About
Join us for hands-on workshops that will teach you smart and easy ways to improve the user experience of your online projects.
Some experiences rise to the top - through a process of rapid design iterations you can quickly weed out bad ideas and let good ideas emerge.
Skyrize is run by Philip Fierlinger. Philip is an interaction designer with 20 years experience designing highly successful interactive experiences for global brands including Apple, Dreamworks, Macromedia, plus award winning designs for NewZealand.com, IRD and DOC. Philip is currently Head of Design at Xero.
Recommendations For Philip
Head of Design, Xero
“I’m continuously impressed by work Philip has done and continues to do on the Xero online accounting application - taking what could be complicated processes and hiding the complexities to ensure users can focus on the job at hand and not the software. He shows incredible depth and experience in his approach to user interaction design and communicating with customers/prospects through the web.”
Andrew Butel, Product Manager, Xero
“Phil is exuberantly passionate about creating software for people. He is focused on ensuring people get their jobs done using the software. Core to Phil’s ability to create wonderful software is his skill at driving the design process via direct user insight and observation. Phil brings imagination and design talent to the development process and is responsible for creating software that engaged the user. It was a real pleasure working with Phil and I experienced that little thrill of creating an exciting and sustainable software product.”
David ten Have, CEO, Ponoko
Owner / Director, Turntable
“Philip is definitely one of the best visual designers and information architects out there: a rare combination of high end designer that understands usability and the technology that makes it work. In the past, he has worked with Viewstream for numerous high profile clients, including Sony PlayStation, Autodesk, Chevron, and HP – all the projects resulted in repeat business and client success”
John Assalian, CEO, Viewstream
“Philip is a rare find in that he has impecable design skills matched with a very deep understanding of code which translates into beautiful looking as well as highly efficient new media applications.”
Kevin Murray, Director, Online Production at Epic Records / Sony BMG Music Entertainment
“I’ve worked with Philip on several Flash-related projects. He does some of the best Flash and web design because he combines almost 20 years of experience in user interaction with great looking graphic design.”
Wayne Bremser, Web Design Consultant
Senior Designer, Flash Designer/Developer, Shift
“Philip is a passionate advocate of user centred design. He combines this with a deep understanding of clients-side technologies to develop superior online interfaces.”
Che Tamahori, Creative Director, Shift
“Philip is a designer who operates on the very edge of things. Whereas some innovators merely suggest to clients imitations of stuff they’ve seen working well already, Philip’s a real creative thinker, and is truly a man to watch. Aside from his design work, his revolutionary approach to prototyping using Flash is streets ahead of paper and page based prototypes, and is one thing the web-app industry needs to do more of.”
Matt Vickers, Developer, Shift
“I worked with Philip on a complex data visualisation and navigation user interface. Philip was a pleasure to work with … no concept was too difficult and no request too hard. The results were extraordinary by any measure.”
Pat Ryan, Architect - IFCoM Programme, Tertiary Education Commission