The most fun interview of this year: questions to the typesetter Ksyu

It's been a while since the shark blog has featured an interview with the staff. What can you do? There was no reason, but according to tradition, finally, it was Xu's turn to reveal the secrets of his skill and share his plans for the future.

1. How did you get into layout? What's your education? Did it contribute to the choice of profession? Have you dreamed of such a job since childhood?

So many questions :) I graduated from the Academy of Culture, specializing in document management. One day I came up with the idea to redesign the website of the academy. the old one was just awful. I wanted to do something useful and beautiful. That's how I got into front-end development. Nothing has grown together with the site, alas, because The university administration did not approve of the idea. Well, okay. And as a child, I wanted to be a sorceress (and this desire has not disappeared anywhere, by the way :)).

2. What are the main tasks of a typesetter?

Turn a static layout image into an interface of individual elements placed in the right places on the page. Ensure a good appearance in different browsers and on different devices. Do not forget about the content, which can be a lot or a little. In general, to build a kind of house that will not collapse in any weather.

3. Pros and cons of your work.

Pros - the result of the work is immediately visible, the reviving picture pleases the eye. There are not boring projects, non-standard tasks, they are interesting to solve. As for the minuses, routine is a frequent guest in my work. In this case, you can pedal and read or listen to a book at the same time :) And the biggest minus is called Internet Explorer! But this beast can be tamed if desired :)

4. How do you improve yourself professionally?

I read specialized articles, apply the found interesting features or new methods for solving familiar problems in working projects. Sometimes I experiment. Recently, for example, I built my first jquery plugin - a simple little popup, a common thing on sites. Of course, there are ready-made implementations, but your bike turned out to be more convenient :)

5. Do you have a professional dream or something that you aspire to in the near future?

The dream is to be able to make websites entirely, from design to programming. In the near future, there is a desire to come to grips with the development of Javascript, but this requires a lot of free time, which is sorely lacking.

6. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Oh, HR favorite question :) Actually, I have no idea. I am new in this field and have not yet decided on a vocation. I would like to try my hand at design, programming, interface design. If only it were interesting.

7. Do you ever get stressed out by work? Do you face stressful moments and how do you deal with them?

The routine is stressful. In my work, there are often simple projects of the same type that are boring to develop. Stressful moments, like deadlines, are rare. Various non-work related activities help relieve stress and fatigue.

8. Tell us about your hobbies and leisure activities. How do you spend your free time?

After work, I attend German courses and a gym. I like watching movies and series, reading fiction, especially science fiction. Spend time with friends.

9. What can you wish to newcomers?

Do not worry about the beauty of the written code, pixel perfect (which does not make sense in the era of adaptive interfaces), do not be afraid to insert an extra wrapper if this ensures the strength of the html house. Usability & Accessibility - that's what you need to remember and for the sake of what all this is started. Controversial issues must be discussed with the team. To delve into the work of neighboring links in the chain - designers and programmers.

10. What skills and qualities should a layout designer have in your opinion?

Iron ass :) Perseverance is very important, as well as attention to detail.

11. Can you call your work creative?

It all depends on the development team and the project. For example, I'm usually given the freedom to create effects on how I want interactive elements to behave, designing a responsive site with a single, standard fixed-width layout, and so on. The more freedom of choice, the more creativity.

12. How do you do everything so quickly? What's the secret?

It's just magic :)

13. You are a positive and cheerful person. Where do you draw energy and inspiration from?

For others - yes :) ! Energy and inspiration are fast-expending materials, so I try to draw them from everywhere.

Ksyu, we wish you a happy birthday, from the whole team we wish you non-standard projects, professional development, and that optimism and magic accompany you always and everywhere!