Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a Front-end Web Developer here at Spicerack and my role, in a nutshell, is that I pretty much take everything from wireframes and flat designs and build them into functioning, beautiful websites.
What do you like most about being a web developer?
I love design, and I love development, but I love most the process of taking something from design to being fully functional, fulfilling a client’s expectations and building fully maintainable websites that we rarely get clients coming back to us with any flaws.
What are the biggest challenges for you when starting a new project?
I guess it’s fulfilling the client's expectations, at the end of the day. Choosing the correct framework to use, the right JavaScript or CSS libraries to use throughout the whole process and getting it right at the early stages so that you aren’t backtracking at the end of the project.
Which new frameworks/platforms do you think will stand the test of time?
Not necessarily a new platform, but let’s say Shopify in more recent years has really excelled. I can see Shopify as a platform hanging around for years to come and be leaders in e-commerce. Especially in the last two years, they’ve come on leaps and bounds, partly due to COVID with everyone moving online, including retail. They’ve come a long way from the early stages where they had many floors, but now there are now lots of recent releases with some good features, sections everywhere and just development integration to get help improve the whole development process. I think they’ll be hanging around for a while to come.
I know you’re a bit of a gamer – what’s been keeping you up at night recently?
Um, not a lot recently but when I do get the opportunity to play and still I’m still on Warzone, a bit of Call Of Duty, still on FIFA. Yeah, I’m looking forward to Battlefield coming out next month. So that will probably be keeping me up.
How do you keep up to date with the latest best practices?
I follow quite a few forums and certain authors. In media I follow the normal CSS tricks and Web designer news, then platform-specific articles and forums like Torque specifically for WordPress. Yeah, just the usual suspects, trying to keep up to date with trends.
Where do you go for inspiration?
Inspiration. I have a good Google Chrome extension called Muzli. I check daily, so every time you open a new tab there’s a stream of articles and information. I like looking at one specifically called UI Interactions, which has a long list of mobile interactions where people post their ideas and you see some funky mobile interactions.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I mean, I’m kept busy by my two kids. My son loves his golf, so when I get the opportunity I get out for a round of golf with him. Myself though, I go and watch rugby on a weekend, play my Xbox when I do get the opportunity, also play around with music production in Logic. I also probably obsess over Fantasy Football a bit too much.
