The Essentials

Name:  Tabitha Zipperer
Username: tabb
Age: 24
Profession/Employer: Technical Designer for Plain Black
Place of Residence: Whitewater, Wisconsin...mmmm cheese.

WebGUI Related Questions

In what way(s) do you contribute to WebGUI or the WebGUI Community?
I provide design services for Plain Black's clients, all centered around WebGUI.  I contribute to the template group that is currently reworking all of WebGUI's templates to make them more standards compliant and easier to design to.  I also try to keep an eye on design-related bugs and RFEs.

When did you first hear of WebGUI?
I first heard of WebGUI about a year ago.  I was job hunting, found an open position at Plain Black, and began to learn WebGUI.

How and when did you get involved in WebGUI?
Plain Black hired me in May of last year.

Are you paid to work on WebGUI?
Yes I am!

How much time do you spend on WebGUI?
40 hours a week usually, sometimes more when necessary.

What do you think is still missing from WebGUI or the WebGUI Community?
There's not one specific thing that comes to mind as “missing” from WebGUI.  It continues to improve and transform over time, and we have an excellent community.  I would love to see that community grow more.  I think that a lot of people who are new to WebGUI might feel intimidated by all the very intelligent people and heavy developer chat in the forums. Maybe adding a “General” or “Newbie” forum of some sort might help to get these sorts of people more involved.

What keeps you motivated to keep working on WebGUI?
I love WebGUI's power and how easy it is to design to.  I find both my coworkers and the individuals in the community to be great people to collaborate with.  Oh, and the paychecks certainly don't hurt. :)

What's WebGUI's killer feature and why?
It has so much power out of the box.  You can build just about anything with no coding knowledge and without having to hunt down pesky plug-ins. 

What's WebGUI's greatest weakness and why?
As a designer, the flaws that I see in WebGUI relate to having accessible design.  Trying to give WebGUI a personal style is one of the more common things that non-techie users have trouble with.  There are things we could do to make this much easier, such as expanding the capabilities of what is currently the site starter wizard, and then making that constantly available.  I've also seen other sites that offer what I would call a page layout wizard: basically, allowing the user to specify an overall width of a page and the number of columns it should have.  I feel like we could incorporate tools like these to make WebGUI more design-friendly.  Also, more themes in the Bazaar would be awesome!

What makes you work on WebGUI over the competition?
When I got hired at Plain Black, I was also in the process of finishing up my college degree.  I was in my last class, which involved building a site for a client.  Our client used Joomla for their site, so I was learning Joomla and WebGUI at the same time.  I found WebGUI to be so much more intuitive from every angle.  I am delighted to be working on a CMS that conforms to sites and projects of all scopes and sizes.

What's your most brilliant WebGUI hack?
I don't exactly hack WebGUI (yet!), but the most important work I've done for WebGUI is probably my contributions to the template working group.  It's a brilliant project being executed by a wonderful team, and it will be a huge improvement for WebGUI when it's done.

Have you attended the WebGUI User's Conference?
Yes, I was at last year's WUC.  JT for president!

Where do you keep your Gooey doll?
He sits on my desk, silently judging me with his slightly detached eyebrow.

Personal Questions

How would you describe yourself?
Energetic, clumsy, outgoing, and totally nerdy.

Are you married, dating, or otherwise involved?
I'm dating.

Do you have any kids?
No.  That can wait for a while.

Do you have any pets?
Yes, a fluffy calico cat.

If someone visits your area, what's something they must see or do?
I live in a very small town with not much to do.  Anything worth seeing tends to center around the college campus, so you could check out a play or what's in the gallery at the Center of the Arts.  Otherwise, I would suggest heading up to Madison, which is about 45 minutes away, and enjoying all the city has to offer.

What do you hate?
People that use ignorance as a crutch, cats that pee on furniture!

What do you love?
Oh all sorts of things!  People, technology, video games, eating wide varieties of delicious food, the outdoors, water sports...the list goes on and on.  :)

What's the last book you read?
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card.

What's the last CD/MP3 you bought (or downloaded)?
Andrew Bird's latest CD “Noble Beast”.  It's actually amazing that I have an answer for this, as I almost never buy music.

What's the last movie you watched?
X-Men Origins: Wolverine...midnight showing, woot!

You're stuck on a train/plane for 6 hours and bored out of your mind, whatdo you do to amuse yourself?
Read!  I love reading and almost never do it unless I'm in an environment cut off from technology.

Any last words?
The cake is a lie!