This week, we chat with John Henry Donvan, an ExpressionEngine developer and part-time Technical Support Specialist at Ellis Lab. He can be found in various places online, most notably at http://johnhenry.ie and http://www.5pieces.com. Offline, he can be found in Cork, Ireland.
MQ: What do you love/hate about ExpressionEngine?
JHD: I love that I can say yes to 99% of all the projects thrown at me. There is a workflow or a solution available in ExpressionEngine to suit them all. I hate it for the same reason. Scoping and testing multiple project solutions in EE becomes cumbersome on tight deadlines.
MQ: Tell us about your work in 140 characters or less.
JHD: I am a Web Designer & Developer from specializing in ExpressionEngine. I am also a part-time Technical Support Specialist for EllisLab.
“For a group of people separated by so many land masses they do awfully well to get on with each other and pull together an amazing piece of software that is pretty much my bread and butter.” – John Henry Donovan on the EE Community
MQ: What's your favorite thing about doing web development/design?
JHD: Probably that blank canvas that stretches way beyond the bounds of the monitor. That combined with solution-finding makes it for me.
MQ: What do you do when you can't solve a development/design problem?
JHD: Driving usually does it for me. Yeah, the one task where I need all my concentration!
MQ: Why use EE? How do you sell clients on using EE?
JHD: I am completely transparent with the price and explain that the money they are going to spend is for me to create not only a front-end design, but also spend as much time designing a workflow to suit them in the control panel.
MQ: My favorite EE add-on is: __________
JHD: A multitude - but I don't think I would get by without [Pixel & Tonic's] Matrix.
MQ: My favorite site I did in EE is: __________
JHD: http://www.holler.ie
MQ: My favorite site someone else did in EE is: __________
JHD: Steinway & Sons by Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain.
MQ: How/why did you get into web design/development?
JHD: I always had an interest in computers and started way back with a Spectrum 48k. I used to type machine code till the AM until somebody would slam a door and I'd loose all my work. I went onto study Product Design in college which revitalized my interest in computers especially all the 3D work I was doing.. When I came out there were no jobs so I went and drank in Australia for a year. Upon my return, I continued to use a computer for some DTP and eventually fell into website design. I went on from there to self teach myself Print design, Flash and various languages, some still in use and some not. Lingo people!
MQ: What would you like to see happen with ExpressionEngine or EllisLab in the future?
JHD: I can only hope for it to grow and grow and keep the same personality it has shown it has presently. For a group of people separated by so many land masses they do awfully well to get on with each other and pull together an amazing piece of software that is pretty much my bread and butter.
Visit http://johnhenry.ie
Photo Credit: Snapshotsofthepast.com
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