Soloist in the Spotlight, David McDonald

Location

Southbank, Melbourne, Australia

Occupation

Freelance Web Designer

If your office caught fire, what would you grab first…?

My server. It contains, amongst other things, my painstakingly maintained iTunes library.

…and what would you toss into the flames?

My mobile phone. Sometimes it feels like we are all a little too contactable.

Do you have a designated ‘work’ wardrobe?

When working from my home office, I generally prefer to wear cargo shorts and a t-shirt. There has been the odd day where my 'wardobe' has consisted of a dressing gown or pyjamas, but mostly I don't feel ready to work unless I am showered and dressed, even if it is casually.

When meeting someone, would you rather they thought you were charming or mysterious?

I think I would prefer 'charming' over 'mysterious'. Sometimes 'mysterious' can allude to hiding something, and I definitely would not want people to think that about me.

What book are you reading?

'Agile Web Development with Rails'. It's a technical book about a programming language and a development framework. It's also a cure for insomnia.

Can you stop at just one chocolate biscuit/savoury snack?

Since giving up smoking, this has become harder and harder.

What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given?

Find a good accountant.

What website do you visit every day?

http://tech.memeorandum.com/ which is a constantly updated summary of technology and internet-related news.

If you could improve one thing about your work, what would it be?

There are so many technologies that I would like to learn or explore further, but it is always a case of being too busy to be able to do anything about it. So this year, I plan to set aside time to learn new things, and apply these learnings to enable clients to get better results from their websites.

What actor/actress would play the lead in the story of your life?

Dustin Hoffman. We're around the same height, so the wardrobe budget wouldn't blow out.

You've got a free half hour during your work day. What do you do?

Put my mobile phone on silent, grab a newspaper and head out to a café, preferably with an outdoor table.

What's your proudest moment

I built the front-end for the BHP Billiton website and intranet a while back. After these went live, receiving positive feedback from users validated the work I had done. I felt proud to have had the chance to be involved in this project, and to have been able to play a part in helping the users of these sites.