Hello, I’m Steve. I live, breathe & work in Brixton, London UK
My passions include playing the guitar, rock climbing, music, and combining creativity with technology. I love what I do.
Working in tech from a creative angle is a natural choice for me and these days I take a hybrid role of combining design with front-end development. I believe that the two go hand in hand rather than separate disciplines, and this is what I specialise and thrive in.
Specifically, I like to spend my time on everything that the user sees, including what it looks like and how we interact with it. I firmly believe that, if done right, technology can be like magic — impressive, dazzling and dynamic without a hint needed of the work that goes behind the scenes.
I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing clients over many years, including Google, Time Out Magazine, Red Bull, Premier Inn, and Hewlett Packard. But I’ve also worked with some wonderful start-ups like PingTune – The Music Messaging App and Plume based in Sao Palo, California. Each project I have worked on has it’s own story.
I am an avid guitar player who enjoys playing and writing music for myself. I indoor climb twice a week, and rock climb outdoors several times a year (sports climbing and bouldering). I also love snowboarding, design, and exploring new technologies that have practical applications.
Lets get Technical
This website is built in Angular and some React. Most of the content is served via the WordPress CMS restful API. I pre-render the site using Laravel so it plays nice with Google (and for users without Javascript enabled). The triangular portfolio grid was built using KonvaJs.
Front-end Development
- Angular 2+
- React with Redux
- Javascript ES6
- HTML5
- CSS3
- Sass & Less
- jQuery
- Cypress E2E testing framework
- Firebase & Firestore
- Ionic 5 & Cordova
- Mobile Optimisation
- NodeJs
- Gitlab pipeline / Github Actions
- AEM (Adobe Experience Manager)
- Git or SVN
Design
- Design
- Sketch
- InVision
- Abstract
- Photoshop
- User Research & Planning
- Wireframes
- Information Architecture
- User Journeys Prototyping
- Technical Assessment
- UAT
- Requirements Gathering
- Adaptive Design
- WAI Accessibility
Other projects
One of my goals in life is to use technology to help make the world a better place. My response to the COVID-19 outbreak was to create an online tool that connects self-isolators in need with local volunteers nationwide. As the founder, I sought and led a team of 15 volunteers for the website (coordinators, developers, marketing and comms) and we have over 120 “on the ground” volunteers. You can read more about our story here.
I am also in the process of setting up an online magazine: ReadAbsorb. An organisation that is dedicated to curating on positive uses of technology all over the world. Watch this space.
I am the founder of Chalk, the Climbing Improvement & Discovery App for iOS and Android. It was launched in August 2018 and today I have thousands of users.