An outline of my skills, experience and general working philosophy. Of course you could just skip all the talk and head over to the showcase and have a look at my recent work, or just drop me a line if you've got any questions...

The Sales Pitch / Technical Skills & Experience /

I'm a freelance web developer based in the UK and I've been designing and building all kinds of websites for over eight years. Below I'll outline my skills, experience and general working philosophy. Different people have very different requirements when hiring a freelancer, so if the following leaves questions unanswered for you then please feel free to get in touch.

History / Tag soup /

I've been working as a freelance developer since 2004 and previously to that I worked for 4 years at a Sheffield agency, Technophobia. I got my web design start there back in 1999 in the dot-com bubble days of flash intro pages, tag soup, and spacer gifs! During my time there I progressed up the design tree, eventually running the design team for a couple of years before I left. I learnt a broad range of skills at Technophobia both technical and personal from working with large corporate clients to managing a design team.

People / More Hats /

For the last 4 years I've been working independently. My job as a freelancer involves a broader range of challenges than working in an agency, I have to wear more "hats", not only do I design and build the sites, but I also have to be the account manager - the main liason with my clients. I like the direct contact, it makes communication far easier, and I feel it helps a lot with the design process. I also like the freedom that being my own boss allows me, to develop my own working methods and therefore become more productive and flexible.

Standards / An orange book /

I've long been a follower of the web standards "movement" and a believer in the importance of standards and accessibility as tools to improve the web. Ever since I started reading the "standardista" blogs i've been championing semantic markup, and css driven layout in my work. It's second nature to me now and I pride myself on the quality of my work. I still spend a lot of time researching, reading, and learning, which is one of the great strengths of being part of such a vibrant online community. Progressive enhancement, separation of content and presentation, semantic markup, these may be the latest buzz phrases, but technical jargon aside what really matters is making your website as "accessible" to as many people as possible. Accessibility is an inclusive thing, coding a site right makes it available to more people in more environments, and that can only be good.

Languages / So much abbreviation /

 

In terms of specific technical skills, as well as being a designer and fluent in the use of photoshop, and a web developer with advanced skills in XHTML and CSS, I also know the server-side scripting language PHP well. Used in conjuction with a database such as MySQL, PHP enables me to write custom software for my clients, from a simple contact form which safely filters spam and safeguards your email address, to a fully-featured content management system built around your exact needs. Often, "off-the-shelf" software solutions can prove to be overly complex and technical, and are unlikely to fit your requirements exactly, when a bespoke system can do just that. That said, I also have broad experience with many of the mainstream content management solutions, and can provide sites and themes built around these products if required, whether it be WordPress, Expression Engine, or interesting new-comers like Chyrp!.

Services / Hire Me! /

I can guide you through every stage of building your website; optimising your content; a full design process; standards compliant builds including content management and bespoke software needs; application theming and even consultancy. If you think I might be able to help with your project then get in touch or take a look at some of my recent work.

Thanks for reading...

Skills List

Just to give you a quick idea of the sorts of things I do:

Design
A full website design process...
XHTML/CSS Templates and Builds
High quality, standards aware, accessible...
Information Design
Site re-mapping, content optimisation, Information Architecture...
Theming
WordPress, Expression Engine, Chyrp and many more...
Bespoke Software Development
Content Management, database design, dynamic functionality...
Consultancy
Communication, peer review...

Network

View my profile on LinkedIn