Our team has changed shape a bit in the last year (opens new window), especially in the role of front-end development (opens new window). The primary role of a front-end developer is to "create the best possible user experience for features on desktop and mobile Web (opens new window)." For us, that means translating the information architecture, design and content to HTML, CSS and Javascript to bring it to life. Because there is no medium like the Web this is a pretty unique task and always a moving target.

In previous years we had three full stack developers (opens new window) who were responsible for the entire programming of a site from the database data binding to the performance and accessibility of the user experience. It became pretty clear last year that doing everything was spreading them thin and we weren't able to accomplish the fine grain optimization we were used to. So we decided to split the developers into front-end and full stack roles. The full stack developers still had knowledge of the front-end but their primary focus was university tools and optimizing the data in and out of our API. The front-end roles can spend their time optimizing every pixel that the end user interacts with.

Welcome Jenny Ingles

After months of searching we have found Jenny Ingles, (opens new window) our new front-end developer. Jenny comes to us from St. Louis and has extensive background working with HTML, SASS, Javascript, and Illustration (opens new window). She has brought a fresh eye to how we structure our code, approach problems, and testing. Since she has started to get involved with projects our code has not been more semantic, page weight has decreased, and the user experience is the quickest yet.

It has taken me a few months to make this announcement on our blog and in the meantime you have probably been browsing her work and not even realizing it. Recently she worked on the front-end of the following projects:

Pivotal Moments

For her first project, a website that was already architected and designed, she was thrown in with a pretty PSD and told to make it work. Not only did she break it down technically but also worked very closely with the client at every step to educate on expectations, opportunities that the Web as a medium brings, and responsive implications. What came out of all that was an implementation that was not only within budget but also looks and performs beautifully. Browse around the Pivotal Moments (opens new window) website and see for yourself.

College of Fine, Performing and Communications Arts

Jenny got her feet wet with our workflow, process, and structure using our Yeoman (opens new window) Foundation 5 (opens new window) site generator (not public yet). With this she was able to add some new features to the site. The homepage of the College of Fine, Performing and Communications Arts (opens new window) features some uniquely positioned areas with semantic HTML, parallax scrolling and CSS 3.

The Baroudeur

In the same line with the CFPCA website, Jenny built upon her knowledge to not only include parallax scrolling but also responsive background video. Although the background video didn't make it into the first launch of the website, we hope to find a video in the future that meets everyone's needs.

Student Service Center wait times

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In addition to full scale website builds, Jenny also has been working on the little big details (opens new window) that make the user experience a little more enjoyable. For the Student Service Center (opens new window) she added visual elements to highlight the important information at a glance. In addition, the tabbed view for hours brings the relevant information into initial view and secondary information a click away without scrolling or a refresh. Below that, the frequently asked questions are now within an accordion so they are easy to scan and quick to jump between. An improvement that didn't revolutionize the page, but made a useful page more of a joy to use.

Art & Art History (upcoming)

Although it isn't live yet (hopefully soon and I will update this post when it does launch): the Art & Art History department website. Another soup to nuts website that Jenny was involved with that really shows off the attention to detail. This site was build on our Yeoman site generator (which means it is a standard starting point for all future sites) and lazy loads hidden images/content, changes design naturally at different breakpoints, and utilizes icon fonts as much as possible. It also features something I have yet to talk about, progressive enhanced page loading with YouTube's SPF JS (opens new window). This is something we have been playing around with for a bit and this site shows off how we have nicely adapted it to our Web experience. We can't wait to show you the final website, which should be available shortly at http://art.wayne.edu/ (opens new window).

Just a few short weeks

This is just a snapshot of what we've done in the last few weeks. We don't believe we'd be where we're at without Jenny. Let's give her a warm welcome! We can't wait to see what she's able to accomplish in the next few months.