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Today’s Interview

Today’s interview is with Jacob Gube, one of my all time favorite bloggers/designers. Enjoy!

1. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Would you mind just introducing yourself to our readers by giving a quick summary of your experience and websites?

I’m Jacob Gube, a web developer/designer based in the U.S. I’m the founder of Six Revisions, a weblog that shares useful information for web developers and designers. I’ve been a web professional for roughly 8 years, starting out as a freelance graphic designer and eventually moving into web development/design.

2. You’ve built up an amazing following online. How did this come about? How does it feel to know that you inspire so many in the industry?

How did this come about? A lot of hard work and caffeine. Seriously though, I don’t focus on popularity, instead, I focus on publishing useful information that readers find valuable and educational.  I always listen to what the readers want to see, either via the comments, Twitter, or email.
How does it feel? I’m humbled to be considered as an “influencer” in the industry, but I also feel that it ups my responsibility in terms of the quality and type of content I publish. I try to be as unbiased as possible, but if you lurk in the comments, you’ll eventually see where I personally stand with certain issues and debates.
 

3. What is the greatest thing about the design industry?

The community is the greatest thing about the industry. Instead of working against each other, we help each other. One example: designers giving away freebies: texture files, PS brushes, patterns, etc. We support one another, and it’s something that is uncommon in other industries.

4. If you had to prescribe 3 do’s and 3 don’ts of web design, what would you recommend?

DO be aware of web standards. A good web designer always puts web standards and cross-browser compatibility at the forefront of the design process.

DO learn about the audience you’re trying to reach. Learn what appeals to them and design with intent.

DO put usability before aesthetics. Designing for the web isn’t the same as painting a picture where you have more of a creative license to do whatever you want; usability is important, and you should never sacrifice usability for the sake of beauty.

DON’T underestimate the importance of accessibility. Many designers feel that the return of investment in creating an accessible site is poor, I beg to differ. We’re at a time when users are viewing web pages in non-traditional means like mobile devices and screen readers. Having an accessible site not only allows you to reach a wider audience, but it has many other benefits such as search engine optimization and more semantic markup. Even simple things, such as meaningful title attributes for links, add a significant value to a site.

DON’T always stick to what you know. Try something different, expand your repertoire, do something outside of your design comfort zone.

DON’T stop learning. I guarantee you that many things you learned two years ago, are different today. Keep up with best practices and emerging technologies and try to stay ahead of the curve.
 

5. What is the meaning behind the name ‘Six Revisions’?

As a designer, you often have multiple revision rounds on a particular project. That’s where I got the inspiration from.

Why Six? No particular reason other than it sounded great at the time when I was picking a site name.

6. How do you see the design industry changing in the future?

I see the design industry diversifying. At the start, we didn’t have UI designers, UX designers, web designers – we had one thing, graphic designers. As we learn more and more about designing for the web, we’ll see even more highly-specific fields of design, as well as designers being an expert in a particular component of a site, like say, navigation design. 

7. Do you have any future projects planned that you would like to share with us?

Yes, I have a new web project that will be launching fairly soon, slated for the first quarter of this year. My partners and I are really excited about it and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, but never had the means to pursue (until now). I can’t share any more information about it at this moment, but if you’d like to find out more about the project, follow me on Twitter where we’ll be sharing information about the project, and where we’ll eventually announce the launch date.

I will say this: this project is where I’ve been investing most of my time in and the whole team is passionate about the endeavor!

8. Thanks again for this interview. Do you have any final words of wisdom for aspiring designers?

Look for inspiration outside of your field. If you’re a web designer – study architecture, photography, print design. Find inspiration in places where you’d least expect it.

Thanks again for this interview Jacob, I really enjoyed getting to know you a little better. All the best for your future endeavors.

If you would like to learn more about Jacob you can visit him at his blog or catch up with him on Twitter.