| Interview: Dan Johnston / Syntechdesign |
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Written by Kirk on Friday, 30 May 2008 TheHoop-la catches up Dan Johnston just after revamping our website and chat about the new features. We chat about his design work, photography and his experience with gym class. What was the biggest challenge for you when designing this website?It was all fun and games until I started introducing all the JavaScript
library; This site uses jQuery and MooTools to achieve such things as the pop-up
login/register box, the sliding rankings module and numerous other components of
the website . Initially they were conflicting with one another which we all know can have undesirable results... Also, there was creating the individual sets of styles for
css bugs in different browsers. I won't name any names but... INTERNET
EXPLORER 5! INTERNET EXPLORER 6! INTERNET EXPLORER 7! Everyone stop what your
doing and go get firefox, the site looks and works the best in
it ;) Hey... you asked! From a user perspective, what was the biggest improvement you felt the site needed?Interaction: The old site didn't have any way for users to
"use" the site besides the forum, which wasn't even integrated into
the website. So I would say article commenting, easy social bookmarking, the
new forum system, having those forum posts show up on the front page and of
course TheHoop-la's spiffy new administration system to manage everything. Was this the first time in your website design career that you were hired to create a site such as this?No, I actually did a website for the Hamilton District Cricket League. Even though I am not into sports whatsoever, I usually have no trouble getting into the shoes of the demographic I am trying to appeal to. In preparation for this website I got my hands on a copy of jock jams 1 and 2, cranked it up and randomly smacked people in the ass when they did a good job. (I still don't understand that one guys.) Throughout school, I loathed gym so much that I would
conveniently forget class my gym clothes every class , that was until my mom
and a gym teacher devised an ingenious plan to help persuade me. What they did
was purchase an outfit from the Biway and left it in the office in case I ever
forgot my gym clothes again. Anyone from my day knows that velcro Sparx shoes, spandex
bicycle shorts and a Northern Reflections t-shirt (complete with owl and nature
scene) was social suicide. How different was this project compared to what you have been asked to design in the past?Each website you do has its own complexities and obstacles to overcome. Web
design, unlike art has strict limitations. That is of course if you choose to acknowledge
those limitations. We're also welcoming you as our photographer, how did you come about getting involved in that?My Dad has always been a shutterbug which was my first exposure to it. I
started taking my photography seriously in grade 9 and through to grade 11,
when I got my first manual camera a Pentax MG. Once I was out of school and no
longer had access to the school’s darkroom I quickly lost interest in
photography. Fast forward to now > When your hobbies become your job you scramble
for new ones to fill those voids. Recently, thanks to my dad upgrading his
gear, I picked up a Canon EOS 20D and have slowly been getting
back into it. I am amazed by how close digital work flows resemble and even
make the older darkroom techniques completely obsolete (to me at least). Long
gone are the days of strict limitations, messy chemicals and expensive
equipment/supplies. I look forward to pursuing photography much more in the
future and am very excited to work with you and TheHoopla.com. As a website designer where do you find the inspiration for projects?All over the place, usually directly from my clients and who it is they are
trying to impress. I can usually see a picture of what would suit them in my
head within a few minutes of being hired; sometimes trying to project that image can be more
difficult than it seems. Staring into a blank canvas can be intimidating so I
try to just have fun and playfully design until things start coming together,
however long that may take. I can usually bang off one awesome mock up, get it
approved and start coding, like I did for TheHoop-La.com. To see more of Dan Johnston's work please visit his website syntechdesign.com.
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