Front-end Development

Front-end Development

TL;DR

I turn the pretty pictures your designer makes into real, functioning websites and apps.

I can build UI’s in a variety of tools including but not limited to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Vue, and jQuery.

I can work with your designer if you have one, or use my high attention to detail to come up with something aesthetically pleasing, simple, and efficient to implement.

I've been doing front-end development since the early 2000s. Starting initially with just HTML and CSS, I progressed to using various languages and libraries to help with templating, and CSS preprocessors like Less, Stylus, and Sass/SCSS. I am fluent in various CSS frameworks/libraries like Bootstrap, Material UI, Foundation, and Tailwind, and now that front-ends are primarily single-page apps, I have worked extensively with CSS-in-JS tools like styled-components, emotion, radix-ui, shadcn.

I have also done an extensive amount of front-end development for server-rendered apps like WordPress, Drupal, CakePHP, custom PHP apps, Handlebars and other moustache-inspired templating engines, server-rendered Rails templates, and similar technologies in other languages like Go and Rust.

I do Responsive Web Design, which means I develop responsive interfaces for websites and web applications that are not only compatible with, but also optimized for all screen sizes and devices. I build web products to support the user's preferred appearance mode, including light mode and dark mode. My expertise in CSS allows me to help teams migrate their existing, large front-end codebases to support dark mode or be responsive and support mobile phones.

I use a variety of JavaScript libraries and frameworks to build interactive web front-ends including JavaScript, React, Vue, Svelte, Ember, AngularJS, and jQuery. 

I work with designers with varying levels of expertise—from your most opinionated senior designers to your more junior designers that could benefit from guidance from a tech lead to help them make their designs more efficient to implement to save time during development and increase team velocity. I use Figma and Sketch as a developer to help me ensure my implementations are accurate as I strive for pixel perfection.

For more bootstrapped teams without designers, I design in the browser by implementing the desired functionality and making design choices as I go, leveraging the team's existing design system, brand guidelines, and UI frameworks. I can also use Figma to make wireframes or basic designs for stakeholders who want to see something before it's implemented.

As a front-end tech lead, I have led multiple projects to build component libraries to help teams build UI faster. My experience helps me understand the importance of separating behaviour from style so that our team can move faster. I also structure my web apps and teams in a way to allow team members with a diverse set of talents to thrive at what they do best, for example, allowing those who prefer CSS and UI development to focus on that, and those who prefer working on behaviour and business logic to focus on that.

I can augment your existing team to provide that front-end development expertise and guidance your team may be lacking, or work alongside your team of experts the way they prefer to work to help them power through a big project.

Contact me if you're interested in working with me.