Interview: Web Developer Dan Cannon from Nicasio Design

April 19th, 2010 by Holly Lamarche

In our article, We are Calling all Web Designers and Developers: We Want to Know the REAL You, I requested designers and developers to nominate colleagues in the field for an informal interview conducted by myself. It is my contention that these interviews will not only give us great insight into the people behind the designs, but they will also help with networking, collaboration, and generally getting to know each other on a more personal level. We are still looking for interviewees, so please contact me if you are interested! This week we had the pleasure of interviewing an amazing web developer, Dan Cannon of Nicasio Design, which is based out of Savannah, Georgia. Dan is only twenty-five years old, and he is already an amazingly successful developer, who has a great portfolio under his belt. This is our first web developer in our interview series. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for doing this interview for Admix Web. Can you give us a brief background on yourself?

Thanks for interviewing me. I’ve been following this series and I’m honored to be a part of it. My name is Dan Cannon, I’m 25, and I’m the Chief Technology Officer (highly inflated title) for Nicasio Design. Nicasio is a full service design and development firm based in Savannah, GA. I’m a rare PC user in a Mac world, and I’m proud of it.

Do you consider yourself a web designer, web developer, or both?

I’m definitely a developer. While I’m familiar with the tools and process for design, I like to leave the creative work to the people who are far better at it than me. I love doing development because it allows you to turn code that probably looks like random letters, numbers and symbols to most people into something that is aesthetically pleasing and functional when viewed in a browser.

Why Web Development as a career? What were your inspirations for that profession?

I’ve been interested in the Internet for as long as I can remember. I started playing around with HTML when I was about 13. I created my first site, a fan site for Quake II, in static HTML and it surprisingly got onto the first page of some search engines a couple of years later. I wish SEO was still that easy. When I went to college I did try out a couple of other majors because I didn’t want my career in technology to be a foregone conclusion. I was an English major for a little while, tried some business classes, but I ultimately came back to IT and web design, although I did also end up with a minor in Criminal Justice somehow.

Are you self taught or did you study web development?

As I mentioned I do have a degree in Information Technology, but I would say I’m 90% self taught when it comes to the work I do on a daily basis. My college education did give me a solid base and background in programming, database design and the process of learning new technologies. Knowing how to learn and evolve is an essential skill in a field that can change drastically in a matter of months.

How many years have you been in the field, and how has the field changed during that time?

Well, like I mentioned earlier I created my first website when I was about 13, so that was 12 years ago, but I’ve actually been doing this as a paid gig for about 4 years now. It’s insane to me how far things have come since I first started, and the really crazy thing is that a lot of that innovation has occurred in the last 5 years or so. Social media was definitely a game changer. All of the API’s and integration methods for these monster systems are allowing developers to tap into functionality that would take an enormous amount of time to replicate if done from scratch.

Can you describe a day in the life of Dan Cannon?

I usually wake up around 7:30 – 8:00, check my email, and then get ready for work. I’m usually in the office (yep we actually have a physical office) by around 9:45. We have a lot of west coast clients, and being on the east coast, we usually find ourselves getting in a little later and working later. Once I’m in the office I check the production schedule and plan out my day based on what needs to be done. I usually work until 6:00 or 7:00 (although sometimes much later if we have a deadline) and then head home – where I usually try to put in a little more time in front of the screen.

What is your favorite food?

Anything with caffeine in it.

What does your workspace look like?

It’s a pretty simply setup. I run a customized Dell Vostro PC with a 22” monitor and a nifty little light up keyboard. I usually run dual monitors, but my video card is acting up right now.

Here’s the view I have from my desk of the Talmadge Bridge and the Savannah River. Wish those power lines and industrial buildings weren’t in the way, but it sure beats a cubicle in a basement.

Would you define yourself as introverted or extroverted? How does that effect client relations?

It really depends on the situation. I’m usually very comfortable and confident when I talk to clients or when I’m out with friends. On the flip side I also value my personal time a lot and don’t mind a quiet day to myself.

If you could give a Shout Out to someone who has inspired you in your life, but may not know it, who what it be?

Someone in the technology field that has inspired me is probably Matt Mullenweg. He had a simple idea and turned it into one of the most influential open source platforms on the web today.

I also had two professors at Georgia Southern University that I learned a ton from – Dr. Adrian Gardiner and Dr. Cheryl Aasheim. The value of what I learned from them can’t be measured.

How do you balance your raw inspirations for a project, with the client’s sometimes bad ideas?

Since I’m not a designer I don’t run into this quite as much. However, there are some clients who have a very specific way they want a process to flow, or data stored in a certain way that just makes no sense. I will usually explain to them the approach I think will work best, but the call is ultimately their’s to make.

What was your first design you actually marketed? How do you feel about it now?

The first site that I ever built for pay was an internal system for the Center for Excellence in Teaching at Georgia Southern University while doing my internship. I actually designed and developed this site, and it was during this project that I really determined I was more comfortable controlling the way things work rather than the way they looked. Unfortunately I no longer have access to this system so I can’t provide a screen shot.

What is your favorite type of development work? And, what has been your favorite project?

