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My name is Mark and I’m a Mobile UX and UI Designer based in London, UK. I am extremely passionate about mobile, design, the web and also have a keen interest in social media. I currently work for Mobext, a full service Mobile agency which is part of Havas Media.
To me, design is more than just how things are displayed visually, but a culmination of how things look, read, work and ultimately, delight the end user.
I’m also an avid blogger, running two award-winning sites since 2007; Friedmylittlebrain and UK Street Art. I’ve used this to my advantage in terms of my work and have been teaching a blogging course for The Guardian as part of their Masterclasses business for the last year and a half.
Software / hardware
I’m on a 27” iMac at work and home, and use my MacBook Pro alongside this. Because I work in mobile I have an iPhone 5 and a Galaxy S3 for testing.
I use the usual design tools from the Adobe suite for my on-screen work, alongside Sketch, Textwrangler and Twitter to keep up to date with the industry and the randoms I follow. Off screen, the usual pens and pencils and small mobile sized notebooks for rapid sketching of ideas – I find it easy to pen ideas down on paper and then put together flows from this, it’s always good to sense check an idea quickly.
Ideal work environment
My idea working environment is one that is large, with room to move, plenty of natural light and a busy atmosphere always keeps me alert. I can work with music on and you’ll find me listening to music for the majority of the day. Music is a MUST!
An environment that has ‘break out’ areas and one that allows breaks always helps for me.
Inspiration
I find a lot of inspiration from offline material, which considering I work in a digital space, may confuse some others. I think it’s always a good idea to step away from the Mac and look for inspiration in other places, otherwise I find that the frame of mind is alway set on working things up in Photoshop or Sketch before the ideas have had a chance to be less refined.
I do, of course, read a lot of sites and try to keep up to date with the latest in mobile and web design trends. I’m not a huge fan of ‘trends’ as I prefer a simple interface which allows an app or a site to be functional – I am all about the human touch and the end user is of the highest importance to me.
Admire most
I’m a huge fan of Luke Wroblewski as he’s one of the brightest in the mobile space right now. I’m a big fan of Teehan+Lax too and on top of this H. R. Giger, Futura 2000 and Ben Drury are all inspirations. They may not be in the same space as me, but like I say, inspiration can come from anywhere and they’re all artists that I grew up with.
The internet has allowed anyone and everyone to get their work out there, and so the list of inspiration is huge, so it’s an evolving thing.