My Hypermedia History

The Early Years

• Stumbled upon some WYSIWYG app on a CD from Bug magazine back in high-school days.
• FrontPage sucks.
• Learning the way websites work almost just as fun as Age of Empires or even Need for Speed.
• Wrapping one table around another to produce a one pixel border.
• Made my first website in Dreamweaver.
• Read about this thing called CSS in summer of 1998. Thought it was rubbish.
• Started taking more interest in web design.
• Dreamt of being online non-stop and not using dial-up.
• Got into a Web Design learning course. Did not learn much but got the confirmation I was heading in the right direction.
• Dumped Paint Shop Pro, fell in love with Photoshop.
• I don’t like you much, Flash.

The “I do not need a Mac” Years

• Switched from Dreamweaver to Notepad. Foolish enough to hand-code over 120 pages of pure HTML in Notepad on my first major job, with no color-coding and no templating system. Did learn a lot from it, though.
• Read Jeffrey Zeldman’s From Table Hacks to CSS Layout: A Web Designer’s Journey in 2001. Eyes opened.
• Switched to Programmers Notepad.
• Created Yesterdayishere in 2004. Designed it in just a few days and built the site while learning WordPress. Bought Yesterdayishere.com in February of 2005.
• Blogging is cool.
• Finally realized I wanted to make websites for a living.
• Got listed in CSS galleries like CSS Beauty, CSS Vault, etc. Crazy traffic.
• Shortstat addiction.
• Daily RFP’s.
• Won the award for the best Croatian personal website, called Rudjer. Look Ma, I’m in today’s papers!1
• Job offers. Several job interviews, but decided to continue working from home. Freelancing kicks ass.

The “Mac is my Best Friend” years

• Client: want to design an iPhone app? Me: never saw an iPhone app, don’t own an iPhone. Client: let’s get you one. Me: alright.
• iPhone is awesome.
• Designed several iPhone apps.
• Finally switched to a Mac in 2008. Why I hadn’t done so sooner, I really don’t know. Kids, get one. It made me a better designer. Best investment I’ve ever made.
• iMac is awesome.
• Siniša: do you know a website that lists the do’s and don’ts in web design? Me: no. A site like that would be useful. Siniša: let’s make one. Me: alright. Created Web Do’s & Don’ts in early 2009. Crazy traffic.
• Got an iPad. You’re guessing this: iPad is awesome. Designing a few iPad apps.
• Love for work still as strong as ever.