Let’s get to know you first. Tell us about yourself.
First of all thanks for this opportunity :)
I’m Olia Gozha, designer with focus on web/app/interface design. My workplace is based in Ukraine. I’m in designing since summer 2011 and quite delighted with results I have achieved.
I’ve always loved art and beautiful things since I remember myself ;) A lot of time was also devoted to psychology, I find it very interesting to get to know people and the way they think better. So UI/UX design is a perfect combination of two fields I’m interested in the utmost.
Many people have free time and hobbies. In my case designing stuff is occupying all my time. I absolutely don’t regret about this, because my work is very interesting and dynamic, I have a possibility to create something new and face creative challenges. Therefore, design has never been boring for me.
Cool, so what’s the story behind your website and its design?
It has taken me a lot of time and energy to launch my personal site. Current version is the third concept I’ve developed. However it’s the only one that has been completely implemented online.
My main objective was to make it truly personal, I wanted it to give the sense of who I am and at the same time to avoid cliché and long boring texting about myself that makes no interest for others. Besides, I was user advocate at the same time. While developing my own site I was thinking about things user would like to find here and information that might be useful for him/her.
That’s why I’ve paid much attention to typography, photography and white space on my website to make it clean, modern and focused.
What part of your website is your favourite, and why?
Ha! It’s tricky question. Actually, I can’t highlight one particular part as favorite. I like site’s design and the way it works as a system. I don’t think that all those elements could nicely work separately from each other. They perform greatly together confirming one of the design principles - consistency.
Is there anything you wish you knew when you first started building your website?
I’m quite pleased with the current version of my site. Probably because it has been just launched (2 month ago) ;) While developing the site I was trying to take into consideration modern technologies to stay relevant for a long period of time.
Technologies, languages, frameworks, or libraries?
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Technologies (Full responsive, parallax effects, touch events interaction, 2 view mode of navigation : animated desktop menu and hidden transition mobile menu; swiper slider (vertical scrollbar), Twitter API for news stream)
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Languages (HTML, CSS, javaScript, php)
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Libraries (jQuery, Modernizr)
Any upcoming changes we should look out for?
I’m thinking about about adding newsfeed with announcements regarding “juicy stuff” like freebies, discounts, special offerings, beta testing etc. To my mind this block would be interesting for users. So stay tuned and don’t pass by ;)
