Design & User Interaction Geek – MacTalk

Web Site: http://mactalk.com.au

Location: Australia

Posted: October 05, 2008

Job Description:

Do you have a Pantone colour mug? Ever yelled out loud when you've seen Comic Sans? Kerning turns you on? Spend more time in Illustrator and Photoshop combined than you've had hot dinners? You watched that Helvetica documentary, liked it and can't wait to see his new doco? Well, I have a pile of money here for you in return for your best design efforts, so please read on.

Your main role is to be the king (or queen) of user interaction and making things look pretty for MacTalk. Your job is to worry about where things go on a page and what feedback users get when they click stuff and where they end up after doing it.

We're after someone who's head is in design and how people use things, not programming.

You are expected to be very proficient in Photoshop & Illustrator, being able to make beautiful graphics and designs. Bonus points if you are comfortable with Moveable Type, MediaWiki and/or vBulletin as this is what we use as our backend and won't be changing any time soon. Just to re-iterate, the main focus is skill in layouts that look great and are easy to use.

Skills we expect you to have and be confident in are:
Typography
Colour matching
User experience
Mac OS X (no Windows allowed)
Photoshop
Illustrator
Instant messaging (important to how we work at MacTalk)

Bonus points if you know any of the following:
vBulletin
Movable Type
MediaWiki
XHTML
CSS
Javascript
AJAX

If you don't know those particular packages (vBulletin, Movable Type, MediaWiki), that's fine, we can always pass the coding on to someone else. The focus here is design, not code.

The way we work is pretty laid-back - you should be on iChat or some other instant messaging service most of the dayand not be annoyed when I send you a screenshot of a half-arsed mockup I've made in Skitch and ask you to make it look like a proper website. I like quick updates so I can send you feedback, which you take on board, then do another round of feedback and so on until we get it right. There's no committee here, just you and me. Don't be surprised if we go through a dozen revisions and starting again to get something we both like.

Deadline wise, we are very flexible and will accommodate you, however, you need to follow through. If you set a date, goddamn stick to it!

Pay is in the $70-$100/hr range for the right person. We are looking for someone comfortable with an on-going freelance arrangement. We have a few jobs that need work urgently and then once the dust has settled on that, we have some more work that can be done at a more leisurely pace.

How to apply?
Talk to me on iChat: aagius@mac.com or email me: anthony.agius@mactalk.com.au
I wanna see websites you've done before, or some sort of portfolio of your work. I'll give you a rundown of the sort of things we have planned and you can see if you're up for it and can tolerate working with me!

About MacTalk:
MacTalk is Australia's largest and longest running Apple online community.

We started in early 2004 and currently have over 17,000 registered members. MacTalk is the only website dedicated to Australian iPhone, iPod and Mac news, reviews and discussion. As of August 2008, MacTalk averages over 2 million page views per month and in excess of 500,000 unique visitors - the majority of which are from Australia and who use Macs.

MacTalk also has a weekly audio podcast discussing the weeks Apple related events that attracts 1,600 listeners per week and is the highest ranked technology podcast in Australia according to iTunes.

MacTalk is currently in a growth phase, with many new initiatives launching over the course of 2008. What you see now is just the beginning of our aim to be the best friend of iPod, iPhone and Mac users in Australia.

Contact: mailto:anthony.agius@mactalk.com.au