I am a creative, passionate, and meticulous
Front End Developer &
User Experience Designer
with over 10 years of experience building effective and elegant solutions for the web.
14,134Hours Logged
I know, I know. What does that number even mean? Well, it’s actually surprisingly accurate! For the last 5 years I’ve been painstakingly tracking my time. It works out to an average of 57.7 hours per week. I guess the point is I work hard and love what I do.
97Happy Clients
I’ve worked on a wide assortment of client projects over the years, ranging from table-based legacy ASP to modern tech. And my goal through it all has always been to do the best work I possibly can, making users happy and clients money.
3Fancy Stats
Well, I had to put something here. And in an effort to be funny and “edgy”, this is what I came up with. I think a sense of humor is important in the workplace, even though I admit this joke is pretty dumb. I won’t mind if you roll your eyes.
Areas of Expertise
WordPress Theme Development
All my WordPress themes are well designed and highly functional, built on a custom front-end framework I created in 2011.
WordPress Plugin Development
Although most of my components are built custom for each theme, certain functionality works well as a modular plugin that can be used only by sites that need it.
WordPress Security
All WordPress sites I manage are highly secure, using a combination of best practices as well as a few custom hardening techniques.
Responsive Web Design
I’ve been building responsive websites since the advent of the technique in 2010, utilizing a mobile-first approach with deep focus on all breakpoints.
User Experience Design
My extensive experience with this field includes a focus on information architecture, user interface design, and live protoypes to create highly usable and accessible websites.
Interaction Design
While still under the umbrella of UX design, I focus heavily in this area, ensuring all interactions provide an exceptional experience for both end users and WordPress administrators.
Site Speed & Performance
Current statistics show that bounce rates can skyrocket after a load time of 2 seconds. Reducing overall page weight and HTTP requests as much as possible is crucial now more than ever.
Digital Marketing & SEO
I started my career in digital marketing, so all the websites I build are SEO-friendly right out of the gate.
A/B Testing & Analytics
I’m also a huge data nerd and love digging into stats or designing and implementing split tests to bump up conversions.
Technical Expertise
Just some of the languages and platforms that make my world go ’round.
My Work Kinda
Speaks for Itself
But not in an arrogant way. I just mean that if you check out my work, I think you’ll be able to see all the effort I put into each project.
PJ Fitzpatrick
pjfitz.com
I’ve been working with PJ Fitzpatrick since 2008, solely responsible for their website redesign in that year as well as countless other site maintenance and development projects since.
2016 Redesign
The 2008 redesign served its purpose for 8 years, but it was very exciting and fulfilling to recently complete their second. In addition to a completely new, fully responsive, modern design, I was also able to build the site as a custom WordPress theme, including many additional features and functionality.
Highlights
- Fully responsive
- Conversion-focused design with strategically placed forms and CTAs
- Designed and implemented A/B tests to guide design decisions and increase conversions
- Built 4 custom post types to manage Team, Careers, Specials, and DIY sections
- Built custom DIY shortcode to display DIY content dynamically on all main pages
- Built custom Specials shortcode to display specials dynamically on all main pages
- Built custom functionality to pass selected special to Estimate page both through page and email clicks
- Redesigned email marketing template to be consistent with new site design
Fully Responsive Design
As with all my builds, this site is fully responsive, with a deep focus on all breakpoints. This client also receives a large share of mobile traffic, so special attention was placed on those devices.
Specials Custom Post Type
The Specials page is one of the most viewed on the site and is responsible for a high number of conversions, so it was important to create a seamless interaction to pass the selected special to the Estimate page so the user had visual recognition of the coupon being applied.
The post type was created to reduce development time each month when the specials are updated, and uses custom fields to conditionally display disclaimers on a separate page and a custom taxonomy to easily display relevant specials on main service pages.
Off-Canvas Mobile Navigation
As PJ has a sizeable main navigation menu, it was essential to build a mobile nav that would support all menu items. I actually built this multilevel off-canvas menu on the old site and migrated it with the new design. I enhanced it further by automatically inserting the top navigation at the bottom of the drawer.
Ledford’s Pest Control
ledfordspestcontrol.com
Another client I’ve had the pleasure of working with for many years, I originally redesigned Ledford’s Pest Control in 2010, and shortly after added a responsive build.
2016 Redesign
As with PJ, it was super exciting to redesign Ledford’s and give it a modern feel so they would build trust with visitors and be able to compete with national pest control brands. I looked heavily at Orkin and Terminix and made sure to place them visually in the same space, while also staying true to their brand.
Highlights
- Fully responsive
- Conversion-focused design with strategically placed forms and CTAs
- Simultaneously designed and built site in-browser providing the client a live prototype and potentially saving 40 hours in labor
Fully Responsive Design
For me, there is nothing more frustrating than having a great looking design degraded by having certain areas overlooked in certain breakpoints. We live in a world with a wide assortment of devices, but I feel a strong responsibility to ensure any site I work on looks great everywhere. I especially focused on the nav and preheader areas to make sure they degraded well in smaller viewports.
Paul Downs Cabinetmakers
custom-conference-tables.com
This project was one of the most complex I’ve worked on, enhancing my skill with JavaScript and PHP. While also providing some creative direction on the site redesign, most of my attention was on the build and specifically the sortable galleries.
Sortable Product Galleries
The main feature request in the client’s RFP was a series of galleries that would dynamically illustrate their beautiful products and provide an easy way for their sales team to browse during phone calls. From the beginning I had the idea to use Isotope as the base UI, but this was far from a plug-and-play solution.
Highlights
- Created a custom post type for each of the 5 product types
- Wrote custom PHP and JavaScript to allow each category and sub-category to be reordered and customized by the client
- Wrote custom PHP and JavaScript to allow each sub-category to have a unique sort order
- Wrote custom JavaScript to allow URLs to be rewritten for each sort without reloading page while also ensuring on-page links still visible to search engines
- Wrote custom JavaScript to load content from other archive pages on current sort page
- Implemented fixed sort navigation on scroll
Drop Me a Line
I’d love to chat about any of your development projects or opportunities.
Just use that handy form to say hello, or feel free to check me out on the usual social media platforms.