As well as his own podcast Paul also produces a bi-weekly podcast for the Practical Web Design magazine, writes monthly for .net Magazine and increasingly speaks at web design conferences.
Paul believes in a holistic approach to the web, bringing together multiple disciplines, to create a more rounded user experience. He is a pragmatist believing that return on investment should sit alongside good usability and accessibility.
Previously, Paul was Senior Creative Manager of Avatar Interactive (formally known as TownPages) where he was key in building the company from a small start up company through to IPO and on to be a well established new media design house. Paul was heavily involved in design and strategy projects for top accounts including BP, The National Trust, SITA, Travelbag, Lloyds Pharmacies and Ordnance Survey.
Prior to that Paul worked for IBM developing websites in the days when we wished it was possible to do table based design!
Can you give us a brief bio of yourself?
You can find a pretty extensive bio here: http://www.boagworld.com/archives/2005/1..._boag.html
(this is what we have copied above)
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What is your educational background?
I trained as a graphic design at the University of Portsmouth here in the UK. However, to be honest I am a bit of an academic thicky and never really took to education much. I prefer to make things up as I go along!
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What are your favorite books? Movies? TV shows? Music? Games? Foods? Beverages?
Wow, er… um… okay:
Book: Douglas Coupland, Microserfs
Movie: Fellowship of the Ring
TV Show: Battlestar Galactica (2006 version of course!)
Music: Wow, that is very difficult. I like so much. Magic Numbers maybe?
Games: World of Warcraft
Foods: Chinese, no wait… Indian… on second thoughts Italian… er…
Beverages: Water, plain and simple
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When did you build your first website? Who was it for?
Back in 1994 and it was for Rank film distributions (you know the half naked man hitting a big gong).
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What role do you play with headscape?
Creative Director / R&D department.
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You are probably most commonly known for your podcasts (boagworld and PWD), why did you decide to start podcasting?
Because I was given an iPod for Christmas and although I found a podcast on knitting I couldn’t find one on web design. That just felt wrong somehow and so I decided to do something about it. After all waffling for 40 minutes is a lot easier than posting on a blog.
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What do you think has made your podcasts so popular?
The same reason people look at a car wreck as they drive by! Okay, I am guessing you want a more serious answer. I think it is about striking a balance. People want to stay informed about web design but they don’t get to listen to the podcast on work time. They listen to it on their way to work or at home. Therefore they want it to be enjoyable as well as informing. We try and make it like that. We cram in as much info as possible but keep it entertaining too.
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What is the most enjoyable and unenjoyable part of your job?
The meetups and conferences are the best bit. There is nothing more enjoyable than spending time with like minded people. The worst part is deadlines. I hate rushing work to get it done for an artificial deadline. I don’t mind doing it for a real deadline like a product launch but I hate having to get work done just because it’s the end of the financial year or something.
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What tips and advice would you give to people entering web design and development?
Experiment, play, enjoy. Good web designers see it as more than a job. It’s a hobby too. Have your personal website, try out new stuff, experiment with new technologies and record what you learn (there is far too much to keep in your head). Whenever I hire somebody I always ask what personal projects they have on the go because I believe that is a sign of their enthusiasm.
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What tips and advice would you give to anyone who would like to start up their own podcast?
The technology behind setting up a podcast is easy. Making it entertaining, engaging and informative is much harder. Pick a small niche subject and work hard at being entertaining. Speak to the listener like you would if you were in a face to face conversation. Ensure you don’t become monotone and if you struggle then get a cohost. That makes the world of difference.
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What are your top 5 websites (excluding your own)?
The top 5 websites that I USE most are:
Google.co.uk
Twitter.com
News.bbc.co.uk
Flickr.com
Feedburner.com
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Do you have any future plans for either boagworld, headscape or other projects, if so can you spill the beans?
We are reformatting boagworld to be a slightly different show. It was becoming hard to cover a long main feature every week and we also felt the show was getting too long. Instead we are going for a magazine style show with short snappy sections covering a variety of web design subjects. In addition I am launching the .net podcast to replace PWD which is really exciting. That will be a round table style show where different people discuss web design every couple of weeks. It should be good.
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From the team at Webbers Corner can we thank Paul for taking part and supporting our community. We also wish him all the best with the development of his podcasts.