Hi, I’m Andy

ak-pic.png

I started making websites by accident in the summer of 2000. Everything online was bright, and shiny... and beveled. Everything was beveled. I began reading everything I could find to teach myself how to design, code, and communicate through the world wide web. 

By day, I work full-time for Life.Church as a Senior Product Designer for the YouVersion Bible App, one of the most popular and highest rated apps in Apple App Store and the Google Play app store.

•••

Although user interface design is a professional craft that I’ve spent thousands of hours developing, mostly I’m just a guy with premature gray hair trying to figure out how to love my wife and kids, be a true friend, and respond to my Creator.

Work is important, but more than making money, I'm interested in making space in my life. Designers talk about whitespace. It's the area in the design where things aren't. It's not the text or the pictures. It's the empty space around the text. 

Life needs whitespace. Space to enjoy family. Space to experience and enjoy God's grace. Whitespace is when I'm not thinking about incrementing social networking stats or designing great apps or websites. 

I have a wonderful wife and three boys. Life is hectic, so the only way to create whitespace is by ruthlessly saying no, which can be so hard. But my family and faith are worth it. A missionary once said, "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

I live in Oklahoma.

It’s not a Job.
It’s a Calling.

You probably have a website, unless you're starting a new venture. If you do, there's a good chance you're not happy with it. You know it can and should be better. You know it doesn't reflect who you are or who you are to becoming. Stats say that more than half of your site's visitors are on a mobile device, so you also know that you need an awesome mobile experience. 

Your online image matters. It matters a lot. That's where I come in. I'll do it right, guide you through the process, but make you look like the hero.

Content is the most essential design element. For most apps and sites, their biggest problem is confusing content (the words, photos, videos, etc), not the layout. The minimum ingredients for an amazing site or app is always interesting content with an elegant layout with ample whitespace.

A site or app is never done. It’s born, but you have to feed and nurture it to keep it alive.

Most sites are too busy and cluttered. I specialize in removing the non-essential from the screen. Sometimes that means getting rid of good things so that your great things will stand out. I major on whitespace.

Good design is invisible. I want the site to disappear so that the visitors feel they are interacting with you, not a screen. A well-designed site gets out of the way of the user. If your visitors are thinking more about how awesome you are, than how nice your site looks, that's a win!