Refreshing Edge

BOO

Little old me

Hi, my name is Rob Dillon. I am a front-end web designer from Cheshire, UK. I love creating rich, visually appealing websites that make a real difference.

A (not so) Brief History

I was in my mid-twenties before I discovered my passion for web design. I´d spent the majority of my working life in management positions for small independent companies. It was whilst working as the general manager for a manufacturing, retail and distribution company when I´d finally had enough of the long hours and low wage (and more importantly lack of passion) and decided to change things.

I took my existing skills and experience and decided to create my own online shop. Whilst I had basic computer programming skills from college, much had been forgotten (who am I kidding, all of it) and I had never worked with HTML or websites in general.

I needed help. That help came in the form my older brother and all-round computer genius Tony, whose help I´m eternally grateful for. Tony spent many hundreds of hours creating the code to run my early design. It was a steep learning curve and a baptism of fire from here on in. I added all the content for the online shop myself, which required hands on editing of the code. After several weeks I started to get more passionate about the design and coding processes than the actual business. My love affair for web design had begun which sparked a thirst for knowledge.

Can I Have A P(HP) Please?

I´ve always had a great ability to learn something so long as I´m passionate about it. If I can´t get passionate I invariably won´t know much about the subject. No such problem with web design, if only I discovered this when I was a teenager!

I quickly discovered the correct way to design websites by reading several key books on the subject. I learnt "hands on" using my online shop as my test bed and was spending all day learning and working with correct and new coding methodologies. I discovered Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the correct way to code using XHTML.

I also started learning some other acronyms such as PHP and JS but quickly realised that it wasn´t necessary to learn everything, my true passion lay with front-end design and interaction and I stuck to excelling in the acronyms I enjoyed (CSS & XHTML).

I also learnt about other important things such as web standards, validation, accessibility, usability and progressive enhancement (all buzz terms I don´t need to and won´t go into here, click the words for more info). Needless to say everything I´ve learnt has enabled me to produce work to the highest standards capable of standing up to the strictest of professional scrutiny.

Give Something Back

I enjoy contributing to the design community as a whole and now I´ve taught myself to such a high standard I do my best to help other web designers. I do this partly through my lab work and partly by actively participating on the UKs largest Web Design Forum.

Evolution, Not Revolution

Of course I´m still learning, and I´m still enjoying learning. Web design is my life career and with each and every line of code I´m getting quicker, more efficient and more capable. I try my best to push my abilities and grow as a designer.

I get most passionate about the visual presentation of information. I´m always looking for new ways to enhance the user experience (whilst maintaining usability) and I find that working on very visual sites excites me the most.

As a website designer we work in exciting times. Whilst there´s still a dark cloud over the economy as a designer I can at least take solace in new and exciting standards that will progress our trade. HTML 5 and CSS 3 are still new and whilst we´re still waiting for all modern web browsers to support these new standards, I can still experiment and learn the skills which will be powering websites of the future. Some examples of this can be found in my lab.

Thank you for taking the time to read what drives me. If you would like this passion to show in your next website then please contact me to discuss your exciting project.