About

Walter Davis is a multi-disciplinary artist, with his roots in visual expression and traditional craftsmanship. He is also an engineer and a technologist.

This is not a contradiction in terms.

“I’ve always reached for technical solutions to creative problems, and vice-versa.”

In his many careers, he has:

built fantastically detailed props for advertising photography (in the days before Photoshop and 3-D rendering),
photographed food, people, and products with a signature heightened-reality lighting style,
designed and art-directed award-winning advertising campaigns,
and built sculptural and practical furniture.

All of these layers of experience come together to inform his approach to developing practical and delightful Web applications for clients around the world.

“The medium you are using will tell you how it wants to be worked. You wouldn’t use a fine chisel to shape particle board, and you wouldn’t reach for a nail-gun to assemble a walnut jewelry box.”

“So too, you shouldn’t force a Web application to be a cheap knock-off of a spreadsheet. It can be more than that. It can be better.”

Agile Development

I’m a firm believer in the principles of the Agile development model. These can be stated as a set of preferences:

Individuals and interactions > processes and tools
Working software > comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration > contract negotiation
Responding to change > following a plan

As a client, you will work directly with the person who is making things happen on the screen. In turn, you should have a working understanding of your business goals, and the ability and authority to say yes or no.

Most projects—even very large and complex ones—begin with working prototypes, letting early adopters’ successes and failures contribute to its eventual form. These building blocks are refined and combined (and sometimes scrapped wholesale) during the development process. No idea is so precious that it cannot be improved or simplified.

This craftsman-like approach to building complex systems works better than rigid planning and forecasting. By partnering directly with my clients, and championing their end-users, I am able to create applications that continually delight both.