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Interview: 5/22: JuanSQ - Sonique GUI Designer
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 JuanSQ...The man, the myth, the legend...
We at SX are very honored to have had a chance to sit down with Juan of Team
Sonique and drill him with some questions"...oops...we meant ask 
**Disclaimer: This interview has not been approved by the "powers that be" over at Sonique, (i.e., they don't know about it) so the respondent to these questions may not be the real juan .**
SX: How did you come to work for Lycos and team Sonique?
Juan: I began working for Lycos Latin America at April 2000, back then, as a big fan of the player, I created the Spanish and Portuguese versions of Sonique and developed with the old team a custom player for Terra (when Lycos was bought by Terra, Terra remained as the only brand at south America and Spain, Lycos kept it's brand for North America and the Joint Ventures at Europe and Asia). I kept working on that kind of stuff until the project went to Tim and John hands. I offered my self to help them with anything they need, so I started collaborating with them from time to time, making power point presentations more appealing to business people who must approve the budgets needed to keep S2 alive and stuff (maybe they weren't that appealing after all...). I started to get more and more involved until today that I'm working on (see question # 3). so, as it happened with Tim and John, I asked to be part of the team and after pushing for almost a year I think I will finally get into the credits page some day.
SX: Anything we should know about you? (i.e., tell us about yourself)
Juan: Not really, I like to keep a low profile  One thing you need to know, as you may have realized by now, is that I don't speak English very well. Even my Spanish is not very good those who know how we speak in Argentina will understand that), so I prefer to explain things visually, so when somebody ask me something I start drawing on walls and stuff, but then people turn to think I'm a lunatic or something and I get kick off from everywhere all the time. Besides that, you can learn the important things about me from my bio at the credits page (oh no, Tim never put me on that page! )
SX: What exactly is your role in developing Sonique2?
Juan: Handle all relative to graphics for S2, from icons to skins and help decide on the navigational and GUI issues.
SX: Has sonique always been your favorite media player?
Juan: Yes, I have never used any other player except when I was away from my computer and, of course, when windows media player open's it self to show me that ugly face it has every time I don't want it to do such.
SX: What changes would you like to see in sonique2?
Juan: I want to look at it and discover at first glance what a great concept it is: the ultimate media player
SX: Where do you see yourself and sonique in the future?
Juan: Sonique: at the hands of every multimedia lover who uses the computer as a media center. As for myself in the near future: far far away from my computer, at the top of a mountain ready to ski it until no snow is left to ski (we are in winter at this part of the world now).
SX: Now that you've seen sonique from both a user and developer perspective, do you analyze other media players more closely now?
Juan: I do, not that I didn't look at them before, but now I have more conscience of why I hate them so much (all those steps to do
simples tasks for example) and why I people like them so much (such obvious interfaces). I like to think out of the box so I look at other kind of interfaces and real life objects for inspiration. The final goal is to create a new concept in our user interface arena so being aware of what it's on the field now it's really important, but to see what's outside is even more important, at least from my own point of view.
SX: With your knowledge of MANTIS, how have the skins so far stacked up in reaching MANTIS' full potential. Do you expect to see more complex skins with the next few sq2 builds?
Juan: We are at a very early stage now so it's logical we don't see the greatest skins we could possibly create, and also rules are changing every day, so big projects are not very likely to show up, but all along great things have been done and even greater things will come when the final software arrives. What I really expect to see is less "hardware" skins and more "organic" skins. I want to see Sonique 2 alive, and I don't mean it metaphorically
SX: Is there anything you would like to say to Sonique fans itching for a final release?
Juan: As we all know, community is a great part of the S2 development, so the more involved we are, the better chances we have to see it launch sooner and better. I'm amazed of the great minds we have thinking on S2 right now, both from coding and graphics sides. Just keep the good work, think out of the box and sonique will rock again
SX: How's the car coming?
Juan: I hate rain, it's been raining for 15 days now and I couldn't do any progress on the painting of the car, but hope to have it ready on a month or so. For the ones who doesn't know, I have a 1962 French car (a 403 Peugeot) thatI'm restoring to it's original conditions.
SX: Any plans for a re-design of the sonique.com site when s2 hits final?
Juan: That's on Tim's mind I believe; it makes sense to have a redesign when we launch the final release, at least to give S2 the importance it will have then.
SX: Do you, or any other member of team Sonique, plan to frost your hair?
Juan: Many people have been trying to do that to me for the last two years with no luck, so I don't think so... but you never know. I think I will end up shaving my head so no one end's up doing it.
SX: What are your favorites from among the alpha skins?
Juan: Snaque!
SX: Are you ever going to inquire about being added to the credits page on sonique.com?
Juan: I think Tim was jealous about the bio I wrote because it was funnier that his so he decided to ban me from the credits page. But at least I got my own sonique.com email address
SX: Do you play video games and if so what's your favorite game/platform?
Juan: I do, not much but I do. I have an old system, a Dreamcast, and it's really hard to find games here. Believe it or not I still play Mortal Kombat, but my all time favorite is Tony Hawks 2. I have only 4 games, the others are NBA 2002 and Unreal Tournament (yeah, I know, that's sad, too sad. if any of you want to give me a PS2 or XBox for my birthday -June 11- it's more than welcome .
And finally...
SX: Any suggestions to skinners that you think could/should make skins better?
Juan: As I said before, I would like to see more organic shapes, some liquid movements, less menus and more icons, make things intuitive and fun. Oh, and please, bring on the games!!!
We at SX would like to thank Juan for taking the time out of his busy day and giving us a great interview.
Author: Slaine
Posted: December 31, 1969, 4:00 pm |
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Comments
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nice interview! i never really noticed before but yes all the skins are industrial looking
| i don't like organic shapes or organic stuff on my desktop... and i hate the borg
very interesting interview!
| go dreamcast with tony hawk 2!
| wow , organic skins..
| Just like to restate that we all really appreciate you taking the time to do this interview Juan...great answers! Hmm organic skins...
| nice interview, I hope you'll make it to the credits page soon Juan
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