Design
I have been designing on the desktop computer since I was born (e.g., some of my earliest memories are ASCII games on the Osborne “portable”).
Once I was able to get my hands on the first Apple Macintosh in 1984, I instantly began my life as a designer; whether it be UX design, graphic design or UI design. (When you are only a lad I think Hypercard interactive designs count.) Computers have always been a part of my life. I have no memory of ever not having internet access, even if that meant an actual phone had to be placed onto the modem. I was in MUDs at a tender age, I was exposed to NeXT machines before they were released, and I was graced with the experience of installing an HTTP server at NASA just as the first Mosaic browser was released.
I have long since graduated to gradients–designing front end graphic user interfaces for applications, done the obligatory slew of web production, web app UX, print material, video production, audio production and nearly any combination thereof.
One might think that video production, audio engineering/production, etc. doesn’t have anything to do with design. I get my hands onto every tool I can find and teach myself how to use them (usually something in a field that interests me, like learning how to look at my bones from a CT-Scan). In the process I pick up many interesting ways people have found to build usable tools for sometimes very complex tasks…or ways that people have completely failed in that regard.
Those failures of UX have lead me to love creating designs for the betterment of our day to day interaction with tools. Every new hammer needs a new handle!