Hi, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Jake, a user interface designer living in Kansas City, MO. You could also say I’m a user experience designer, web designer, front-end developer, mobile developer, or even a programmer. No matter what you call me, I’m all about creating extraordinary experiences on the web and mobile devices.
But I’m not just a designer. I focus on delivering the most business value for my clients. I obsess over building (and marketing) innovative products. I love meeting new people and helping them succeed. And most importantly, I like discovering new things. I strive to see the world differently every day and I bring that out in my work.
I can promise you one thing. When you work with me, I do whatever it takes to win. No matter what. Look at my portfolio. I invite you to challenge me with new, exciting projects.
Startup Hacker
Over the past 3 years I’ve created several companies. I’m still moving forward, working and learning until I succeed. It’s not easy, but I enjoy the challenge of bringing a new idea to life and working with ambitious people. My most successful venture so far has been TurnkeySchool, a web platform for K-12 schools. I built a content management system from scratch using ASP.NET MVC and C# on the weekends while working and going to college. Thanks to my co-founder Mike Kearns (CTO of Pro Athlete) I learned a lot about starting a business and getting something, anything launched. I’ll say one thing: Educational bureaucracy is a tough nut to crack.
Prior to TurnkeySchool, I was involved with Startup Weekend and built a concert alert service called MyConcerts.fm using PHP/MySQL in under 48 hours. Nothing is more intense than coding until 6 AM with Red Bull flowing through your veins.
Fast forward a few months later, I worked with Pete Thomas and David Snodgrass on a pay-whatever-you-want event ticketing service called Showigniter. The premise of the idea was for lesser-known bands to save money on marketing. By gauging demand, they could see if enough fans were willing to pledge for a show to happen in a given city. If enough pledges were made, the show would “ignite”. Basically, we hated using Ticketmaster (and still do) and wanted to create an alternative.
Today I’m working on a few ideas to find something that clicks while working full-time at Pro Athlete. For more detail on my startups and weekend projects, click here.
UI / UX / Web Designer
My passion is design. When you become engrossed in something for hours on end, with no concept of time whatsoever, you know you love something. This is me since age 10 when it comes to Photoshop. If you sit in an empty canvas long enough, eventually all of the fundamentals like proximity, unity and contrast just come to you naturally. Just kidding, it’s not that easy!
As a designer, I’ve had the privilege of working with a diverse set of clientele. Everything from insurance administration to education to sporting goods. When it comes to design, the most important thing I do is listen and communicate. Before I start anything, I have to understand your business and the industry it’s in. Period. Every design decision is intentional and must provide value. The only way I can make an effective design is to place myself in your shoes as well as your customer’s shoes.
Web design isn’t just about moving pixels and making things look pretty. It’s about communicating effectively and making things easy for the customer. I believe it takes business savvy. That’s why I got my degree in business administration. But I won’t lie, the male-to-female ratio may have been the main reason.
I could tell you more about my design skills and all the hours I put in to make it happen, but I’ll let my portfolio speak for itself. You be the judge and I welcome any feedback.
Here’s my design process:
Front-End Developer
To me, code is just as much fun as design. Besides fixing IE6 bugs, of course. I’m everything you’d expect from a front-end developer: Unconditional love for web standards, forever relieved that jQuery exists and very opinionated when it comes to organizing CSS. I’m a strong advocate for website optimization, usability and progressive enhancement.
Thanks to my work with Mike at Pro Athlete, I know enough about SEO and microformats to be dangerous. You learn a lot when your company is #1 on Google for “baseball bats” and making millions off organic visits.
One thing I’m learning is automated testing with Selenium. My least favorite thing to do when it comes to code is testing it. Yes, the mark of a true professional. And the bane of a guy who just wants to get things done. That’s why we have QA, right?
You can find my front-end skill set below. I don’t list experience. If I put anything down on my official website, I guarantee I kick ass at it.
| HTML – HTML5, XHTML, Haml, Jade | CSS – CSS3, CSS2, Sass, Stylus, Compass, 960.gs, Blueprint | JavaScript – jQuery, CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Underscore.js, Appcelerator |
Hybrid Developer / Programmer
Fact: Programmers prefer designers who understand the backend. That’s totally me. I wrote a variety of complex PHP/MySQL applications over the span of 4 years. I can hold my own in Vim, push to a Git server, and manage my way around a bash terminal. Right now I’m interested in Node.js and Rails. I know some C#, but Visual Studio makes me cringe every time I use it. Which is every day right now.
I’m far from the best programmer in the world, but my code is sparkly clean and organized into classes. I learned some C/C++ back in the day, so most languages are pretty easy to learn. Ask me about sorting algorithms and the best I’ve got is bubble sort. Good enough!
| PHP/MySQL – In-House Frameworks, CodeIgniter, WordPress, MySQL | C# – ASP.NET MVC 3, SubSonic ORM, Razor, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 | JS/Node.js – ExpressJS, Jade, Stylus, MySQL, MongoDB |