Inclusive design is a win-win for South African customers and businesses. It allows your digital products to be enjoyed by a much larger audience. It improves SEO, ignites innovation, and helps your company take on a position of social responsibility.

Everybody needs a reason to get up in the morning. Most of us seek purpose and a reason for being. I find purpose in my work: solving problems through web & user interface design.

Most of my web design career was spent focusing on graphic design, learning the software, keeping up with new technology, considering brand guidelines and adhering to what the client wanted.

In April last year, I wrote an article about a few Japanese artists that I love. Unbeknownst to me, I would be visiting Japan a few months later.

Freelancing is not easy. It can be risky, frustrating and daunting at times. However, it can be a highly rewarding lifestyle choice when goals start being achieved. Once the anxiousness subsides and confidence in the next pay check settles in, only then, do we make the right decisions.

Lately I've been doing a lot of prototype work, mainly for mobile apps and it is really challenging. More so than creating wireframes. Prototyping forces you to think about the process, the flow, the transitions, the workings of iOS or Android and most importantly, the user. It forces you to get into the mind of the user and try imagine the most obvious way to get from A to B. 

I am still learning a lot about this process but I will share a few things that I have learnt recently.

I love Japanese art & design. The use of colour, the themes, the wit, playfulness and the style of illustration appeals to me immensely. One day I plan to visit Japan for pure inspiration. Until then, I'll be posting articles of some of my favourite artists. I am merely scratching the surface, highlighting points of interest to me. 

I am currently designing a set of a 100 icons, and I started thinking about what makes a good icon and thought I'd share a few techniques that have helped me.

Wafts of fond memories arose when I found a mp3 player I designed for a musician's website in the early 2000s. I remember using the pencil tool to create the loader and track titles, pixel by pixel, and then animating it in Flash.