Just getting started.

My name is Scott. I'm a user interface prototyper for Intuit. What that means is that I get paid to create running "concept car" versions of potential future products. I also create "test driveable" versions of next generation applications - mostly web applications.

People are then paid to sit down and use these prototypes. Their actions and impressions are recorded. By cranking out lots of prototypes in a very short time, we are able to iterate on design ideas very quickly and with little cost to the company. The result is better thought through and more refined designs for final products.

My background is in software engineering. Almost 18 years of it at this point. (Here is my resume.) I've split my time between distributed computing, object oriented design and programming, database programming and user interface programming.

I've got 2 patents. One is for declaring the dynamic interfaces of web services. It is known as CDL or WSCL (like WSDL but it is dynamic). I invented it by myself while contracting at HP. But somehow mysteriously tons of other names (most ending in PhD) piled onto the patent, and I was demoted to one of the co-inventors! A lesson learned.

You can find WSCL here at the w3c.org site. What's cool about CDL/WSCL is that it preceded the more widely used languages such as BPEL. In fact, it may have been the first language for describing the "dynamic" aspects of a multiple-step web service.

The other patent I've got is for this little JavaScript trick that I came up with in the late 90's. I'm sure everyone knows how to do this now, but back in 1997/98 when I figured it out, it was slightly unusual - and therefore patentable.

For the last several years, I've focused in on trying to become very good at the user interface work. For the last 2 years I was part of Adobe's user experience team - where I created prototypes for them using mainly Flash and some DHTML. I was part of the team that redesigned Acrobat 8 and Reader 8. I wrote most of the DHTML that powers the "Getting Started" screens that come up when you first launch these products. I think we should have used Flash instead of DHTML....

In January, I was hired by the User Experience team at Intuit. I'll be doing work similar to what I did at Adobe. But I'll also will be more involved from a "design" perspective as well. I'll be using Adobe Flex and Flash most of the time. But will likely be doing lots of DHTML and Ajax also.

I love the work I do. And since I'm always playing "catch up" in terms of learning about design (typefaces, color, digital graphic motion, icon illustration, etc.), I'm always learning. Its not a bad way to make a living.

Now about the blog. I intend to try to record learnings and cool experiments here. Maybe what I learn and share could help others who are also trying to get their heads around how to create kickass user experiences on the web. Maybe I'll meet a few people along the way. Who knows.

Well, that is all for now. Stay tuned, and thanks for visiting!