10 Interface Rockstars You Should Know About
We figure it’s pretty important to start out by recognizing some people who are making the world of interface design, conception, and execution a better place for you and me. These guys are some of the superstars, the ones who would be in history books (that is, if history focused on interfaces). These are the guys who render interface fanatics like you and me star-struck. You get the idea.
Lou Rosenfeld
With over twenty years of experience, Lou is not only an expert, but a pioneer in information architecture. He has a very long list of publications, and another long list of media appearances. Lou’s latest contribution to the academia of user experience is his Site Search Analytics Workshop, in which Lou shows you how to use your site’s search engine logs and other information to increase the quality of your site UX. He travels with usability expert Steven Krug. Lou’s Twitter
Mike Alsup
If you’ve been around online interface design for long, you’ve probably heard of jQuery. (If you haven’t, make sure you take a look!) You probably also have heard of the several plugins that exist for jQuery that make developing side much faster. Mike Alsup has secured his position as a rockstar by developing the AJAX-ready jQuery Form plugin, which allows users to submit forms and receive immediate feedback without ever leaving or reloading the current page. This concept has been used all over the web, and more often than not, Mike’s plugin is the muscle behind the scene. Mike has also developed many other fantastic jQuery plugins, including an automatic corner rounding plugin. Mike’s Twitter
Steven Krug
Steve is a web usability expert, consultant, and author of web usability books Don’t Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy. Steve has over twenty years of experience and has worked for clients like Apple, Bloomberg.com, and Lexus.com (and plenty more). Steve tours with Lou Rosenfeld teaching usability workshops related to his newest book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, which is slated to come out by the end of the year. Steve’s Twitter
Andrew Maier
At FuelYourInterface, we like to get our hands on everything we can that has to do with interfaces. Andrew Maier is the seasoned founder of UXBooth.com, where Maier and other authors review user-submitted websites and rate them 1 to 5 for their user experience. Each author provides a thorough response. The reviews are then posted at UXBooth.com in both a digested form and a full response form. UXBooth is a great place to learn about usability in the “real world.” Andrew has worked for the web departments at IBM and UPS, and spent a summer teaching Georgia high school students web standards. He is also currently working for Hashrocket as the Interaction Designer. Andrew’s Twitter
Doug Neiner
In addition to being CTO of Fuel Brand Inc. and Chief Editor of FuelYourCoding, Doug is the Owner and Creative Director of Pixel Graphic Design Studio, located in New England. Pixel Graphic Design Studio has been around since 2005, and consistently produces fantastic products in all areas of design. Doug has made the status of rockstar for his extensive knowledge of jQuery, Ruby, and Wordpress. These are tools for great UI development! Check out FuelYourCoding for great tips and inspiration! Doug’s Twitter
Filament Group
Filament Group is based in Boston, Massachusetts. Filament Group is made up of four web and application development and design gurus who are dedicated to making engaging interfaces for applications, mobile devices, and touchscreen kiosks. Filament Group is responsible for much of the design and functionality ofjQuery UI, a powerful way to create low-level effect and interaction API’s and full-featured widgets by utilizing the popular JavaScript library jQuery. Something else to like about Filament? They post a ton of open-source information to help other designers and developers make their interfaces top-notch! Head over to the Filament Group Lab to check out a few of their articles. Filament Group on Twitter
Scott Jehl
Scott is a designer and developer based in Boston. He is a part of Filament Group and the jQuery UI team, and creator of WriteMaps, a place to create, edit, and share sitemaps online. He also speaks and writes about web design. Scott’s personal design portfolio and work with Filament Group have earned him the status of Rockstar. Scott’s Twitter
Zach Klein
One of the web’s most popular services, Vimeo, is also home one of the web’s most beautiful interfaces. This is thanks to front-end designer Zach Klein. Zach also is one of the founders of CollegeHumor.com. Check out Zach’s interview with FYI! | Zach’s Twitter
Josh Pyles
Josh knows what he does best. He’s not afraid to tell you that he doesn’t do development, or backend and CMS integration. But what Josh does, he does well! Owner and sole employee of Pixelmatrix Design, Josh builds beautiful designs and focuses on making the usability of web applications flawless. Pixelmatrix also is responsible for UI Candy, a place to get some really hot icons! Josh is a rockstar for doing what he does best, and doing it quite well! Josh’s Twitter
Andrew Wilkinson at MetaLab
MetaLab’s home page doesn’t waste any time letting you know what they do. The huge header “We make interfaces” doesn’t take very long to understand. MetaLab does it all – rich web, iPhone, and desktop applications that are simply brilliant. Andrew is the founder and creative director for MetaLab, whose work speaks for itself. Take a look!|Andrew’s Twitter | MetaLab on Twitter
Well, that wraps it up for now!
