About the Author

It all started in my freshman year of college. I’d be drawing still lifes in art class in the afternoon and be holed up in the digital computer lab late at night coding my computer science homework.

That need to balance form and function has stayed with me ever since. It led me to work at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where the first popular graphical Web browser, NCSA Mosaic, was born and gave rise to Web surfing. The Web took design and technology and produced experiences. I was hooked with both left and right brain.

After several years of designing Web destinations and tools at NCSA and beyond, I went on to teach classes on Interface Design at the University of Illinois’ School of Library and Information Sciences. I codified my approach to teaching in my first book, Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability (John Wiley, 2002). While some Web pundits argued for a more visual Web and others stressed pure usability, I again focused on the need for balance and outlined why visual communication and usability are locked in a symbiotic dance.

In the years that followed, I spent time as the Lead User Interface Designer in eBay Inc.’s platform team, where I led the strategic design of new consumer products and internal tools and processes. I began to publish “Functioning Form,” a leading online publication for Web experience design. I was a founding board member of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and I spoke at numerous conferences and companies around the world about Web design and strategy.

During that time and now in my current role as Senior Principal of Product Ideation & Design at Yahoo! Inc., I designed or contributed to software used by hundreds of millions of people. Underlying it all is that simple balance of function and form. It’s that philosophy you’ll find underlying every page in this book, and I still believe it’s what ultimately makes the Web useful, usable, and enjoyable.