Meet the Starfish
After spending nearly 7 years at a large web development company, we decided to go out on our own so we could focus on the things we really love doing. Fortunately for our clients, that's building awesome web sites, dueling with Google and writing great software applications.
Kay Smoljak
Kay lives, breathes and dreams the web - she wants to make it a better place for everyone. Some might say her obsession with web standards and accessibility is a bad thing, but we think it means she'll stop at nothing to get the job done right.
Graduating from Edith Cowan University's multimedia program back when interactive CD-ROMs were the future, Kay has seen the web grow up and still reminisces about Netscape 0.9 and the introduction of background colours for web pages.
You'll find Kay at a variety of web industry events, and she is quite involved in many of them, sitting on the committee of Port80, the Australian Web Industry Association, and also the sub-committee of the WA Web Awards. She's one of the organisers of the Perth Web Standards Group, and a co-founder of Web Women, a local networking group for women in the industry.
Although her roles in the past have included web site construction, ColdFusion coding, web standards evangelism and project management, she currently sees search engine optimisation and online marketing as a huge growth area and an important part of the web site development process - a part which is often overlooked.
In the distant past, Kay was a percussionist and is presently attempting to annoy the neighbours again with a borrowed drum kit. She's not, however, anticipating any offers to join internationally touring super-groups in the near future.
David Ridgway
Software, software, software - Dave's primary focus point is writing great applications. Well almost, he is equally passionate about user interfaces, usability and the presentation of the software to the user.
Being involved with computers for the past 16 years (back when 640kb of RAM was enough for everyone), and developing software for over 10 years, Dave has seen technology come and go. One thing that has not changed is there is still software being released that does not live up to its potential.
Graduating from Computer Power back in 1994, Dave has a wide range of computing experience. He has worked as a CAD operator, 3D modeller and animator, system administrator, technician, manager and developer - sometimes one at a time, and more often than not, filling many roles simultaneously.
For the past 5 years he created the business model and led the design team at a leading icon design firm. Focusing on user interface design, software usability and critique, icon design, product development, marketing and client consultation, Dave has worked with some of the worlds most "iconic" and recognisable companies, such as Nero, Agilent and Airbus.
Wanting to implement new ideas and products, you will find Dave participating in many industry events, both web and software orientated.