About Me

Smiley Cat Web Design is the online home of Christian Watson. Christian lives with his family in Austin, Texas.

For his day job he manages the web team for NCInteractive, the North American arm of NCsoft — a developer and publisher of some of the very best MMORPGs.

Previously he worked as a web strategist for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Me and Alec

In the evenings Christian moonlights as a web designer, SEO 'expert' (well, 'knowledgeable person' at least) and general web geek — while still engaging in the appropriate level of adoration for his lovely wife, entertaining his two kids, and keeping up his Xbox Gamerscore.

Before moving to Austin, Christian was the Web Services Manager for Seattle Children's Hospital where he managed the web team for 4½ years. He was and still remains in awe of the doctors and nurses there and the amazing things they do for kids. How often do you actually get to work with real brain surgeons?

He is survived by Stephen Halsey — a talented web designer who was voted nicest guy in the department — who took over the position from Christian. From all accounts, he is doing a stellar job.

Prior to joining Children's, Christian worked as a management consultant for Kurt Salmon Associates on projects for large retail clients. It was during this time that he was introduced to the world of e-commerce and he was immediately hooked.

After leaving KSA, Christian got more heavily into web design and freelanced for a year or so before being offered the Web Services Manager position at Children's.

Although he sometimes wonders whether he could have made it big as a freelancer, on reflection he is pleased with his choice as working for yourself is hard work!

Oh, and did I mention he is English and that he enjoys the delicious, tangy taste of Marmite and doesn't feel right without a brief mid-morning refuel for some elevenses?