Dan Benshoff

When I arrived at Starwave, I was a designer on a small team that launched the first website for ESPN. The website on the right is the first redesign launched 18 months later. During that time, I become Director of the Starwave Design team overseeing ESPN, NBA, NFL, Nascar and Outside Magazine sites.

In addition to launching the first websites for ESPN, I was fortunate to have been able to design and launch the first website for the NBA back when the throughput of a modem was 14.4 bps, content management systems weren't a thing and designers were also front-end developers. With these parameters, we pioneered the technique of 'the repeating back gif' to bring visual interest and depth to web design when previously it was hard to achieve.

The Xgames was an annual opportunity to stretch my design approach and do something outside a traditional media site. The design on the left was the first large-scale website built entirely with Flash.

These groundbreaking apps were the first of their kind, combining live data feeds from stadiums and arenas around the world with a visual interface. This project was closely aligned with the engineering team at Starwave where we spent many hours going back and forth on the feature set and layout. As internet speeds improved so to did the design. I was invited to present Gamecast at Seybold San Francisco. Luckily, the internet connection in the conference room was robust and the audience got to 'watch' the Giants play the Reds while I talked through my presentation with my engineering partner.