21-year-old Twitter user Interface designer interview

Young and able to change the world may be one of the greatest lucky. 21-Year-old Vitor-lourenco is so, with 7 years of design experience in charge of a change in tens of millions of users to communicate the way products, Twitter user interface design. The following is an interview with the young man, editor

Q: What made you devote yourself to the design industry? Guess you were interested in the design early on?

A: I've been interested in web design since I was 12 years old, but I never thought of it as an industry. At first it was just fun, but all of a sudden it brought me a lot of happiness, and it was a huge reward. The first site I did was about games and anime-I was passionate about it.

Q: On your website, you are describing yourself not as a "web designer", but as a "user experience designer". Can you elaborate on what "user experience designer" means?

A: I always revise my title, so far I haven't found the most exact one. When I put it on the web, I was thinking about what a good user experience in a Web page would cover, and I felt I could implement them. But it turns out that you can't really design an experience--the experience happens to the user, and there's too much to go beyond the designer's control. Now, I prefer to call myself "product/user interface designer" because I spend a lot of time creating and optimizing the user experience at this level.

Q: Your design has always been "minimalist" as the keynote. Why do you prefer this to the way you use more images?

A: I believe that an excellent web interface should be elegant and implicit, so that the content itself to the front desk. A designer must keep in mind that in most cases, users browse a website not to appreciate your unconstrained design, but to do something useful to them. I like Allen Coux Cooper's remark: "No matter how cool your interface is, it's always better to be simple." (Editor's note: Alan Cooper, a well-known user interface designer, is regarded by many as the father of "visual Basic.) ）

Q: In your personal project, we are very impressed with foodfeed.us, can we talk about its concept and source of inspiration?

A:foodfeed is the product of my Twitter API on a weekend. It didn't work, and its functionality was replaced by Twitter's search, but it got me noticed by a lot of people (and that's how the Twitter team got to know me).

Q: Now everyone knows that you're working on Twitter, one of the world's hottest sites, and how you've tried to make this inherently simple site more elegant and intuitive, so that more people know and like it?

A: With the Twitter engineers, I followed the Tin Yohan (Editor's note: John Maeda, the famous graphic designer, whose book, "The Simple Rules" is sold in the country for sale), put forward the "shrink, hide, give" (shrink, hides and embody), and let Twitter The application interface becomes more concise. As a result, we designed a vertical navigation sidebar that would better align them without losing functionality. In terms of visual design, we have redesigned the layout, the style of the buttons, and determined the character spacing and grid inconsistencies. In the front-end technology layer, we give the speech and the label switch to achieve the AJAX effect, and CSS sprite technology to merge pictures, improve the performance of the site.

Q: You've also worked for Yahoo and Orkut. In your opinion, what are the key elements of design for such websites?

A: Each project has its focus, and in most cases, the success of a site depends not only on its page design. The success of the site depends on a deeper factor, most of which is whether it solves a problem for the user. You have to keep asking yourself if you're dealing with a real problem. Then there is the execution level, and there is no formula to set it up.

Q: Page layout design is a hot topic recently. How much effort do you devote to this? What do you think of a successful web page design, and how much is the layout?

A: Layout design is one of the most important elements in my design. I put a lot of effort into it and I think the great design comes from great layout and image settings. They represent content, and this is the most important interaction on a website. In other words, eliminate unnecessary decorations and use text as a user interface.

Q: You are a versatile, in user interface design, visual design, ease of use, accessibility and client development and so on. Do you think a designer needs to master all these skills, or should you focus on the design itself?

A: These are the skills that a good designer must have. Whether you stand out from the crowd depends on the mastery of these skills. UI design is not a science, no one can do 100% proficient. It depends more on the media and the situation you are facing. Therefore, this requires a solid cultural background, and the ability to view the problem from the user's point of view at any time.

Q: What do you think of the design industry environment in Brazil or throughout Latin America that you were born in? Is it in the midst of rapid development, or is it in a situation of lack of talent?

A: There are a lot of good Brazilian designers active all over the world, but web design is not thriving in Brazil, so many designers choose to leave Brazil to find better opportunities in the United States or Europe.

Q: Does fluent Portuguese and English help you expand your working radius?

A: English does help a lot. The best design books and reference materials are usually written in English, and if you can't read a good book, my understanding of design will be limited. I am grateful to my parents for a lot of effort to make me take English classes when I was a child.

Q: When it comes to "good works", how many do you share?

A: Well, my favorites include:

About Face 3:the Essentials of interaction Design-alan Cooper
Designing with WEB Standards (2nd Edition)-Jeffrey Zeldman
Paul Rand-steven Heller
Thinking with Type-ellen Lupton

Q: You are only 21 years old, but have achieved a lot of designers ' lifelong goals. What's the next step?

A: There are plenty of things to do, but I don't make plans. I want to do my own thing at some point, but at the moment I am still working for these good companies. Now it's nice to be able to help Twitter change the way it communicates in 140 words.

Q: What advice do you have for young designers who hesitate to develop their careers?

A: I suggest that they do their own project. Don't expect quality customers to get you involved in a good project, such things are less than young people. Do something yourself now, you will learn a lot, and you will get a lot.