Web Templates Blog welcomes Robert Burridge for an interview. This interview is the latest in our series of interviews with web designers. Robert is Manager and Lead Developer of Website King. He has one project of which I am particularly fond, The World by Train. As it happens, this project and its protagonists will be picked up for a feature by the Discovery Channel. Congratulations Web Site King!!!

“I got into web design about four months after subscribing to the internet in 2002. I had surfed the web and gotten bored and decided to create my own site called ‘AskUncleShaggy’ which was a funny Agony Aunt column whereby its visitors would send in their problems (mostly fictional) and I’d give a funny answer. I was hosted free by AOL Hometown. At the time I was 29 years old and working as a Floor Fitter here in the UK. As my site grew popular I wanted to add a Guestbook, ‘Add to Favourites’ script and the like. After paying some ludicrous prices to Web Developers I went surfing and self taught myself a fair bit of basic HTML and Java. Deciding I had a real interest in this work I signed up with ‘Computeach’ for a qualification as a ‘Master CIW’ (Certified Internet Webmaster) which took 4 years and 4,000 pounds to complete. Because I’d started off as an amateur wanting to save money I make sure my company never loses focus of our goal - to provide PROFESSIONAL design at a low price.”

“I personally specialise in template editing (HTML, etc.) since by using a template we are able to offer our customers the very best product at the lowest amount of time and money.”

“I feel the next big development in Web Design will be Flash. With broadband accounts so low-priced everyone will switch, and viewing a Full Flash site will not be so much of a chore. Designers will love the freedom and the showing-off that only Flash permits, and for once we won’t all be kissing Google’s ass (!) They’ll have to move with US to ensure ‘the holy spider’ can index and rank our Flash sites.”

“I have worked with web templates since 2002; 80% of my work is based on templates. (I’ve asked Template Monster for extra money off a few times but they are not interested in customer loyalty and so recently we have begun to use other template providers including FlashMint and Boxed Art). We have tried many template providers including IceTemplates, Flashmint.com, BoxedArt, TemplateMonster and Sorbose. . .Our experience with IceTemplates was not good..we had to wait almost 5 days to download the template and were forced to give our customer a 20% cost reduction once we had finished the work for his company (we have never used them since). Boxed Art are okay but lack friendly customer service. Flashmint are great ! Templatemonster’s templates often seem the same as each other - small variations of the same template (or templates I’ve seen elsewhere); their customer service is good and my only criticism is why they insist on hiding their Pay by Paypal option when so many people today prefer to use it. Sorbose are great but they are very ‘Flash’ based and do not offer a service of supplying a chosen template as HTML (its Flash or nothing).”

“Flash is a wasted opportunity - people hate to wait for it to load and Google can’t read it properly. Flash sites don’t index very well, which is a major put-off. For this reason we only use it for Headers and steer our customers clear of Flash Intro’s.”

“My inspiration is in fact the ‘Minimalist’ School of Interior design and ‘Bushido’(a Samurai code of ethics that encourages us to not litter our lives, be frugal and not confuse). I studied Interior Design at College and love the ‘Clean’ look. I try to not copy ideas or design inspirations. My favourite web site designs have to be. http://www.mercedes-amg.com/ (AMAZING !) and www.springdigital.co.uk/.”

“My personal toughest project was for a one-page ‘web site’ (which is no longer online) to advertise a ‘Sky Caddie’ Golf device. It took me 5 designs before I’d settled on the final design for the project and then the customer asked me to word it’s sales pitch!”

“My interests in webpage design are fresh ideas which most often originate from new blood working on templates or original designs. Although ‘500years experience as a Web Designer’ may sound impressive, we’ve seen a few portfolios of persons asking us for Freelance work and they are plain boring. Again, my favourite style is what ‘Templatemonster’ defines as ‘Corporate/Clean’. My dislikes in Web Design are that there are so many people out there without any real knowledge or qualifications trying to call themselves Designers/Developers. I also despise animated GIF fluffy cats and ‘Welcome’ signs the likes of which we see littered on WYSIWYG disasters every day.”

“Thank you for choosing to interview myself. On behalf of the whole team here at www.websiteking.co.uk we thank you for
your interest in our work and product.”

It’s a pleasure to interview a guy like Robbie, and I like the frank spontaneity he brings to the interview. Thanks to Robbie and the Website King team.

Arthur Browning