Creatures Caves | Community

An interview with Lisa de Araujo by HomeCreatures.

Lisa de Araujo
Full Name: Lisa de Araujo
Personal Quote: Lisa's quote was very deep, meaningful and important. Sadly I lost it, so Lisa if your reading this email me it back please! Until then we'll put her as another quoteless wonder!
Lisa is a head marketing shark at CyberLife, as well as having a large role to play with all the websites. She joined around 98 and has since grown to become one of the best known members.

Once described as a CyberLife "bond-girl" could I let her hold that rep without a interview? Nah

As a side point, Paul Dobson was promoted once to IT dept. when he did a interview for me.. and then when he wrote a article for me he got job in QA. Lisa d since doing this interview has become a Marketing shark, so if you wish to boost your career mail me! ;-)

HC: Hello. Despite believe of a Creatures-Addict, there is life before Creatures, before CyberLife even, what was your job/ambition?
Lisa: Before CyberLife, I worked as webmaster for a high technology marketing agency. We had clients such as Digital Equipment Corporation and Apple Computer.le Com

HC: Had you heard of / played Creatures before you joined CL?
Lisa: I had heard of it, but had never played it.

HC: What was your first day at CyberLife like, first impressions?
Lisa: Well, we're all in one big room here - very democratic. At first, I was surprised at how quiet it was. I was used to a lot of noise in my last job as it was quite a high pressure environment. CyberLife seemed so serious, but that impression soon faded as I got to know people! It's still quiet though. I suppose it has to be or we'd never get anything done!

HC: A pointless part that on the visit myself and others took to CL it was "Boy, these guys can drink!" You drink a lot? whap!

HC: Ow! Anyhow, back to the interview..was it how you expected?
Lisa: I had no real expectations, actually. But as it turns out, there's a wonderful mix of personalities and some amazingly talented and intelligent people. We all get along really well and socialise quite a bit, which is nice because it really improves the team spirit.

HC: What were your first plans or thoughts for the Creatures web site?
Lisa: Originally, I did a very traditional gaming style design, using some of the darker and more atmospheric graphics from the game, but then it was pointed out that the demographics of the users are so mixed that it wasn't really that appropriate. Next I did 6 different designs, with varying degrees of "light-heartedness." The one that was best received internally was the one that mixed the serious scientific side of the game with the appeal of the Norns themselves. I also picked a primary colour palette of only 4 colours that are consistent throughout all our websites.

HC: Are you happy with the outcome?
Lisa: Yes, I'm very pleased with the final designs. Now that Creatures 2 and Creatures Lab sites are live, I'm thinking of re-designing the CyberLife website to pull it into the style a bit more, but I have to get to work on the Creatures.co.uk site first and that may take some time as it's the most ambitious site!

HC: What's been the reaction so far to the new look and new sites?
Lisa: The reaction so far has been very positive. Generally, people tend to give feedback when there's a problem and so far I've had no bug reports (well, one), so I believe it's working well. There's been a couple of comments from people who are happy with the fact that I'm not using frames. There are obviously advantages and disadvantages to using them, but I've tried to ensure that the images are used over and over, so they have a better chance of being cached, but frames have always annoyed me personally, so I'm glad to know that people agree with me!

HC: You have already made a massive impact on both the community and the web site itself, got any future plans you might want to reveal?
Lisa: Massive, huh? Before I moved to the UK, I was a sysop on a CompuServe Forum and I wondered if I really wanted to get that personally involved with a community of users again, but after I finished the designs for the two new sites, I had time to read the newsgroup and was amazed at how close-knit the community is. They are incredibly loyal and involved in the product and I felt like I knew what kinds of things they wanted from us and really wanted to get more involved. My long term goal is to really keep going with the community aspects. I had great responses from the survey and everyone had such great ideas. I'm keen to implement as many as possible, but don't want to disappoint anyone by giving away too much too soon, so, you'll have to keep guessing! (sorry - I do tend to do that, don't I?)

HC: Yes, which means your a CyberLife natural I guess. :-) And finally.. has any CyberLife member got a really annoying habit you would like to share with us?
Lisa: Well, there's one guy who is well know for "telling it like it is" and as the afternoon wears on, and the office begins to empty, his language, shall we say, degrades somewhat! I actually think it's more endearing than annoying, though. And very funny. Thanks for the interview Lisa! :-)

An interview by HomeCreatures.