Designsimply.com is a collection of my propensity for design, photography and code. I am addicted to Photoshop. I develop with Dreamweaver, eclipse, or Coda. I code in XHTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL using a little JavaScript and a lot of Usability. I like fast code, fast databases, fast servers, and slow food. I am a WordPress Evangelist.

Bio

Sheri is a designer, developer, and photographer currently living in Northern New York near Montreal. She earned a Bachelor’s in Business and a Chemistry minor from the University of Utah before spending eight years managing websites for Myriad Genetics in Salt Lake City. She has always considered herself a WordPress evangelist, and her endlessly positive nature makes her a perfect fit as a Happiness Engineer at Automattic.

Philosophy

• Simplicity is a feature
• Less (code) is more
• Content first
• Get things done
• Use design patterns
• Write tests
• Leverage existing code
• Keep it simple, make it usable
• Love your work

Five Principles to Design By

From Joshua Porter of Bokardo

1. Technology serves humans
2. Design is not art
3. The experience belongs to the user
4. Great design is invisible
5. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Photography

I am an exclusive iStockphoto photographer where I’ve managed to meet quite an amazing mix of design and photography talent. You can view my latest work at this site by visiting the latest stock photography page or the photo gallery.

My Story

I learned HTML in the depths of the University of Utah Marriott Library during the time I spent on campus my first Summer there. I soon found myself taking any web developer job I could get through the University of Utah work study program. After completing my Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Chemistry Minor, I landed an incredibly cool job as Webmaster for Myriad Genetics. Eight years later, I joined Automattic as a Happiness Engineer where I have found my home away from home. Making people happy is probably just about the most perfect job for me that I can think of.

Favorite Reads

• 456 Berea Street
• A List Apart
• Authentic Boredom
• CSS Beauty
• Digital Web Magazine
• Fadtastic
• Fiftyfoureleven
• Ideas on ideas
• Jason Santa Maria
• Jeffrey Zeldman
• Photojojo
• SimpleBits
• Jonathan Snook
• Stylegala
• Techcrunch
• Veerle’s Blog

What I’m Listening To

• Rrodrigo y Gabriela
• Bad Lieutenant
• Breaking Benjamin
• Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
• This I Believe

What I’m Reading

• The Geography of Bliss

People Who Impress Me

• Matt Mullenweg, wildly successful founding developer of WordPress, unassuming, and all-around nice guy. Am fascinated by his company, Automattic.
• Gregg Pollack and Jason Seifer for their completely brilliant “ruby on rails vs” commercials imitating the mac vs pc campaign by Apple (even though one is anti-PHP), and because they’re interweb idols.
• Jeremy Keith, because he’s so damn accessible, he wrote an amazing book on AJAX, and he is an unrelenting blogger.
• Kelly Goto, my favorite conference lecturer and design ethnographer.
• Jeffrey Zeldman, because everyone respects his work.
• Eric Meyer, because he is a CSS expert extrodinairre.
• Craig Newmark, for building an unbelievably amazing company service mission and non-corporate culture.
• Tantek Celik, thought leader, Technorati employee, and inventor of microformats.
• DL Byron, quite the inspiring accidental entrepreneur and renowned corporate blogger.
• Dave Shea, because CSS Zen Garden is hella-cool.
• Andy Budd, wrote my current favorite CSS book: CSS Mastery.
• Danny Sullivan, search engine industry authority, a class above the rest.
• Carl Honore, for his brilliant voice and style, one of my most favorite authors.
• Renee Lee, because she is a self-starter and a wildly successful photographer on her way up.