SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

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.

Nikola Denić is a web designer and one half of the team managing Haragei (the other is Milan Kristoff), a web development company out of Belgrade in Serbia. Nikola has been designing since 2000 and was originally a “one man show”. Today Haragei is larger, with about 15 people (aka “samurais”) that work for them at any one time. Check out their “Dojo” today.

1. How did you get started in web design?

I think it was sometime in the year 2000, right after the dot com bubble. I tried to create my own web page in a period when the Internet was a much tamer environment than it is now. At that time, things like tables and cool flash effects were considered an achievement. Basically, I was fascinated by web pages and the process of making them. I was using the Internet for 4 years at that point so going into development was a logical step for someone who took all his toys apart to see what’s inside and how they work.

2. When did you start designing websites?

If you count my attempts to make my own website with funky gif’s, that happened in 2000, although the first project I got paid for happened in 2001. It’s funny, from this point of view, thinking back to frames and flash in them. Peaks of development were things like contact forms that send emails, but if you worked with the Internet professionally at that time, you’ll recognize that it wasn’t anything like today – there was no one you could ask.

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

Originality. That essentially summarizes the biggest problem right now. Being original at a time when websites are shooting out on conveyor belts is very hard. The process that we maintain at Haragei is pretty clear – we have a goal and we are working towards it. Perhaps the hardest stage is the sketching stage; the process of going from a drawing on paper to usable wireframes and having them interact the way we imagined. Making a useful project and standing behind it in every pixel is a huge mountain that you always want to climb and is always interesting in its own way.

4. Do you code on any of your web design projects? And if so, do you consider yourself a “Front-End Coder”? Why or Why Not?

Hmm, I have to explain a little bit about myself first: I started off “old school” – as a one man show. That basically forced me to become proficient in every step – from sketching on paper, through making beautiful markups to optimizing queries in a db.

Today I let my samurais handle the design; although there is virtually no project I haven’t checked over in every gradient and typography relationship in css. This is crucial in order to be comfortable when delivering reliable products to customers, when they trust us enough with the development of their online business.

I think the real answer is that I’m both a designer and a front end coder, simply because as the project manager of all of our projects, and as the company CEO, I have to offer and stand behind Quality Assurance – although I may not do the day-to-day designing/coding work.

5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web designer?

I have B.CS. from University of Belgrade that really hasn’t done anything particular for me in terms of personal advances, but it surrounded me with very many talented people. Right now I’m considering options for a Master’s degree; I am looking to combine an internal project with the degree to really experience the best of both worlds.

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?

The industry is changing rapidly – on a daily basis, I’d say. I am honestly impressed by people who are brave enough to go into web design and development right now. For the past 3-4 years, it seems like the whole thing has been on steroids and so much knowledge has been created that in order to come into the industry today, one has to have a vision that covers the problem from every point of view. On the other hand, as I’ve said before, 8 years ago, the fight with Internet Explorer was somewhat brutal simply because there was no adequate alternative.

Also, today you have Rich Internet Applications that are very popular and we all use them on a daily basis, which means that today, with the increase in Internet speeds, you learn to rely upon the Internet almost the same way as you would on desktop applications which were virtually impossible before.

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

Paper? No, seriously, a blank sheet of paper is 9 times out of 10 the tool with which I start designing and coming up with site interactions, regardless of whether I’m working on a micro site, a flash application or a social network. Obviously, after that the whole wireframe is transferred to OmniGraff or Visio (if we’re working on a bigger project) and then to Photoshop.

When it comes to code, I use TextMate on Mac, and if I’m running Windows by some strange coincidence, I stick with Dreamweaver (although it sounds lame).

Firefox with some extensions, such as Firebug, WebDeveloper, etc, is definitely a must have for anyone in this business, so it also comes into my project building process.

8. How many people work at Haragei?

Right now we have 5 people working in-house and over 10 external coworkers.

9. What do you want people to know about your company?

Hmmm… I like martial arts; oh wait, you can already notice that from our website. What is very important for people to know about us is that we, first and foremost, believe in a specific philosophy that follows corresponding business standards. We can say it’s a matter of having a sixth sense for our clients’ businesses and we are very good at realizing our plans. Aside from that, we kick ass in all those fancy words such as xhtml/css/is/actionscript/web2.0/etc.