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Chuck Mallott
In this interview, we have Chuck Mallott, a UX Designer, Information Architect. He is also the co-author the the Foundation Fireworks CS4 book.
To begin with, who are you and where are you from?
Chuck Mallott, UX Designer ... I work and live in the Twin Cities in Minnesota.What do you work as in your day job?
User Experience Designer at The Nerdery.What type of projects do you work in Fireworks and are there any challenges you faced that Fireworks have helped you ? I use Fireworks for all of my visual design projects. Virtually all of my work is web-based so I'm able to stick to Fw as my tool of choice. I use Fireworks for everything from icon design to full-page layouts and illustrations. Examples of my work can be found here. http://dribbble.com/chuck
I enjoyed the book you authored on Foundation Fireworks CS4. Can you share with us what inspired you to write on Fireworks?
Actually, that project was the brainchild of my friend Nathan Smith (http://sonspring.com, http://960.gs). He organized a few of us in the industry to write a Fireworks book and got us lined up with the publishers before bowing out of the project himself. By then we had some good momentum and some really smart guys ready to work together to write some (hopefully) educational and engaging chapters. It was definitely a challenging project, but I'm glad I did it and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity.
Two full-length chapters (including Extending Fireworks) have been made available on Adobe’s Fireworks Developer Center.
How long have you been using Fireworks?
I've been using Fireworks since the Macromedia days, Fireworks 3 to start with, which I believe was released around 2000, so for over 10 years I guess.Why should a designer use Fireworks?
A designer should use Fw if they are feel like it gives them the ability to great the best work efficiently. Fw is a tool and the designer should use the tools that they feel are best to execute a job effectively.Check out Chuck's keynote speech on "Designing with Fireworks Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Web-Centric Design"
Tell us why Fireworks is your preferred choice for doing user interface design?
I like Fireworks because I can easily control elements on the canvas without having to dig through dozens of layers and also because I can create vector elements with pixel-precision.
Fireworks excels as a rapid prototyping tool. How does Fireworks helps you in your daily design workflow?
I don't really use Fireworks for rapid prototyping. I use it to create icons, graphics and full-page design layouts. I tend to prefer straight HTML/CSS for rapid prototyping.
What is your favorite workflow in Fireworks and why?
So I guess my favorite workflow would be starting each project with a dummy file I've created. I have a blank file set up with a few pre-set layers (background, header, nav, content, etc), plus a layer for a 12-column grid (modified from http://960.gs). For me this, is the perfect starting point for laying out a web page.If you can only list 5 favorite best features in Fireworks, what will they be?
The Paths palette (join, punch, union, etc.), Masks, Convert to Alpha, easy control of height/width and XY coords, rounded corner controls.
Many people compare Photoshop with Fireworks. What is your viewpoint in this?
I think its a fair comparison, but the friction between Photoshop and Fireworks zealots is unnecessary. They are both great tools that do pretty much the same thing. I think there are some things that Photoshop excels at and some things that are much easier to do in Fireworks, but I think it just goes back to which tool the designer is most comfortable with.Fireworks work even better with fireworks extensions. What are your favorite extensions from other developers and how do you use it in your work?
Ha! In over 10 years of use, I've never downloaded a Fw extension. What am I missing out on? :)Do you develop your own Fireworks commands?
No. I get along pretty well with copy(cmd-C), paste(cmd-V), group(cmd-G), ungroup(shift-cmd-G) and undo(cmd-Z).Do you have a Fireworks tip for the Fireworks community?
One of my pet peeves is a point on a path or shape that is not rounded to the nearest whole pixel, which will cause anti-aliasing (fuzziness). This can happen sometimes inadvertently, but you can easily fix that in the Paths palette. Let's keep things on whole pixels, folks!Are you involved with any communities on the web?
I'm pretty active in the Dribbble community. Its a great source of inspiration as well as getting feedback on your designs - or just to share what you're working on.Do you have a blog? Where can we find you?
You can find me on my blog - http://oaktreecreative.com/blog
Thanks for the opportunity to talk you, Chuck. Last question, any advice to the designers out there exploring Fireworks?
For all of those designers considering Fireworks, but still on the fence - give Fireworks a genuine try, but in the end, just use the tool that allows you to efficiently create awesome work and that you enjoy using.
Connecting the World with Fireworks
Click and drag the "Yellow Guy" icon located above the zoom slider onto the google map. Blue overlay areas allow you to see street map view! Have Fun!
