Contact Details

  • 91 Grove Lane,
    Leeds, LS6 4AL, England UK
  • www.sam-i-am.com
  • sam@sam-i-am.com
  • tel (skype): (408) 916-5894 US
    (113) 815 0995 UK

Summary

I have over 12 years professional experience in web development and user-centric design, working in a deadline-driven, budget-conscious team environment. I bring a deep experience with client-side web technologies to the design process and implementation of enterprise-level websites and web applications.


Selected Skills and Experience

Technologies and Areas of Expertise

  • Cross-browser, standards-conformant and/or backwards compatible (X)HTML, CSS (incl. CSS layout)
  • DHTML and Ajax-enabled web interface implementation (Dojo Toolkit, Prototype, YUI and home-grown)
  • Web/digital design, IA, UI
  • Web accessibility
  • XML (DOM, XSLT, XSL:FO, XPath)
  • Various templating and scripting technologies, including: Jakarta Velocity, Drupal PHPTemplate, HTML::Template, Smarty
  • Javascript: Browser scripting, Rhino
  • Perl (various modules/frameworks including CGI::Application, XML::LibXML
  • Familiarity with ASP/ASP.NET (Vbscript/C#), Java/JSP, PHP
  • CGI, HTTP

Skills and Processes

  • Accurate scoping and time/resource estimation for individual or team tasks
  • Knowledge transfer - mentoring, training
  • Quality Assurance and Control, testing
  • Documentation

Tools and Platforms

  • Textmate, UltraEdit, Beyond Compare...
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Illustrator, Visio
  • Apache, IIS, Tomcat
  • SVN, Perforce, CVS, VSS
  • Windows, Mac OS9/X, Linux
  • CMS: Vignette Content v7+, Drupal

Professional History

Sitepen: Feb 2008 - present

Senior Software Engineer for  Sitepen

My role at Sitepen brings my background and skills with ajax and web application development back into client services. I advise and deliver technical solutions to companies working to create elegant and robust browser-based applications. Recent projects I have lead or participated in include:

  • CSS Optimization - analysing and delivering a solution for ongoing management of a large CSS collection and the means to optimize the stylesheets for a faster load time and end-user experience
  • Javascript Optimization - analysing and delivering a report on bottlenecks in the client-side code of web applications, implementing optimizations to deliver 300%+ improvements in performance
  • UI Widget implementation and application UI development
  • Developing the Dojo Toolbox using the Dojo Toolkit and Adobe AIR

Writing: Recent articles written for Sitepen's blog

Vignette: Jan 2006 - Feb 2008

Senior User Experience Engineer for  Vignette

Among the hats I wear at Vignette are Ajax developer, Accessibility evangelist, css/browser technologies expert and user-interface specialist. As a senior member of the UE team, I participate in all stages of the product development process, from concept design, technical prototyping, production front-end code, though to troubleshooting and QA - across the suite of Vignette web applications.

Frogdesign: March 1999 - Jan 2006

Design Technologist / Senior Design Technologist for  frogdesign

My primary role at frog has been to apply a specialist knowledge and skillset to design execution, working within both the creative design and development teams. For the last 6 years I've helped bridge the gap between design and development, and raised standards in asset production and hand-off. As project complexity has grown, I have been instrumental in developing and refining best practices for deliverables and documentation.

  • Project Lead in the execution of designs, delivering front-end (i.e. html) templates, code libraries and complete deployment-ready pages or sites as required.
  • Defining process, best practices and deliverables for the Design Technology group.
  • Design refinement and validation against technical requirements
  • Implementation of designs in HTML/CSS/DHTML/etc. to meet requirements including accessibility (WAI and Section 508), cross-browser and cross-platform support.
  • Project planning and management for small teams
  • Research, design prototyping, technical proof-of-concepts, UI, IA development
  • Process and toolbox R&D to increase team efficiency and productivity

Awards and Accomplishments

Dojo Toolkit committer, contributor since 2008

My contributions include the dojo.html.set and dojox.html.set utilities, work on various pieces of dijit (javascript and CSS) and recently the implementation of a test logging mechanism for Dojo Toolkit releases

Technical Reviewer for "Dojo: The Definitive Guide"

I provided technical review on the manuscript for this comprehensive O'Reilly publication on the Dojo Toolkit, published 2008

1st place AIR Austin 2004 (Accessible Internet Rally)

Led a team from frogdesign, our entry for the  Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum placed first in the Formula One category. A case study of this event and project are available on my website, and on frogdesign.com

3rd place AIR Interactive 2004 (Accessible Internet Rally)

This rich-media focussed event runs during Austin's SXSW. I led a team from frogdesign, building an accessible website featuring cross-platform captioned video for local group Esthers Follies.

Education

BA Hons Fine Art (Sculpture) from Wimbledon School of Art, 1994.

I continue to be interested in art, sculpture, and making things in general.

Points of Interest

Full Dual UK / US Nationality. US resident btw '99-'08, now back in the UK.