DCTH

Highlight of the Week: Number 6: Robert Banh

Every week we at DCTH are picking a #DCTH user at random to highlight. This is a easy way to give back to the community for being so supportive in DCTH and a way to bring more people together and learn who is behind the avatar.

Who are you?

I am Robert Banh, a known twitter-addict-slash-Web-junkie with an odd fascination for snuggies and pancakes, in no particular order.
By day, I’m a web programmer, hacking PHP scripts and adding jQuery to everything I touch. By night, I’m pushing pixels in Photoshop and Illustrator. If I’m not online, then I’m attending one of the many tech meetups around Austin, TX.

First encounter with DCTH?

A few months ago, I saw a hashtag for DCTH. Not knowing, I asked a fellow DCTHer and got a link. It was a blog post from Chad dated in December that explains how DCTH works. It sounded interesting so I gave it a try the next Thursday.  Like a drug fiend, I got hooked. It was a massive fast paced chatting session for designers with undiagnosed ADD. Topics ranged from retro design critiques to must-have fonts, mixed with food battles and sometimes the occasional embarrassing worst design ever. Whatever the topic, these people have passion and it was expressed in multiple mediums; I currently have a “pancake” tag on my profile pic ☺

What brought you to twitter?

Working at a University, my job is to communicate effectively with students, which is a cheap excuse for me to use twitter during business hours. But ultimately it does help us build a better app that’s on par with current conventions. To name a few, CSAM videos, text messaging , scripts for iPhone, and social media focused stuff .
Now that formalities are out of the way, I love the communities found on twitter. I follow and chat with amazing designers and developers who I would not have found on any other network. Leaving a blog comment is often a one way communication, but twitter allows people to reply and connect. You become great friends with people who live across the globe! And in my experience, I was able to physically connect with most of them during SXSW after chatting online with them for months.

Why Design?

I have a degree in Computer Science. I enjoy the coding but I love the design aspect. Why design? Because humans want what they don’t have ☺. That’s the beauty of building for the web. I get to satisfy the left side of my brain with PHP and Javascript, but I also get to nurture the right with CSS and graphics.

What are some lessons you learned the hard way?

1.    It’s ok to say no. Sometimes, you and a client will not match. I’ve been in bad spec work situations and sometimes you just have to pull the plug. Designers are not mind readers.
2.    Spread the knowledge. Don’t whore all your tips/tricks of the trade. I was once very protective of my PSD files. Now, I’m the complete opposite.  Help the communities and learn from one another.
3.    Be nice. Twitter is a speaker box, and griping about a product or app can get you in trouble. I spoke badly about an unnamed app and immediately got a response from the lead developer. He fixed my problem and we became good friends. So, just be nice.
4.    Experience matters. Look at code from an experienced programmer verses a junior and you’ll see. It doesn’t matter how they acquired their foundation; the years of experience will be seen. There are projects that I wished I could go back and redo.
5.    The same goes for design. The devil is in the details. Just lining up blocks, symmetry, and kerns bothers the hell out of me. I can’t sit through a corporate powerpoint presentation without cringing in my seat!
6.    And last, design is subjective. So who cares if people don’t like it? Just do it.

Freelance of Full-time?

I’m full time now. I would love to freelance, but I am in a unique situation at work where we are a team of pseudo-freelancers that run around campus building websites.

Any recent projects you want to show-off (urls)?

My latest project being built with @cecycorrea (It should be ready in a few days) awesomevsawesome.com
Just completed a project with @adammccombs: bcowwcatalog.com
My own obsession with Twitter apps @mrmilestone: thetwittertagproject.com
Twitter:  twitter.com/robertbanh
Flickr:   flickr.com
Delicious:  delicious.com/robertbanh
Blog: htmltree.com

#dcth . designers . highlights