Contact Details

  • 900 Minda Dr,
    Austin, TX 78758
  • www.sam-i-am.com
  • sam@sam-i-am.com
  • tel: 512 452 9871 (home)

Summary

I have over 10 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.

A selection of case studies from recent projects is available on my website: Work: Case Studies


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.

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

Internet Digital Media

Dec 1995 - Feb 1999: Senior/Lead Developer for Internet Digital Media Ltd. (IDM - formerly at: www.idm.co.uk).

  • Front and back-end web development and design implementation (html, css, javascript, java servlets, asp, perl cgi)
  • Web design, usability, information architecture
  • Creative conceptualization
  • Project management and lead developer for small team of on and offsite developers

Proarte

Nov 96 - Sept 97 producer, webmaster, web designer for  Proarte (0.5)

  • Design, production and ongoing maintenance of this 500+ page art gallery site
  • Advising on online and traditional marketing

Awards

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 since '99.