About Me
I first got a computer in 1987. I found it on my desk at work one day. An I.T. man turned up. He switched it on and said “Now watch. All you have to do is this…” and his fingers flashed across the keyboard. Then he left.
I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. I objected to it, I was frightened of breaking it, I did not understand it. After he left, I never turned it on again.
Twenty years later, I have written books about how to use them, I know how to take them to bits, program them, make broken ones work and make working ones save me time and make me money.
David in his computer filled design studio
My name is David Yates. And this is a sort of exercise in blowing my own trumpet, but it is done only to give you confidence in me as a computer tutor. My own experience with computers started inauspiciously. The first time I was given a computer was indeed in 1987. I was a marketing manager, a job I liked because it was to do with people and relationships and the way people think. So when this computer showed up, I objected to it. It was the antithesis of everything I liked. Eventually I succumbed and began to work out how computers could help me do the things I liked doing. And twenty years later I have worked out how to take computers to bits, program them, make broken ones work and make working ones save me time and make me money.
One my several alter egos is ‘The home computer tutor’. My others include a Graphic Design business called Creative Thing, a specialist internet company called Realitus. I co-developed the £199 eCommerce store, Startershop and I am currently developing a specialist initiative for business startups called The Startup Site
I was always an unremarkable student, but somehow I am qualified to Masters Degree level in Multimedia Design and have, in one way or another, worked with computers for over twenty years.
My career started off in Marketing Management with Rohan outdoor clothing then Karrimor and Regatta in the same industry. I moved into creative design and became a self taught graphic designer, later returning to university to get some design qualifications and learn about something called ‘The Internet’. Thereafter I became the Global Intranet Project Manager at BP. I moved on and took a role as Head of Design at a plc software house specialising in financial services. I designed many of the country’s online bank, building society and financial services systems and websites. I remember working extensively making parts of the Egg website, the Bank of Scotland online bank, redesigning MoneyExtra.com and doing a lot of work on Clerical Medical’s website and many others. Since setting up on my own I have worked for the MOD, Tourism Tasmania, Pfizer and a lot of small companies and one-man-bands.
I have also taught computing at all levels. I remain on-call to support those who lack ability or confidence young, not so young and ’silver surfers’, including my somewhat impatient father (who believes I am personally responsible for everything he cannot do on his machine). I have also taught mixed groups from novices to expert and taken university undergraduate designers through advanced design techniques on computer.
As a software, web and interface designer, I became very interested in how the end user felt about all these computer services. Most of the time, they hated them, found them difficult, boring and counter intuitive. So, along with cognitive psychologists, professional researchers and a team of designers and developers I spent dedicated time in user led sessions exploring these issues. Over time, I began to understand why computer systems naturally alienate most people and how to build websites and software that people find easy to use. I have built on this further and now help people to get around some of these strange computer idiosyncrasies and put them on a path to a more harmonious relationship with their computers.
It is my pleasure to try to pass this on. If I can learn how to use a computer to this extent, then believe me, anyone can!
There are good and bad ways of learning how to make all this powerful and wonderful technology work for you. I can show you good ways of doing it. Call me on 07017 343434 and let me help.
It Seem There Is Something Wrong With BBLD Configuration, Please Check It.