Spicy Web Designer Interview with James Chambers

James Chambers is a web designer from London, England in the United Kingdom. His original background is in graphic design but he has slowly made the move to interaction design since he first started in college. James has a BA in interaction design from the London College of Communication. He has been designing websites in 2005 and started to tinker in web development in 2006 and he has been developing and designing ever since. He currently does the majority of his work using Ruby on Rails, PHP, mySQL, jQuery and HTML & CSS.

1. How did you get started in web design?

I originally wanted an online portfolio to show my graphic design work. I spent some time learning HTML and CSS in order to make it and caught the web design bug.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I started tinkering around in late 2005 and got more into development in 2006.

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

Internet Explorer.

4. Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?

I tend to develop most of the sites I design myself – what I use depends a bit on what the application is. In the early days I wrote all the code myself using PHP and MySQL, but recently I’ve moved to using MVC frameworks, particularly Ruby on Rails and CodeIgnitor. Rails in particular is fantastic in terms of the community and plug-ins available, and Ruby is a joy to work with. For smaller projects I’ve been well served by Wordpress – it’s so well documented, has great support and is really flexible if you’re willing to get your hands dirty.

5. I saw that you studied and earned your degree in Interaction Design at the London College of Communication and wanted to ask how has your education helped you become a better web design professional.  What other skills has it helped you to gain and what else has it taught you about design in general?

I’ve was really lucky to have some truly fantastic tutors, and it’s very inspiring to be around people who have so much enthusiasm for their subject. At university I was exposed to lots of design and had to figure out where I wanted to situate myself within it, then develop the skills needed to make it happen. Design is such a broad field that it’s impossible to teach everyone all the skills they might need during a 3 year degree, but LCC was fantastic in terms of the facilities and expertise available so when I wanted to follow something up or learn more there was always somewhere to turn. I think my design education has been about learning how to think critically, and in this way it’s hopefully helped me know the difference between a good and a bad idea a bit quicker, which has been helpful in all areas of my work.

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?

It hasn’t been all that long since I started but the obvious change would be the growth of social applications. When I was working on 5oup the only major social site was MySpace – Facebook was still just for students. Of course that’s all changed now, but I think the range of applications out there at the moment forces developers and entrepreneurs to think more carefully about their target market and really focus on it.

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

I start with pen and paper, then move into Illustrator or InDesign when I’ve got a good idea of what I’m going to do. I try to iterate through this process two or three times before committing anything to code to allow the design to evolve without the constraints of HTML. When it comes to development I really love Textmate for the Mac for its simplicity, and I’ve recently started using the Blueprint CSS framework as it’s got good cross browser compatibility and is a great way of getting a design into code with the minimum of fuss.

8. I read on your site that you “began studying as a graphic designer before moving into interaction design” and i wanted to ask how has the move from graphic design to interaction design affected the way that you see design in general? And, which do you prefer?

It’s been said that 95% of web design is typography so a graphic design background has been very helpful in that respect. I wouldn’t say I prefer one discipline over another as the principles that underly them seem to overlap a lot of the time, but I would say that working in interaction design has given me the opportunity to explore a lot of new and interesting subjects that I might not have done otherwise.