An interview with Jack Osborne
Jack Osborne is a web designer from Greenock, Scotland who specialises in UX design, client-side development and accessibility.
If I remember rightly I came to know you via Twitter but since then you’ve gained more recognition from things such as your article in .net magazine, your work with HTML5 doctor and more recently your tweet in the park site. What does it feel like to get that kind of attention for your work?
So tell us a little bit about how you got started?
“I left school with next to no qualifications, academia was never really my strong point. I didn’t really have any direction and if I’m being honest I didn’t use PCs/Macs as anything other than something to play games on.”
“I was seventeen and I didn’t have a clue what to do – I’d spent that whole summer worrying about what I was going to do with my life. Thankfully a family friend came to my rescue and suggested I enrolled at my local College, as they had just introduced a new course called Multimedia Technology and as I didn’t have anything else planned I thought I’d give it a bash.”
“After finishing my two years at College I went into third year in a Glasgow University and after a further two years came out with a BSc Hons.”
“Since then I haven’t really looked back and I owe a lot to that family relative who put me on this path. I just wish that this was something I’d started sooner. However, I do question whether College/University is the correct route to take for a web based career, infact I’ve wrote about it on my site on more than one occasion.”
Who inspires you to create these days (this doesn’t have to be someone from the web industry)?
“I don’t really like questions like these as the answers are always fairly cringe worthy and generic like; step outside or take a walk.”
“My one tip would be to try and steer clear of internet when trying to secure inspiration.”
I know you’re a fan of WordPress. What is it about this CMS that sets it apart from its competitors for you?
“Truthfully it was the first CMS that I learned and unfortunately I just haven’t had the time to look into the others but I do plan to start learning textpattern before the year is out.”
“Another reason that I probably haven’t forced myself to make the time to learn another is down to the fact that WordPress is such a widely adopted system, so if you ever run into a problem the chances of you finding a solution are pretty high. However, this obviously comes at a cost – as we’ve seen with the increase of WordPress targeted site attacks – with the pharma attacks being the latest. It’s a trade-off that we’ll just have to manage I guess.”
Many of the articles you publish are tutorials. Do you think it’s important to share your knowledge in this industry?
“Very much so.”
“I’ve learned so much in such a short space of time and without these resources I will admit to not knowing nearly as much as I do now. I like to think that by writing tutorial posts I’m helping people that are in the position that I found myself in not so long ago. Even now I find myself searching for answers, I guess it’s a bit like the food chain.”
“You just need to be careful that you’re not just publishing anything, you really have to do your research because publishing incorrect information can be quite embarrassing.”
Is there anything you’d like to say to people starting out in the web industry?
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”