IFMA Shanghai is part of the global International Facility Management Association which “… is the world’s largest and most widely recognized international association for professional facility managers, supporting more than 19,500 members in 78 countries.”

Mr. Ron Anthony of the Board of Directors approached me to create their web-presence after having wasted many months with other web-design studios which had failed to deliver a finished product plus involved unexpected increasing costs over time.

Key Design features

1. Clean and understated design;
2. Events section to communicate that the Shanghai Chapter is very active;
3. Member only section;
4. Rotating ‘banner’ section that shows random banners on page refresh/browser reload;

Extra Turbo-Boost
This visual design and CMS (Content Management System) had been created within 1 week and content was loaded and launched within 2 weeks of receiving the project.

Left: The original design from previous design studio which I believe failed to:

1. assess the needs of the client by NOT suggesting a Content Management System from the outset;
2. understand WHAT they association was trying to convey;
3. design and brand visually the scale of the client’s operation;
4. analyze the information and organize it in a way that is easy to use;

Roots for (Shanghai) is a non-profit that provides teaching skills aimed at local Chinese people who are in the lower-wage-earning bracket. Inspired by the people who are struggling to earn a living – enough to take care of their family, my friend Mike with years of professional teaching and management experience decided to apply his expert skills to help others.

He trains these people to teach others their native language. Does it work? Yes! Yours truly was a ‘guinea pig’ in a trial lesson. I had learnt some Shanghainese phrases in a matter of 30minutes. I was shocked + impressed to find that my teacher’s day time job is a delivery boy.

Don’t believe it? See for yourself. Get yourself some really practical lessons directed by a friendly guy with years of experience teaching and running courses in USA, Japan and China – and help others while helping yourself to get some very practical Chinese lessons that will help you shop, order food, travel. Mike’s email address is on the design above!

I had collaborated with a team and designed the User-interaction for an iPad application – used by fast-paced financiers.

On Design and Prototyping for iPad
The design and development process involved design phase and development phase.

Initially I tried paper-model prototypes as a quick basis to discuss and interact with ideas. After which, I was able to make an iPad prototype as a UI designer using xHTML, CSS and jQuery. The result was a very quick prototype, which was extremely useful in really testing out interactions – something that we discussed for hours were solved/proven with an interaction prototype. Also it was great for some initial user-testing/feedback and that all important presentation and client sign-off to move the project into the development phase.

On workflow management
In development as such as this, I like to look at the work/design process and evaluate it so that we can always improve on creativity and efficiency and also design precision (reducing need redesign considerations/unanswered details during development phase so that we needn’t revisit the drawing board again). I would definitely liked to have applied the Scrum model.

On team collaboration between different roles/cultures.
Different people were involved in the project at different stages and it’s always hard for people to catch up, keep track of project progress/thought process that resulted in a given design at any stage. Again, Scrum may not be a bad thing to apply here so that clear ‘User-Stories’ have been defined, prioritized, split into tasks and put on some huge wall/electronic scrum tool so anyone could dive in and see the project progress, tasks done, tasks left to do, problems. This also would have been an excellent tool to have used because people worked over the holiday period so there was a major break (Christmas for westerners whilst local Chinese worked through those 1-2 weeks).

On being a Designer and Certified ScrumMaster
People in the same field often wonder why a designer attends Scrum seminars. Well, I have actually been Scrummaster/Project Manager for a team of 13 people – developers and designers and others including Community Manager, Researchers. I can tell you that design CAN work in Scrum. Unconvinced? Do you manage a team, experience (cultural) differences in attitudes towards delivery/transparency of progress and want to find out if you can streamline your process more? Then email me, I’m up for a challenge!

I am delighted to design and make the website for Shanghai’s quintessential British restaurant. Fulton Place is definitely a fun project to do – their logo and theme is one of the first thing you’ll experience upon entering the restaurant. I love the wallpaper pattern (the owner had it especially printed) – so I was insistent on recreating the feel that you get at the restaurant and transferring this on the website.

Unfortunately, Fulton Place is now closed.

I design products (print, packaging, web, iPhone and iPad apps) that are fit for purpose that strives to be clean and simple. I am also a certified ScrumMaster with experience of managing multicultural teams – read more about me here.

This is a web-site currently in production for Madison Restaurant on Dongping Lu.
The screenshot is a temporary holding page design – and also forms the basis of the overall website.

Austin Hu (owner and headchef) wishes to use a simple clean style that suggests Fine Dining. I took their logo and took inspiration from their restaurant interior – mainly dark wood and cream fabrics. The website background is a dark brown with subtle wood textures in the background to give it some depth and the fonts are off-white colour.

No fuss nor graphics except for the map – a very important part of quick communication of a location.