This is me...
I'm Robby Ingebretsen. I'm a passionate user experience designer and developer in sunny Seattle (and it's not really sunny and I'm not really as serious as I look in that picture). Want to get in touch? Say hello.
Like sands through the hourglass...
Questions & Answers
How long have you been doing this?
It depends on what you mean by "this." I've been blogging for about for six years. I've been serious about UI design for about twelve years. I've been interested in design since I was twelve or thirteen (when I desiged my first font). I wrote my first line of code when I was eight (on a TI-99).
Are you available for a project?
Yes. Well, probably. At least give me a chance to tell you one way or the other in person by saying hello.
Are you available for a speaking engagement?
If it's a good fit, I would love to speak. You can check out a handful of previous talks and see if you think we're a match. I'm especially good at talking about the intersection between desgin and technology. I really like to talk to engineers about design and to designers about engineering.
Are you (or is Pixel Lab) hiring?
We're always looking for good people. So, if you're really good let us know. We work with a lot of freelancers and subcontractors so that's a great place to start.
Are you still maintaining Kaxaml? Any plans for an update?
Totally. And by totally, I mean kind of. It's still alive and well but it's taking the slow road while a bunch of other projects are on the freeway. If you really love Kaxaml, let me know and I would be more than happy to put you to work!
Do you have a design philosophy? If so, could you share it?
Sure. I think that the most fundamental job of a designer is to establish order and understanding in something that may otherwise be disorganized and potentially difficult to understand.
On top of that sits a communication goal. A good design draws on a nuanced vocabulary that is made up of visual queues, cultural references, visual metaphors, subconscious connections etc. to communicate something. That's deep stuff and it's the thing that makes design feel a little bit like art. Communication at that level feels intuitive, like you didn't have to think in order to understand the thing that was communicated.
Finally, good designs make complex things feel simple. But really, this is just a by product of the first two. When you take something that was originally complex and add order and a layer of intuitive communication about it, it will naturally begin to feel much simpler than it had been before. A hallmark of good design, in fact, may be that it doesn't feel designed at all but rather like it's found it's natural ordered state, the way it was intended to be all along.
Are you worried about [technology a] taking over [technology b]?
Nope. I love technology as I'm sure you do, imaginary person who asked this question, but I've tried really hard to build a skill set that is applicable to all kinds of technologies. I'm defiitely a UI / client-side guy, but that can happen in all kinds of flavors. So far when I've had to transition from one technology to another, it's been pretty painless. More like exciting.