John Kavanagh : Indie Web Developer

About

Having spent a fair chunk of my teenage years playing gigs, touring around Europe, racing (and crashing) cars, and meeting girls, I finally grew up and learnt a “proper” skill at university as a web developer (I also specialised in Artificial Intelligence and Hypermedia during the course of my studies). I came away from my studies with an honours BSc degree in Computing and Information Technology, an Associateship Award of the University of Surrey and the British Computing Society, and a hangover that lasted for weeks afterwards.

Now based in Manchester, I’m a front-end web developer and pixel pusher by trade with four year’s industry experience: taking beautiful designs and turning them into accessible, cross-browser-compatible, quick-loading, functional, and just-as-attractive websites is what I do best. My experience covers working in very close-knit and dedicated teams to a bustling digital agency studio, I’ve lead and managed teams of developers and animators, and been pushed by my own managers hard towards (sometimes seemingly unrealistic) deadlines. But my projects have almost always hit their deadline.

My toolbox includes:

• An in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of XHTML and CSS, including CSS3 although it (frustratingly) still hasn’t been properly released.
• Several years of experience in Adobe (and Macromedia)’s Creative Suites, and in particular in Dreamweaver (and with Dreamweaver’s templating system).
• Just as happy coding by hand in a text editor as I am using development aides.
• A lot of experience and talent in taking PSD designs and turning them into pixel-perfect and engaging website interfaces, whatever the browser.
• Excellent knowledge of cross-browser compatibility and how to tame the web browsers that misbehave.
• Expertise in Search Engine Optimisation skills and how best to develop for best Google and Yahoo results.
• Experience in all stages and aspects of the full development life cycle
• Experience in developing e-Commerce applications integrated with PayPal or Google Checkout.
• A good understanding of the W3 Standards compliance, accessibility and usability, and the best options for each job.
• Developing usable targeted website interfaces for the iPhone and other portable internet devices.
• Developing HTML emails and how to work around all the different email readers and their HTML renderers.
• Experience with both JQuery and Prototype.js JavaScript libraries and DOM manipulation.
• Limited experience in both PHP (CakePHP) and Python (DJango), although not enough in either to make me a proper web developer!
• A little experience in Adobe Flash and Director (my dissertation was based in Director), although only on a basic level.

Although there are a few examples of my work to view on this website in my portfolio, there are a few that I’m told I’m not allowed to talk about. The best I can say is that I’ve worked on some very large B2B and customer-facing websites, many in the automotive industry with literally tens of thousands of visitors a day. I would be more than happy to share this experience with you further in my CV or at interview, although at present I’m afraid I’m not job hunting so my CV is not currently publicly available. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions though.

Aside from web development, I maintain a keen interest in live music, I’m a certified rally driver with over fifty hours competition time, and I have a habit of taking things apart in a sometimes forlorn attempt to improve them.

Chances are if I’m not here fiddling with WordPress or another website, at a gig, in the pub, buying junk on eBay, or elbow-deep inside a car/guitar, then I’m curled up somewhere reading and writing..

Click to view my profile and connect with me on LinkedIn

Click to view my development portfolio