My business values and philosophy are closely tied into the way I conduct my personal affairs. Put simply these are:
- Honesty and openness
- Context and simplicity
- User-centred design
- Professional but down to earth
- Lifestyle balance
Honesty and openness
I believe in being completely honest and open when dealing with clients. This means being totally transparent with regards to costs, project complexities, and ensuring communication between both parties is always open and honest.
Context, communication and simplicity
I believe in keeping things as simple as possible. Why create extra complexity if it is just not needed? Central to this is the understanding of the web as a medium and what it can and can’t (or shouldn’t) do. Just because the latest fad might be social networks and Facebook applications doesn’t mean your business has to have (or need) them. Context is key when developing a successful User experience.
Context in communicating with clients or colleagues is key. A lot of people in this industry throw around buzzwords and acronyms without truly understanding them. This has a snowball effect and before you know it the whole industry is talking in tongues about stuff they don’t truly understand. Thus we end up hearing sentences sprawling out of people’s mouths such as:
“…yeah lets just integrate the Standards-driven CSS and JS into our CMS to power the beta widget and then upload to our prod server for pre-launch before we go live for Q1…”.
I rest my case. I prefer to communicate in a way that educates rather than baffles people.
User-centred design
Keeping the user at the centre of the design process at all times ensures you are on your way to a more usable, relevant and successful project than letting corporate culture, brand values and internal politics dictate a site’s purpose. I believe in putting the user at the heart of the experience, they represent the target audience, so design for them from the outset.
Professional but down to earth
Professionalism is key to developing a respectable reputation in any business. But I believe doing business should also be fun. Having a laugh along the way should be part of the experience. Dealing with people who take things too seriously and who can’t relax usually makes things harder and not as enjoyable.
Lifestyle balance and effective working
I am not a believer in sitting chained to my computer screen for 10 hours per day, dropping crumbs into my keyboard whilst I eat at my desk. Producing quality works comes from being inspired by the project you are working on, the people around you and the environment you work in. Everyone produces their best work in slightly different ways. Entrusting people to work under their own initiative encourages better quality of work. If you produce your best work by sitting in a cafe, sketching ideas out on paper or Post Its (rather than sitting at your desk using a computer), then you should been given the flexibility to do so.
Taking breaks to re-energise and leaving work on time should also be encouraged, and not frowned upon. In short, 8 hours of effective working are better than 12 hours spent in the office because you were on Facebook all day!
Outside of the office environment, I believe you can learn valuable and transferable experiences through contact with other cultures, being closer to nature and pushing yourself mentally and physically. These experiences make for a richer and more rounded person and lessons and skills gained whilst away from the working environment can often be used in business.
Next steps
I want to do business with like-minded people, if you share the beliefs above and have a project you would like to engage me on, then please get in contact.
