mcville: Jon Tan Interview

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Jon Tan Interview

Feb 23, 08:47 AM by Marko

Interivew with Jon Tan at jontangerine.com

Marko: Hello Jon !

Jon: Howdy Marko :)

Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself?
(year old and other stuff)

Jon: No worries. I’m a interface designer and I live in Bristol, UK with
my wife and son. I’m in my 33rd year on the blue ball having finally
settled down to do some work after probably too long wondering the
planet as a vagabond.

Marko: How are you doing these days?

Jon: Good thanks mate. I’m a cliché designer; working long hours happily
but wishing I could work, think, sleep and play to my heart’s content in
the same dayspace.

Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?

Jon: Does a Speak and Spell count? I remember the orange-red interface
with affection although the membrane keys lacked tactile feedback but
could withstand beaker spillage. Apart from that I remember using the ZX
Spectrum 16k with the rubber keypad with a degree of latent envy – I
had to use someone else’s. My first computer was a Commodore 64. Ah, the
memories.

Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?

Jon: Art – Banksy always makes me smile with his politicised humour,
Sickboy for his curves after my own heart and Dali for his technical
precision and imagination. Web -The site not built yet; An accessible,
meaningful-data packed smorgasbord that has intrinsic semantic value
that can be interrogated in milliseconds. i.e. the future Web.

Marko: when you guys launched gr0w.com are you happy with the result
of the site?

Jon: Yes and no. It was a long road to travel whilst doing client work
at the same time but we were happy because it was the realisation of the
idea behind Grow Collective – a coming together of Charlie Markwick,
Paul Whitrow and myself as a co-op. In fact I’ve been thinking of all
the new stuff we’ve done that we’d love to plug in and some
modifications to the design recently.

Marko: What do you do in your spare time (We realize that spare time,
in this context)

Jon: When I make the time I like to get everyone I love together at the
beach, breaking out the frisbees, kites and footballs and reminding
myself how bad I am at surfing before retiring to feed my son a Cornish
pastie and bounce friendly insults off my friends.

Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?

Jon: My current favourite is Delicious Syrup – a rose syrup made in
Singapore that I rediscovered in a local store. I recognised the
distinctly Chinese label and when I opened the bottle the smell brought
back such memories of early childhood I bought 2 large bottles on the
spot. If you meet me in a bar Marko mine will be a Zubrowka and apple
juice, ta.

Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical
day is like for Jon Tan ?

Jon: A working day usually starts at my keyboard with a cup of coffee at
around 8 after waking myself up by playing ‘cave’ with my 2 year old son
(it’s a game where he gleefully burys me in cushions and then ‘saves’ me
from certain death in the cave). Skype goes on automatically to
conference with Paul and sometimes Charlie as we field calls and work. I
eat when I’m hungry and at 6 I quit to play some more with my son and
bathe with him. After he goes to sleep my wife or I cook, we eat and
catch up until around 9. After that I land back at the keyboard again
until around midnight or 1am. Throw in the occassional meeting and
morning workout and that’s me.

Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about
getting work? How do you do it?

Jon: We’re lucky in that we get repeat business and referrals from happy
clients. It’s a gift culture: We give away our knowledge in conversation
and interaction with communities and clients. From that relationships
develop and work flows organically. At least that’s the idea.

Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?

Jon: Everyone who works to Web Standards and accessibility design
principles influences me by doing such good work themselves. There’s
some amazingly talented people out there who rarely get hype or notice.
My business partner Paul is inspirational when he develops functionality
for applications like Scooch and my other partner Charlie is like the
uncle who knows so much he almost has to look like Gandalf (which he
does). I also owe thanks to Douglas Bowman will for his Wired design
that brought me back in to the CSS fold, Eric Meyer for the depth of his
knowledge and invaluable web site and Tantek Çelic for prompting me to
be so passionate about semantic information design and web sites that
add meaningful value to the Web.

Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into
web development and design like?

Jon: No not at all unless a childhood fetish for Lego, poetry and
drawing counts as formal training. Every step along the way included
large doses of creativity combined with developing systems; working
creatively within finite constraints. From professional DJ and
journalist through to marketing director it’s been fun but always
lurking in the background was the kid with a pencil and notebook in
hand, trying to make things work better. Web standards and accessibility
for me was a natural progression, it combines the things I find most
appealing: Ethics, creativity, accuracy and co-operation towards shared
goals.

Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?

Jon: Probably a failed artist, writer, corporate soldier, fisherman or
market trader.

Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?

Jon: It’s working for you. There’s nothing not to like except the lack
of a skip navigation link and search facility as the first items in the
document. The border background feels like material edges on linen which
I’ve not seen before. I like.

Marko: If you could change something on mcville what would it be?

Jon: Just the html. Ditch the bold tags and some of the paragraphs have
a compete pair of opening and closing p tags before the text and after
it. Some of the images have no alt attribute, a script tags needs a type
attribute and specifically I’d Include a search form and skip nav link
for better accessibility.

Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?

Jon: Chinese traditional music when I’m working – it irons out my
creases. Otherwise Arrested Development / Speech, 4Hero, Ben Harper,
Jack Johnson, Roots Manuva, Fela Ransome Kuti, Joyce, Pacific Jam and
any of the Kyoto scene from the Jazz Hip Jap days.

Marko: What’s your favorite food?

Jon: Grilled tiger prawns with sticky rice and sweet chilli wrapped in
an iceberg lettuce leaf.

Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?

Jon: I don’t – that’s what Sundays are for with my son.

some relaxing question to follow

Marko: Chinese or Thai (food)?

Jon: Singaporean. Spicier and more seafood than Cantonese.

Marko: Coke or Pepsi?

Coke.

Marko: html or css?

Jon: html

Marko: Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?

Jon: Panorama, Reporters, Dispatches, Rome, Band of Brothers

Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?

Jon: An unwieldy and oft-neglected information storm of links!

Marko: What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.

Jon: My family and all the things mentioned above.

Marko: Thank again for having this interview Jon, Cheers!

Jon: You’re welcome, thanks for inviting me :)

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Jon Tan Interview

Feb 23, 08:47 AM by Marko