Now that I plan to start working on my site again, I think it’s time to work on my personal branding.
I’ve always been a technology generalist when it come to my work. I had some life events happen and it caused me to reflect on things, including my work. I was considering making a career change from a developer to an UX (user experience) designer. It’s something I’ve always been interested in, but I’ve come to realize that I am best categorized as an UI (user interface) developer.
I’ve always been passionate about user interfaces and the design of things for as long as I can remember. I did think I should be a UI developer jobs after my life at Oracle, but there wasn’t much emphasis on UI and the jobs were hard to come by in 1999. I’ve been working as a software developer ever since then and while I was not officially a UI developer, it’s something I’ve always done unofficially. It’s what’s allowed me to become one of the most highly regarded members of a team, even when I’m not the best programmer. Understanding and building good UIs is what makes something that ‘works’ into something that people enjoy using are more efficient when they use it.
I enjoy working on the design side, but I’ve also become much more proficient at C# .Net MVC over the past few years. I’ve become the UI developer at my work and it’s also improved my JavaScript skills as well. So as much as I enjoy design and UX design, I realized that I’m best suited to focus on my UI skills but remain and grow as a developer. So, a maybe I’m back to being a generalist.. but with an emphasis on UI.
Now that I have my title (mostly) figured out, I though about updating this site. I made this site back in 2016 and used a template, that I made a lot of modifications to. I didn’t want it to be a static site, so I used a WordPress API that was in beta at the time. I’m sure lots has changed with the technology and I would make this site differently today. However, I’m not sure if it’s a good use of my limited time right now.
I think the design has held up pretty well over the years. And for now, my plan is to back fill this blog with some personal things but also to show some work I’ve done, which is probably time better spent.
Lastly, I realized that I already have a logo for personal branding. I’m of Japanese ancestry and I think every family has a crest, called a ‘mon’. Mine is two hawk feathers surrounded by a circle and is on this site in various places. They aren’t unique to every surname, but nevertheless, it’s something that helps identify me by name and tradition and I will be using it more platforms.