Before posting my first blog topical blog entry, I thought I’d take a moment to introduce myself, and give you a bit of an idea as to what to expect from my posts.

I have been working with Lifeline Design in various capacities for a while now, and am super excited to be joining on a full-time basis.  My official role is in programming and usability (which is what my posts will mostly focus on).

Background

I have a diploma as a Software Engineering Technologist (Conestoga College Institute of Technology), and have written software in more languages than I care to list.  While I enjoy working with web-based languages the most, I have learned a great deal by learning the lower-level technical languages.

I am also currently finishing off my bachelors degree of Business Administration in Marketing.  While programming and marketing may seem like an odd combination, they fit very well together in the area of usability;  I plan to go deeper into this relationship in my next post.

Sites and Books

To give you an idea as to what I like to read that is job related:

» Useit.com - Usability guru Jakob Neilson’s column » 37signals.com/svn - Signals vs. Noise, the 37signals blog...they touch on a number of usability, programming, and business-related issues » Smashingmagazine.com - a great resource to find design and development inspiration » Sixrevisions.com - same idea as Smashing » Book: “Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” by Steve Krug

What to Expect

As a developer who also does design and usability work, I believe it’s important to try and be aware of upcoming trends, advancements, and changes that impact a user’s online experience.  The Internet can change very quickly, and it can be easy to fall behind.

The goal of my posts will to be highlight some of these trends and advancements, as well as studying cases/sites where these are done either really poorly or really well.  It is always important to ask “how can we make this work better for our users?”.

I look forward to sharing the bits and pieces of interesting information I find along the way.