Synthesis Studios

So long and good luck, David Mellis.

We’re really happy to announce that David Mellis is heading over to Denmark to join the faculty of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. He will be sorely missed around the office, but for all the reasons to move on, we can’t think of a better one — we’re thoroughly elated for him.

For sometime now, I’ve come to know and rely on the occupant of the first desk’s thoughts and guidance. Since David has joined our team, he has really helped me and Synthesis solidify our relationship with interaction and UX design for both projects we take on for clients, and for those that are our own. I will gladly credit portions of Synthesis’s design strategies for managing innovation, technology, and UX design to David’s presence in the studios.

David embodies the natural curiosity that every practitioner at Synthesis has.

He constantly asks, in his quiet way, what everybody is up to, loves to hear about all the projects (especially the ones he isn’t directly involved in) and isn’t afraid to throw his thoughts into the fray to either add to the conversation, or mix it up when he feels it could go a different way. We’ve learned a lot from him on how to step back and look at the larger picture of a project — not just on how to get a better picture of what we’re building, but also to get a better picture as to how we’re building it: Are we asking the right questions? What’s our role and relationship with the people who are going to be using the project? How do we make sure we’re “right” and not just from a technical perspective, but whether this project is going to resonate in people’s heads? David has been known to ask and challenge us all with the hard questions, but then stick around to help answer them too.

Synthesis is a close-knit family. When one of us leaves, it, or moves on, we all take a second to step back. David: Godspeed, and good luck. We’ll miss you, and come back and visit when you’re in town.

Tags: Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Denmark, interaction design, UX design

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am and is filed under Synthesis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.