While I do both front and back end development, I really prefer the back end stuff. I like the idea of starting with a goal in mind, building out the process flow, determining how the data is going to be stored, and how the user interface is going to work. I really enjoy building WordPress plugins. Most of these are custom plugins for clients to help them achieve some particular business process on their WordPress site, but I do have one plugin, Dynamic Headers, in the WordPress plugin directory. Our designer Chris Underwood also contributed to that one. It has over 35,000 downloads in just under a year so I’m glad it seems to have been pretty well received.

What Are Some Examples of Sites You’ve Worked On?

From a programming perspective probably the 3 projects I’ve enjoyed most were Dying Scene, Ourlife Fresh, and Let’s Reflect. Dying Scene and Ourlife Fresh are both custom WordPress builds, while Let’s Reflect is a totally custom social network.



Explain the significance of your company name.

Nicasio is our founder’s (Felix Figuereo) mother’s maiden name. We’re unrelated to the small town of Nicasio in California.

Are you a Mac or a PC? Why?

I’m a PC. I’ve always been a PC. I got my first one when I was 9. I believe it was running Windows 3, which was cutting edge at that time. It’s the familiarity that keeps me on a PC. I will agree that Macs are probably easier for your average user to get up and running, but I’m a tinkerer at heart and I love that you can hack up PCs to make them do what you want. I did try out Mac for a while, but I found myself missing how quickly I could do some things in Windows. I guess I’m just too set in my ways to make the switch. My computers almost always have a copy of Linux on them as well in case I do need a non Windows based environment.

What tools do you use? Which tools would you suggest to fellow designers/developers?

When doing front end development I of course use Photoshop to cut up design files. Other than that I use Notepad++ as an editor. Notepad++ is open source and is extremely feature rich while also being pretty light and fast. I use SmartFTP as an FTP client. While I’m normally a proponent of open source software, SmartFTP just has an awesome feature set and user interface that I haven’t found in an open source solution yet. I also use the MySQL GUI tools and Putty when I need to do some server work. That’s really it as far as software. I keep it simple. No IDE, no fancy software suites, just the basics.

WordPress is the platform that we build most of our websites on. The community and flexibility are unmatched in my eyes.

What are your favorite programming languages?

Well, I was brought up learning Java and JSP in college, but once I got out I don’t think I’ve touched either one of those languages. My favorite server side programming language overall has to be PHP. While the language has some known issues it has a great community, great documentation, and the fact that it’s open source is a big plus for me. JavaScript is definitely my favorite client side language. With all of the advances made in the big AJAX libraries in the last few years the things you can do with JavaScript are really amazing. Just take a look at all of Google’s apps to see how important JavaScript, specifically AJAX, is becoming in web development.

Do you work better under pressure or do you need time to cultivate your ideas?

It really depends on the project. I definitely work faster when I’m under pressure, but faster isn’t always better.

Tell me about the Blog: What made you start it and why do you write?

We started the Nicasio Blog as a way to share some of our ideas, thoughts and stories with the community and our clients. We don’t try to monetize the blog, and we don’t really write daily or anything like that. We write articles when we have an idea, or some news that we think people might actually want to know about.

One of my articles actually ended up being required reading for an online writing course at a small college in Chicago. I liked the fact that people were forced to read what I wrote (just kidding, I was very humbled by it).

What makes you unique?

I would say my ability to relate to people both in and out of the technology field. I feel like I do a pretty good job of explaining complicated concepts to people who are in unrelated fields. I think this helps in client relationships and translating business requirements into project requirements.

What are some of the design and development blogs you read on a regular basis, why?

I really like Smashing Magazine. They are just unmatched in the quality and quantity of their content. I also read Six Revisions and TechnoSailor.com. I also like Brad Colbow’s web comic The Brads which you should definitely be reading if you’re in the web community and want a weekly laugh.

My favorite quote is, “Life is what happens when you are busy making plans.” Are you are planner or a doer?

With everything I have going on in my life I try to stay organized and make plans, but I would say what I plan, and what actually ends up happening match up exactly 1% of the time.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Where do you see web development in 10 years?

I have no idea where I’ll be in 10 years. That’s the beauty of the technology field as a whole. Things move so quickly that you can always change what you’re doing with a little training.

As far as the design and development community who knows. Maybe we’ll be designing websites in 3-D in 10 years. I think it’s going to depend a lot on how user input changes. I think we’re going to see things like the mouse and keyboard phase out and new input methods such as highly advanced touch screens or even some sort of basic neural control come about soon.

In the immediate future, I think you’re going to see a lot more of an emphasis on the integration of 3rd party social networking services through ever increasing API access.

Please share some pearls of wisdom for up and coming designers and developers in the field.

Whether you’re a designer or developer you need to have a strong base to build upon. Good design and programming habits are always going to be beneficial regardless of how the software and languages change.

Also start forming strong relationships as soon as you can. Relationships are extremely important in this industry. It’s inevitable that at some point you will need some outside help of some kind. You also never know who is going to come up with the next big thing that you might have a chance to be a part of.

How can people get in contact with you?

You can contact me through the Nicasio Design website. Or Email me at dan[at]nicasiodesign.com.
And I’m always on Twitter as well @NicasioDesign

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Holly Lamarche is a writer and attorney from New Orleans, Louisiana. Holly lived in Santo Domingo for two years, where she taught at a local private High School, and she currently writes and edits part-time for AdmixWeb and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

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