Web Templates Blog welcomes David Mason of Mantis Technologies . This interview is the latest in our series of interviews with web designers.

“I have always worked in the IT industry since I was 15. When the Internet first hit Australia I was working as a computer technician and doing programming on the side. I was very interested in the Internet and World Wide Web as a concept and started doing basic web pages for small local businesses.”

Do you remember the very first site you designed? “Yes, it was a basic static site for a local sign manufacturer. . . We are doing a great deal of ecommerce and real estate websites these days. This has become our specialty as we have designed some software that creates a template for an ecommerce or real estate website so our designers can then go in and apply the design.”

Where do you get your art for these webpages? “We have two full time graphic designers that create all the artwork. We also source photography from clients and Big Stock Photo.”

What will be the next big development in webpage design? “I believe mobile friendly websites will be the next big thing. For instance - an accommodation bookings website that can also be accessed from a mobile phone for last minute bookings, or a real estate website that sends property alerts with photos to a mobile phone.”

Have you ever worked with website templates? “Yes, when we first started out. We don’t use them any more though. We have used templatemonster.com and also a few other ones (that I can’t remember) when we first started out. . .We only stopped using them when our graphic designers came on board as many of our clients are now very picky about the exact design of their websites.”

What do you think about Flash technology? “I believe that if used sparingly and for the right reasons, it can really enhance a website. For instance, we used it on an upmarket commercial real estate agency website and it gives a very nice upmarket feel.”

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Flash? “The advantages are that you can present dynamic, moving content and ideas that just don’t cut it as static images. It is also great for demonstrations of products and services. I don’t believe entire sites should be developed in flash though (unless they are entertainment/movie/game websites). Flash can run too slow on older video cards and also does not give the same quality for printing text and information that html does.”

What are your sources of inspiration? “I look at a lot of other websites. Also I have been doing web design for about 10 years now so I love coming up with new things for clients. My team are also a great source of inspiration. I am very lucky to have such a talented group of people to work with.”

What are your favorite website designs that you did NOT design yourself? “I loved the XMen III website.”

What was the toughest project or customer situation you’ve encountered? “The toughest project we ever worked on was a website for a USA web design firm a few years back. It was quite a complex project handling bookings from tour operators around the country. The website went over time and budget but we were happy to deliver it to the client as a nicely working complete solution and they loved it. We learnt a lot about project management during this project and now have implemented many systems to ensure all projects after this one flowed a lot better.”

What are your interests and dislikes in webpage design? “I love nice clean designs, a good use of colour and photography, a splash of flash elements and over all, an intuitive, easy to use navigation. I don’t like pure flash websites or ones with navigation that is abstract or hard to work out.”

We appreciate your viewpoints David, thanks for visiting with us.

Racking up the Yardage,
Arthur Browning