we love doing web design work in our free time.

2. How long has MadeToKill been in business since?

MadeToKill has been in business since 7 months now. Earlier we used to handle all the work through emails and recently we came up with our website www.madetokill.com to showcase our portfolio. We are working on integrating a blog to our website to share what we have to say to the community and the enthusiasts.

3. Outside of you and Shaabi does anyone else work for MadeToKill currently either on a fulltime, part-time or contract basis?

Nope, we just a team of two.

4. Where idea you get the idea for the name of your business?

When we set out to start the business we were completely out of ideas as to what we’re going to call it! The other day I was browsing through my collection of vector art, where the dead bird’s image grabbed my attention. And, we said okay, let’s call ourselves MadeToKill, which stands to send out the message that our work is killer, and hence our websites are ‘made to kill’.

5. Where is your company based? (City, Province/State and Country)

We are based in Bangalore, India.

6. How do you usually get the projects that your web design company works on? Agencies? Advertising? Word of Mouth? Or something else?

We depend on Advertising and Word of Mouth for getting projects. Besides that we’re working on creating presence through our upcoming blog too.

7. How do you involve clients in the web design and project process?

We communicate to our clients through emails and Skype. We ask them to fill a questionnaire to assess the scope and needs of the project. Then, we prepare a mock design, if our client agrees on the design; we start off with the work. We keep communicating with our client as the project goes on.

8. What are some important things that you would like to tell potential clients about your company and the work that you do?

We assure great quality and flexibility with our client’s needs. Since, we’re students, we do take a little more time over projects we do. But, we assure you that you website will be backed with the latest and the best in the world of web design and web app development. You would also be pleased to know that we are always ready to fix any bugs and add new features in the project you got done from us.