Andrew Fox

So like last year it’s time to reflect again on the year just past and set some new goals for the next year.

2009 has been an awesome year so big thanks to my friends, my company dotDigitalGroup, bosses and clients who gave me the opportunities to make this happen!

2009 Achievements

2009 has been a big year and I’ve worked on a lot of exciting projects for some cool clients. The biggest change was starting as agency designer for dotDigitalGroup in June and working for a much bigger company has taught me a lot and enabled me to enjoy a greater variety of work and clients. It’s been a record year for dotDigitalGroup too, winning the award for Growth Strategy of the Year at the National Business Awards and I feel very honored to be a part of that.

Here’s an update on achievements of goals that I set at the start of 2009:

- Design Even More

Well I have certainly done this! Working at dotDigitalGroup has meant that I have been able to focus more on design and less on project management and day to day business like at my previous company. Turn around time for projects is also quicker at dot due to a bigger team meaning I move on to the next one quicker.

- Brush up on code & get closer to technology

Again, I can tick this one off too. This year about half my time has been focused on design and the other half on front end development so I’ve brushed off some cobwebs and learnt some new tricks too. Our standards are exceptionally high at dotDigitalGroup when it comes to html/css so bringing myself up to this standard has certainly been rewarding.

- Go to a conference and exhibition or two

Well, I didn’t do as much of this as I wanted. I made it to Cut&Paste which was awesome and an interesting experience quite unlike anything else I’d seen before. I have also been spending more time reading and getting more involved with the web community.

- Align myself & my web site

This is something which will take longer to achieve and is I guess something that is always evolving. I’ve been focusing my skillsets though and am less of a jack of all trades. Next year I’ll be aiming to narrow this down even more.

- Submit my sites to a gallery …& win awards??

A few of the sites I’ve designed this year which I planned on submitting are still in development so one for 2010. Awards though? Hmm, I’m now not so sure winning awards is that important, just as long as the work is top class for the job in hand? Happy clients is really all that matters?

2010 Resolutions

- Raise the bar in design

This year has been great for variety in design but there is a danger in rushing work out too quickly. It’s important to ensure quality in design so I want to work on a balance - productive but also ensuring projects get the quality in design that they deserve. I also feel it is important to become involved in projects as early as possible to ensure deep understanding of client requirements and issues which affect the design. Too often I enter the process too far down the line which often results in wasted time for account managers and clients or even a sub standard design.

- Experiment more

Again this year I have been concentrating on bringing myself up to speed, but I want to be at the forefront of the industry (or as much as possible). With all these cool new CSS3 and HTML5 techniques, I want to start experimenting and try some cool new things. This goes for design too and I want to focus more on gaining inspiration from new places to bring into my web design work.

- Focus more on user experience

So I’ve come to the conclusion that this is my strong point. It’s taken me a while but it makes sense. My background is in product design and the way people interact with designs and this is what really interests me digitally - like it did with product design.

- Learn to draw

Although I can scribble a few lines on a page, drawing has always been my weak point in design. Being able to pick up a pencil or draw on a graphics tablet I think would have great advantages not only in graphic communication but also to the depth of the design on the web. I bought this book years ago and just never bothered to study it, so now is the time.

- Get more involved

I’d like to try out more conferences and get more involved in the community. This year I have met lots of great people who do great things on the web and it would be cool to continue meet more.

So that’s it for another year. Let’s hope the next is just as good as the last!