On Tuesday, February 15, 2010, Periscope brought a fresh face aboard its ranks. Albeit, one that might be missing a vowel from his first name.
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, we are proud to introduce Dug Nichols, Periscope’s new Digital Design Director.
Nichols’ primary role will be working with Periscope’s Digital group to design and oversee creative from multiple standpoints including web, mobile, user experience and other technology-based disciplines.
“I chose to come to Periscope based on the great people and great culture,” said Nichols. “Look around and you see people that are happy. You don’t find that in a lot of places.”
Before landing at Periscope, Nichols worked at a San Francisco-based start-up that created Tellme — a speech recognition technology that accessed the web and made a vast array of information available to users via their mobile phones. Microsoft bought the company in 2007 and promoted Nichols to Creative Director, where he focused on bringing the technology to a wide array of products including Bing and Windows Phone 7.
“One of my areas of expertise is understanding how to make new technology usable and accessible to everyone,” said Nichols. “Technology should be invisible. And people should like to use it because it makes their lives easier.”
But make no mistake, Nichols is no Poindexter. Before the tech bug grabbed him, he played in three bands and has toured the country several times. Eventually that gave way to becoming a music producer which put him in contact with Thomas “She Blinded Me With Science” Dolby. Dolby then helped fuel Nichols’ interest in consumer and interactive technologies.
“I’ve definitely had a few pretty interesting career paths,” laughed Nichols. “But if I’ve learned one universal lesson it’s this: Sleep and eat whenever you can. Trust me on this one.”
