TEDxYYC: An Interview with Steve Fisher
In preparation for next week’s TEDxYYC, I caught up with Steve Fisher, the UX Director for Yellow Pencil, national web design chair for the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada and open source advocate. We chatted UX design, Drupal shirts and podcasts.
Sarah: How did you get into user experience?
Steve: I think it is less about how I got into user experience and more about how I was connected with a passion for UX. As a web designer that started out in 1994 I've witnessed amazing transitions in the industry. During my journey I became more and more focused on improving the experience for the users of the projects I was part of creating. It came to a point where I decided to completely throw myself into UX design and I haven't looked back. UX design has become a passion where I can improve, in some measure, the well-being of others.
Sarah: Why are you an advocate of open source?
Steve: To put it very simply... I believe that Open Source can make the world better for everyone. We can collaborate, create amazing things together and then freely give them back for others to use or make better. That's a concept I love being an advocate for.
Sarah: You speak at events all over, what do you hope the audience learns from your talks?
Steve: The talks are quite varied but there is always a central core of "we can make our world better".
Sarah: What is your favourite example of an open source project?
Steve: Right now I'm in love with the Drupal project. It has been amazing to see the code and user experience transform and grow over the last few years. The current version of Drupal, Drupal7, is rock solid on both the code base and UX. Truthfully though the best part of Drupal for me has been the friendships I've made in the community. You'll see this on signs, shirts and websites at Drupal events, people "come for the code, stay for the community" and it's true. I'm currently collaborating on projects related to Drupal with people in Taiwan, USA, England and of course Canada and feel a real sense of belonging.
Sarah: How do you see the way people interact with the Internet changing over the next 3 years?
Steve: I see it becoming a lot more human. Much of that is to do with the context and environments in which we will be interacting with online material. Devices like the iPad, iPhone, web enable cell phones, etc have really changed things. Interacting with the internet in a mobile context, where the screen isn't locked down to a desk, but rather in your hand is so much more human and fluid. The talk is all about mobile right now, but the thing is "mobile" isn't about a device it is about people. People that are mobile and that is the future of online interaction.
Sarah: What are you working on right now that you are really excited about?
Steve: Two things.
One that has just recently wrapped up for me was a project for a company called Kinetix out of Seattle. Not only do I believe this company can help transform the health of Americans but while diving into the user research I lost 20lbs and discovered how easy it can be to stay healthy. Being so immersed in their culture made it fun to design out their new online presence.
I'm close to launching a new podcast called "Using Blue" with a friend in Taiwan. It will be freely available and we're going to cover topics related to UX, design, frontend development all relating to the Drupal project. It's part of my way of contributing to the community. It might even be live by the time this gets published.
