We recently welcomed two new designers to Automattic, enjoy this short interview and introduction to these talented folks.
Diana Costa
What do you like best about being a designer?
Diana: The balance of analytical skills needed to unearth problems and understand their impact topped with the creativity and aesthetic sensibilities required to come up with elegant solutions.
What’s a design trend/aspect/thing that you’re really into?
Diana: I’m very much into video games and all the aspects of the medium — the storytelling and the soundtrack, the game design and user experience, etc.
What fascinates me most in the medium is what happens when you start taking things apart. When you break the boundaries of what the developers intended you to see.
Boundary Break is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Have a look, and you might just learn what’s underneath the Gerudo Town in Zelda Breath of the Wild.
Who is diana?
Diana is a London-based product designer on the WordPress Special Projects team. She’s a collector of hobbies, knowledge, and unedited travel photos that likely will never see the light of day.
Connect with Diana on LinkedIn.
Matt Walker
What do you like best about being a designer?
Matt: Having the privilege and responsibility to shape outcomes (for better or worse) using our creativity, imagination, and problem solving skills.
What’s a design trend/aspect/thing that you’re really into?
Matt: I enjoy digging into a sub-genre of UI Design known as FUI Design, the ‘F’ can stand for fictional, future, fantasy, fake, or film but it’s goal is entirely about creating an interface that supports the narrative of a story and isn’t bound to the constraints of what’s possible in reality.
Some early famous examples of this are the gesture based interfaces in Minority Report, these types of fictional interfaces can often inspire innovation when the technology catches up. Two studios who do a lot of work in this space are Blind and Perception.
I’ll often practice creating my own fictional interfaces or even recreating some of my favorites.
Who is matt?
Matt is a product designer on the Design Core team, and he’s currently focused on Applied AI projects and other strategic initiatives. Matt spends his free time following his ADHD into new hobbies, enjoying Atlanta’s food, culture, and becoming a boring adult involved in local politics and home projects.
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn.
Automattic Design 