Who else have you labeled as a Rockstar? We’d love to hear from you! Also, be sure to check back to see more featured professionals in the future!
Grab the Feed
nice list … even started to follow some of them :) … thnx fr sharing …
You’re welcome! Be sure to check back soon for more featured interface designers.
Awsome list thanks, hope one day to make the list myself @madesigns
Happy to see there are 2 women at Filament Group, but are there no other females worthy of the rockstar designation? I ask this out of curiousity – are there women working and excelling in this sector?
Alison,
There are most definitely women worthy of the rockstar designation! These are just a few that I’ve found that I wanted to feature. Look for a possible post soon dedicated to women in the field! Do you have any suggestions?
So you plan to ghettoize the women because you couldn’t think of any when posing the question: who are the rockstar designers?
And the women get sent to a separate list where most likely, they won’t get the play your original list gets.
Thanks for doing what every conf organizer and list maker in tech already does. You’re so thinking along the norms.
Thanks for you experience guys!
Okay, so I posted to a women in tech list that I’m on, and received the following suggestions:
* @sandraclarktw: Sandra Clark: She’s a whiz when it comes to CSS and I’ve heard her speak at CFUnited. She’s moving on to AboutWeb.
* @schachin: She’s into SEO and site architecture
* I’d have added Veerle Pieters and Molly Holzschlag. Both are incredibly talented and even have shirts in their name – http://www.happywebbies.com/ :)
BUT: I’m thinking these ladies are not all focused on *Interface* (even if they are rockin’). In fact, based on the description, I’d have picked Kelly Goto from HappyWebbies….
So, challenging the ladies – please help with the list by providing names. Jonathan is encouraging conversation. If you want to get your name out there (or the name of someone you think is a rockstar), you’ve got to start monitoring these lists and commenting. Drop a name, make a suggestion where to find names. Be proactive in solving the problem, so that the problem has a shot of going away.
Thanks so much Alison!
You’re absolutely right. Conversation is key to this discussion!
We promise your comments will be heard. Kelly Goto also is the CEO of gotomedia, where her team of associates have worked with people such as the developers of the MP3 format. Talk about usability! That’s definitely Rockstar status, folks!
Thank you all for your input! Let’s keep the discussion rolling.
very right i thought… nice post btw!
Great roundup & also awesome thread going on about women designers (Interface Rockstars). I will look forward to a second list and will shoot people this way in case they have any recommendations.
Funny thing is I did a list in similar nature on Web Design Ledger (http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/10-amazing-designers-that-influence-the-community), and I too got the same comments about females, but I had it a bit easier because I am one ;) and the list was about people who influenced ME personally.
I can say most absolutely … I would say several offhand are @jinabolton and @kriscolvin … both are leading experts in their given fields and are wonderful designers.
What about…
Jina Bolton http://www.sushiandrobots.com/
Larissa Meek http://www.larissameek.com/
Lea Alcantara http://www.lealea.net/
(ladies roundup)
Check out Megs Fulton. She’s already a rockstar in my book, but I have no doubt that the rest of the world is going to know about her soon. Talented, creative, super smart and resourceful…and she’s even nice. Great combination! http://www.krop.com/megsfulton
Oh no, there’s no African Americans or other minorities on this list either! Quick, let’s all scramble to come up with relatively unknown interface designers to be politically correct.
Molly Holzschlag and Veerle Peters are too excellent, excellent designers, but as Alison said they’re not UI peeps. I found it interesting that not one but two of these people are from Fuel; that feels a tad biased to me. I’d like to see accurate, responsible journalism with some real research behind it. Not biased self-promotion or politically correct lists.
Keep improving Fuel, don’t let me down. :)
Drake,
Only one of the rockstars listed is from Fuel (Doug). I’m not sure what led you to believe that there are two from Fuel… Sorry about the confusion, and thanks so much for the input!
Ali,
There actually are 2 women on the Rockstar list at Filament Group (Patty Toland and Maggie Costello Wachs). The truth of the matter is that there are simply more men in the field than women, so it was more likely that we found men because of the natural odds.
We definitely aren’t looking to “ghettoize” women. In fact, we want just the opposite! It is very important to recognize the work that women are doing in this field that is mostly occupied by men. It is challenging to be the minority of any group or field, and those who stand up to that challenge successfully should be recognized, not ghettoized.
Thank you for your input!