Learn More: Interview with Mike Rundle
Meet rockstar developer and designer Mike Rundle, a strong member in the design / dev community residing in Raleigh, NC. We had some time to speak with Mike about the beginnings of his life as well as some background on his work experience and his new venture, DesignThenCode.
Tell us a little bit about yourself Mike!
Hey there, I’m a designer & developer living in Raleigh, NC. I’ve been designing websites since the mid-90s, then in the early 2000s I started working on web apps and blogs. About when the iPhone came out I decided it was time to finally learn Objective-C and the Cocoa APIs so I could write Mac and iPhone apps. Nowadays I work on web, Mac, iPhone, iPad apps (both design and programming) and also write and speak about user interface design and development.
When did you first “try” a computer?
When I was about 9 or 10 there was a program in my school where students could program Apple computers (not Macs!) in Logo to make a turtle draw pictures on the screen. This blew my mind. A few years later my Mom got an Apple Performa 6200CD and that was my first, real, home computer.
What sparked your interest in developing and designing?
As soon as I got AOL hooked up to my Performa I started building websites hosted at members.aol.com then later on Tripod. That was fun and taught me about HTML and some JavaScript. Around that time I also got deeply involved in the underground AOL punter community where we’d write little programs that could boot other AOL members offline due to a number of security and performance issues with the AOL software. Most punters at that time were for Windows and written in Visual Basic, but I was one of the few people doing it on the Mac using OneClick. I’d build palettes that ran scripts that either punted people offline, scrolled in chatrooms, set up anti-punt protection (to stop others from punting you offline!) and more. My punters were named AOElephant and Hex and were pretty popular for awhile before that entire subculture died out.
As for what got me into design work, I was always drawing and sketching as a little kid. It was never random artwork, always a more architectural type of design: i used to design cars, sneakers, baseball cards and houses. Working on the web was a natural fit for my love of both programming and design.
Can you tell us a little bit about your project Beak and why you stopped it’s development?
Beak was the first Mac app that I worked on. It was a WebView-based Twitter app (that is, the interface, although running as a native Mac app, was HTML and CSS) that I never totally finished. I stopped working on it because, frankly, it became less exciting as the project drudged on. I may pick it back up again at some point, but if I do, it’ll only include the features that I actually use in Twitter. Twitter’s recent #newtwitter design has sparked my interest in working on Beak again, mostly because I like a simplified Twitter interface and am not a huge fan of the more complex side panel design they built. Who knows! More information about why I stopped working on Beak can be found in my blog entry on the subject: http://flyosity.com/flyosity/beak-is-dead.php
Which do you enjoy more; design or development?
I’ve thought about this for awhile, and it’s tough to say, just like it’s probably hard for a parent to pick a favorite child. I do both all day long, and although I love working on design problems, sometimes it’s more satisfying to see things actually work in an application than to just look at a Photoshop mockup. I probably do more programming nowadays than design work, but that’s just because of the projects I’m working on at the moment.
Do you own your own company?
I have an awesome full-time job working at Bronto Software on their marketing and automation suite of applications. The software is web-based so that keeps my web skills sharp, plus all my friends are there and it’s just a really good company and vibe. I own Flyosity, LLC, which is the umbrella company for the apps I write, consulting I do, books I work on, and anything else that generates revenue from projects I work on in the nights and weekends. My typical day is 100% web work and then at night it’s all Cocoa design and development. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
DesignThenCode is an inspiration, what sparked the idea?
Thanks! Design Then Code was the culmination of a few different things kicking around in my head. The biggest inspiration for it was Jason Fried and his writing for 37signals. He published business advice on their blog for a number of years, then turned the blog entries into a more in depth PDF, then turned the PDF into a full-blown book which became a New York Times bestseller. He has a lot of advice and opinions on the field of business and entrepreneurship and he turned that focused attention into a digestible format for people to purchase and utilize. I have a somewhat unique take on things due to my experience as a software engineer and a designer, so I wanted to do a similar thing with getting my thoughts and advice down “on paper” and making it available to purchase online. Originally I had been approached by some book publishers to write a book on interface design, but I wanted it to be more practical and include Xcode projects and PSD files so I elected to do it all myself and publish it exactly how I wanted. It’s worked out really, really well so far, so I can’t wait to get some more tutorials up on the site.
Have any other projects currently in the works?
Yup, always! Currently I’m working on some new Design Then Code tutorials, my first iPhone game and then I have two fledgling ideas for Mac apps that I’m currently trying to get a little more polished. In addition to these apps and projects I’m speaking at three conferences this summer so my schedule is pretty packed. I’m really excited about it all though, lots of cool stuff coming out this year that I hope people really like.
Final words, thoughts, words of wisdom, etc?
Sure. So one thing that I’m really pushing lately is the concept of learning more, outside your field of expertise. The Design Then Code tutorials are all about designers learning how to program and programmers learning how to design. I hate it when a friend has an idea for an app but he can only design it, not build anything. Learning more and being able to do everything yourself when it comes to designing, building, and marketing software really is the key nowadays. No waiting on someone else, no need to pay someone to take care of something you can do yourself. I hope more people head down that path so they can all start building apps they’ve had in their minds for years.
Thanks Mike!
http://www.twitter.com/flyosity
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