“It is worthwhile working for the success of those around us”

Tücsi is a founding member of PDAmill Kft., he took part from the beginning in the development of the iGO My way GPS navigation software, but now he is creating something entirely new in a totally new field, mobile application. He has always been averse to monotony in his work, and he finds ways of using his creative solutions.

How many years have you been programming?

I – like nearly everyone at the company – came into contact with the computer already in high school, and since then it has played an important role in my life. I took the programming mathematics course at the ELTE, but before graduating I left for America to see the world.

Did you work with computers there?

No, it had nothing to do with my specialty. We built log cabins outdoors, basically it was a pretty big detour... After that, I returned home and finished college, but afterwards I still didn’t stay here, I went to work for Nokia in Finland.

That must have been quite an experience...

Yes, I learned a lot abroad. I was in Finland for a year and a half, then the project I was working on moved to Germany, and so I also “went along with it”, and so I spent a year there. Meanwhile, Petya, who is now technical manager of Nav N Go, also come over to Nokia, and he also called me back to Finland.

It must have been a busy time...

I actually got a bit tired of programming, when I returned home I was thinking of giving it up and opening a daycare center. But Petya, who had also returned home, convinced me that we should start a mobile games development firm. That was PDAmill, which is now part of Nav N Go. We started out quite small, one of my best friends joined the team as a graphics designer, and Petya brought in Goró as development engineer.

You achieved substantial success in games development. Why did you decide at that time to move into navigation as well?

Because it was a totally new goal, and we saw just as much challenge to it. We also thought the navigation area was going to develop rapidly, and there would be a demand for new, professional solutions, such as iGO My way. At first, when the development began, I also put away my games and took up navigational software. Not long afterwards, I again took up a new field, I am now in charge of mobile applications development.

This is a totally new area for NavNGo...

Yes, we recently began working on the content development, our new application package (no name for it yet) is involved in this. We are working on a solution which expands the functions of the simple navigator device, so that you can use them for such tasks as they do not normally have, for example, you can manage a contact database on them, use file management functions, or fully customize the operator’s interface ...

How many are working on the development?

For a while, just me and another person; recently our team got another two programmers, so now we can make greater progress, and of course we would like to have more developers, since there is quite a lot to do.

I suppose creativity is very important in this work...

Yes, it is. The application package consists of very many small modules, each of these also has its challenges, you have to invent a user interface that is easy to operate for each of them. And that is why we began to develop so complete an application, because the pocket computer operator’s interface is very difficult, we wanted to offer an alternative to it, and that definitely requires a lot of creative ideas.

Which part are you developing for the application package?

It’s hard to break things up, since I am the team leader I have a hand in a lot of things. I designed the entire architecture, figured out which engines it would have ...

What do you enjoy the most in your work?

That there are always new possibilities. This is mainly true of the mobile application, it branches off into many more directions than, say, navigation. If I get bored developing the contact database, then I do some work with the camera controls, so I never get bored with a just one area.

Is it important to create something new?

Yes. Even iGO My way was a fresh project, but the mobile application is definitely so. We expect in the long run it will be as much of an international success as iGO My way. It is very inspiring to see that the NavNGo developments are world-class, more and more people are hearing about them, even some friends of mine praise them, without knowing I had something to do with it ... so I feel we are making good progress, and it is a worthwhile cause.