Since 1999, Rick Cecil has been designing positive user experiences for companies like Scripps Interactive, T-Mobile, AT&T, Motricity, Duke University, Fortunoff, La-Z-Boy, and Oxford University Press. If there’s one thing Rick gets excited about, it’s user experience (UX) design.

So when Bluespark offered Rick a senior UX position, it was a no-brainer. “UX isn’t an afterthought here,” says Rick. “It’s one of the main driving factors behind every site we build. Because the management and dev team buy into UX, it’s not just a matter of Sean, Abe or me banging the UX drum, so to speak. The whole company is banging the drum.”

It’s this focus on UX design that makes Bluespark so unique among Drupal development outfits. A lot of Drupal companies are tech companies who don't understand UX and, conversely, says Rick "a lot of UX professionals don’t like working with Drupal. They look at Drupal and see limitations. But we look at Drupal and see so many opportunities."

To make the most of every opportunity, Rick works closely with the client, the UX team, the creative team, and the technical team to create Drupal sites that function at a higher level than the average Drupal site. And, true to the Drupal spirit, Rick contributes some of Bluespark’s UX enhancements and new-and-improved modules to the larger Drupal development community.

Also active in the UX community, Rick co-founded the Interaction Design Association, an international organization focused on the advancement and promotion of interaction design and, in 2006, served as President of TriUPA, a group committed to supporting usability and interaction design professionals in North Carolina’s Triangle area. Rick and his wife, Gina, now live in central Illinois with their two children.