About Krys Blackwood and this website

I'm older than I lookHow does one become a User Experience Evangelist?

I started my career as a hardware technician, building computers and repairing IBM point-of-sale equipment. Quickly, I evolved to internet tech support, and while supporting customers on the phone I found myself designing websites.

Seventeen years ago, I migrated to a professional web design role, and as I was creating brochureware and commerce sites for our customers, I found myself obsessed with ease of use, learnability and consistency.

The rest is history.

I live in the San Francisco Bay area. My hobbies include ballroom dance, rock climbing, photography, costume design and archery. I am currently writing a non-fiction book, which takes up much of my spare time.

  • This site was designed in Adobe Photoshop in Sept 2013.
  • All of the artwork on this site is original vector art, some of which was hand-drawn before converting.
  • The site is responsive with breakpoints ranging from 1200px all the way down to 300px. I may improve the responsiveness by implementing a framework later, when I convert the site to use Sass/Compass.
  • HTML and CSS were hand coded using a text editor called TextMate on a MacBook Pro. I like Macs slightly better than PCs for work purposes. I use Ubuntu at home.
     
  • It was tested in Firefox and Internet Explorer for Windows, and Firefox and Chrome for Mac.
  • This site has also been tested for readability and findability with a colorblind user.
     
  • The Mythical User uses Wordpress behind the scenes.
  • The custom Swankster theme is built on the underscores framework.
     
  • I have been working with computers since 1985, when I started programming in Basic on a Commodore 64.
  • I have been doing website and user interface design professionally since 1996.
     
  • This site was printed on recycled electrons using 100% post-consumer concepts.
  • No animals were harmed in the making of this site.