The blog title gives it away but I’m the new guy over at Security Roots working on Dradis. My name is Matt and I love to explore the world. I was born in Poland, grew up in Canada and I am currently hanging out in one of the most tech savvy capitals, Shenzhen, China. Since I am the new guy I wanted to introduce myself, give you some inside scoop, my experience working with the team and a little bit about my first assignment. 👋

Over many years I have worked on a number of web design and development projects. I pride myself in being a designer with a creative edge and although I have extensive knowledge and experience with design concepts, HTML/CSS/JS, Photoshop, Illustrator, Xd and more, I strive to continuously expand my knowledge with all the ever changing technologies. Currently, as a result of joining Security Roots, I am learning Ruby and Ruby on Rails which, I have quickly realized, it’s quite different from Python and Django. I also enjoy video production/editing using Final Cut Pro X and I have my eyes on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. 👀

Now let me tell you a little bit about my first month at Security Roots. Initially I was drawn to the job posting because it really resonated with me and I was thrilled when I got an email from Daniel (he’s the big cheese over here if you aren’t sure who I’m talking about) and we discussed the opportunity and by the end of it, all of my needs and wants had been checked off for my dream job. I did a small test assignment, which apparently went well since I’m here, and I got to meet the team. I was a bit nervous about this since I knew everyone had been working together for a few years now and are already in the groove of things. I had all kinds of thoughts going through my mind but I was very excited to join the team. All the nervous feelings were put to rest moments after I joined the workspace as I was welcomed with (virtual) open arms by everyone. With the warm welcome I could feel there was excitement and enthusiasm from everyone that a designer has joined the team. I quickly learned that everyone is friendly, very helpful and extremely knowledgable and skilled in their roles. The work environment at Security Roots is very different from anything I have experienced before but is also the most interesting and effective one in comparison! Everyone works independently on their assignments but at the same time is always collaborating and communicating with each other. Every week there is a new topic that everyone answers in a video and posts it to share with the team. This is a great way to get to know the people on the team and promotes more of a social vibe in a work environment. Curious about what the office looks like? Where is it located? Who has the best parking spot or the prime corner view? Well this is actually one of the MANY perks of being part of the Security Roots team. We all work 100% remotely all over the world, so the office can be anything from a home office to a co-working space, or even a boat! Another great feature of being on the team is consistent personal development. Daniel is constantly encouraging us to grow and develop! Whether you want to learn something new within the industry, take a course or read a book, we have it covered. I love to learn so being part of a company that promotes personal development was very important to me. Security Roots really knows how to treat their employees! ✅

I could go on and on about the perks and first impressions but let’s move on to something you will get to see and experience first hand. The first thing I tackled during my first month on the team was a redesign and update of the user profile page. When I am presented with a new feature that needs to be designed, or a current view that needs to be redesigned, I like to make a list of objectives and goals for the design. I want understand how it will be integrated into the overall project. I do background research on the feature, and use a variety of tools to come up with a few variations of a design, then decide on the best one to continue to develop and finalize. In the case of the profile page redesign, I looked at the current design and identified what the issues were with the flow. We also decided to update to the most current version of the HTML/CSS/JS framework incorporated into the project. There was quite a bit of work to be done to make the view work in the current layout regarding HTML structure and CSS class names. I got the view into something that could be navigated and jumped over to Adobe Xd and made mock ups to see how I could make the page flow better and be more visually appealing. I decided to incorporate a 2-column view which focused on arranging the fields in a way that made more sense. I opt-ed to make the left column show the avatar and API token reset and moved all the text fields into the right column and arranged them in a natural order of flow. Once the front end components were arranged, I added some validation styling and magic to make it all work and BOOM! My first project was completed with better flow and a more user friendly experience. 💣

As a team we truly hope that the new designs are beneficial to you and look forward to any feedback from users on the new designs that will be coming soon to Dradis CE & Pro!

Matt,
Designer.