Nathan Smith
Via peter : 26 Feb 08 : design, ia, interview, textpattern, txp
Nathan is an Information Architect with EMC (which ranks among the ten most valuable technology companies, alongside Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle) and also designs many top quality church and non-profit websites via the Godbit Project and SonSpring.
TXPQ What is life all about?
NS For me, life is about the pursuit of meaning and significance in the daily aspects. I want to live a life that honors God and be a good friend, son, brother, husband, etc. Nobody's perfect, but I think that striving for excellence is what makes the difference between really living or just being alive.
TXPQ What motivates you or "makes you tick"?
NS I love discovering new ways to do things, trying out design principles or trying to hone a new code technique. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved making things. As a kid, I would sometimes forego recess in grade school, so that I could stay inside and draw. I was in "gifted and talented" classes growing up, where we had the opportunity to participate in a program called Odyssey of the Mind. We went to the state competition the first year we entered. At that point, I realized that I really enjoyed competition in a creative way.
TXPQ Do you have a dream or yearning?
If our message is true, then we should care about the deliveryNS I suppose you could say I yearn to see churches and ministries maximize on their use of the web. As a Christian, my attitude is: If our message is true, then we should care about the delivery. Too many church sites out there have badly coded markup and cheesy looking graphics. This has improved in the past few years, and I'd like to think that's in part due to the Godbit Project, which I started in 2005.
As far as personal goals, I want to complete my studies in the Master of Divinity program at Asbury Theological Seminary. I have a few more classes left, then I'll be done with formal schooling. One thing I would like to do eventually is become Zend certified in PHP. I feel like I have a good handle on the front-end aspects of web development, but want to become more well-rounded on the server-side.
TXPQ Would you like to say anything about family, partners, friends, colleagues, early life, college, etc?
NS I have an amazing wife that supports me in all my endeavors, without whom I do not think I would be where I am today. As far as friends and colleagues, I work with an awesome group of guys at EMC. We might not always agree on Fireworks vs. Photoshop, versions of HTML or XHTML, or operating systems, but we challenge each other to grow in our skill-sets.
Earlier in life, I thought I wanted to be a comic book artist, and would read X-Men and Spiderman, studying the drawing style and attempting to learn more about perspective, etc. In high school and early college, this led to drafting and architectural classes, which eventually gave way to doing video game level design. At that point, I needed a web page to house all the levels I'd made, so I started getting more into web design. As for actual college curriculum, I probably should have paid better attention, but was more of a dreamer.
TXPQ Would you like to say anything about where you live?
NS My wife and I recently bought a house on the outskirts of the Dallas, TX metro area. I love the location, because it's remote enough to be quiet and peaceful. There is even a horse farm nearby, so it's cool to be able to go on walks and see these beautiful creatures running around. I'm not a huge outdoorsman, but I do appreciate that the pace of life is a bit slower away from the congestion of the city.
Web Related Questions
TXPQ You've created lots of websites. Are there any or parts of any that you'd like to talk about?
I especially like solving JavaScript problems, and my weapon of choice is the lightweight JS library – jQueryNS I think the assumption is that most people who design websites enjoy it. For me, I will do enough of a design to get it into code. I normally don't worry too much about typography in the actual design comps, because I'd rather mess with fonts and line-height in CSS. I guess I would call myself a hybrid designer and developer. I especially like solving JavaScript problems, and my weapon of choice is the lightweight JS library – jQuery. When I heard that TXP would ship with jQuery by default, it was like learning that two close friends had got engaged!
TXPQ Do you have a particular way of working or methods, tools etc you always use?
NS I always use Fireworks to do the design phase of a project. I use TextMate for code, MAMP Pro for localhost testing, and Transmit for FTP. Those are tools I couldn't do without, because they're best-of-breed for their respective tasks.
As far as hosting, my favorite as of late has been Mosso, because their focus on both reliable up-time as well as being designer-friendly. They're a bit on the pricey side, but worth every penny.
TXPQ You've created award-winning multiplayer levels for various video games, been a web user interface developer, an information architect and web designer. What's your favorite occupation and why?
I'm an Information Architect at a consultancy whose motto is "Where Information Lives." For me, it doesn't get much better than thatNS I would have to say that my current job title and role has been my favorite thus far. In the survey done by A List Apart, the highest job satisfaction ratings were from people who are Project Managers and Information Architects. As for companies at which people enjoy working, web agencies and consultancies were the highest rated business type. So, I'm an Information Architect at a consultancy whose motto is "Where Information Lives." For me, it doesn't get much better than that. I like being an Information Architect because at our company that means being an uber-generalist....
- Meeting with clients
- Creating wireframes
- Diagramming info graphics
- Designing application interfaces
- Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Understanding server-side concepts
TXPQ Many web designers work alone but you also work in a team. Any thoughts about that?
NS
While I probably get the most work done when alone, there is a lot to be said for working in a team. You can share ideas, challenge each others' presuppositions, and generally problem-solve better in a group environment. Plus, there's a sense of camaraderie as well. For instance, our corporate office is on the 4th floor of our building. The user experience design team, of which I am a part, have our desks in a giant room. It just so happens that this room is number 404. So, there is a lot of joking, like: "This room could not be found."
TXPQ Find out more about Nathan and his thoughts in Part 2
1 · Gocom
01 Mar 08Damn, good interview again. Especially thisone have been quite bening to read. That team webdesign question was really good, and that answer has really good point: changing ideas can be really refreshing.