This week in our series of blogs about Team Mendeley we find out a bit more about our Lead Interaction Designer/iOS Product Manager Steve Dennis. When Mendeley was looking to expand its design team 3 years ago, our founders Victor Henning and Paul Föckler  approached Steve, who had moved to the UK from New Zealand just a month before… “they found my personal site through a science-hack-day I’d registered for. I started less than a week after first meeting Victor and Paul” he recalls.

Have things changed in Mendeley since you started working here?
Yes, for the better.  Everything is a lot more structured than it was 3 years ago, which allows for better planning, and ultimately better products for our users which is what matters.  Also free breakfast on Mondays is a pretty great addition!

What’s the best thing about coming to work at Mendeley?
Interacting with our users every day is what keeps me going.  Our users are friendly and very passionate about the product.

Do you have any pets? If not, what would be your ideal one?
If I had the option, it would be a baby monkey.  Riding backwards on a pig optional, but preferred.

What is the one website you can’t live without?
Is it ok to say Mendeley.com? Cause it actually pays for all my food…  Otherwise Twitter.

When you were growing up, what did you want to be?
A rubbish collector.  Then a stunt-man.  Then a computer tech.  So I became a Designer.

If you could acquire one extra skill or talent, what would that be?
Backend programming.  It would be amazing to be able to develop small product ideas in my spare time.

What book are you reading at the moment and why?
Re-reading Indy Young’s ‘Mental Models’, because it’s always good to keep this stuff fresh.

What would you change about the world if you could change one thing?
I’d make burgers healthy enough to be eaten every day, and plentiful enough for that to be sustainable.

What was the first record you ever bought?
Garbage’s first album.

What music is on your iPod at the moment?
First ten bands via shuffle: Machine Head, Ling Tosite Sigure, Beck, Puscifer, Sikth, Klone, Deftones, Three Trapped Tigers, Devin Townsend Project, and Twelve Foot Ninja.

Favourite food/drink?
The blood of my enemies… or maybe pizza.  I’ll go with pizza.

Your greatest vice?
Coke Zero.

Favourite film?
Fight Club.

Favourite place in the world?
Bed.  Location irrelevant.

Now for a serious one worthy of the Mendeley vision: If you could give unlimited funding and resources to one area of research, what would it be?
Any area that furthers space exploration, which, to be fair, is wide enough to touch on most research areas in some way.