I'm John Kavanagh: a Freelance front-end UI/UX web developer living and working in sunny Manchester city-centre.
I specialise in building quirky, striking, semantic, accessible, and cross-browser compatible websites in HTML5, CSS, jQuery with little bits of PHP - all coded by hand, from scratch. I am experienced building into any number of different back-end environments, and have a great knowledge of SEO and mobile development. I run a compact web-studio called PixelCounter Ltd. but I'm just as happy working from my office as I am in yours.
We could sit here and exchange acronyms and names of the various front-end (and web) technologies that I'm proficient in all morning but chances are, if you're more of a visual (or impatient) person like I am, this website itself will serve as a better demonstration of my passion for what I do best than anything I could write here. If you need more convincing and you haven't already, be sure to check out my portfolio and if you are so inclined, feel free to take a poke around my source code to get a feel of how I go about things.
There are numerous ways of describing what I do, 'front-end web developer', 'front-end engineer', or 'UI/UX developer' are amongst the most common - particularly in agile-type environments - but I've also been called a 'client-side developer', an 'HTML/CSS/JavaScript Developer', an 'HTML monkey' or 'HTMLer', and a few more obscure titles besides.
It all boils down to the same thing: I write the markup that makes websites look and behave the way they do. I'm the guy who adds nice rounded corners, gradients, drop shadows, and fade effects; I'm the one cutting up and optimising graphics to ensure that the pages load as quickly as possible; and I'm the guy who makes sure that the website works regardless of the browser or device used to view the site - even my Gran's old PC.
I also build HTML emails, know my way around the templates and views of numerous web languages and frameworks (including PHP, .NET and Django), have a really good understanding of search engine optimisation, and specialise in accessibility and mobile development. I strive in busy environments and on interesting projects, do everything I can to keep abreast of emerging technologies and new online trends, and I'm always happy to impart my knowledge to those who ask for it.
Originally I specialised 3D design/animation, post-production for television, and DVD authoring in a little animation studio in the hills above Manchester. When clients started asking for websites to accompany their campaigns and educational DVDs, I quickly discovered a pasion for web development and making sure that those websites 'worked' online. At the time Internet Explorer 6 was king and front-end development was in a phase of transformation from archaic in-line styles and tables to the HTML5 and CSS3 standards emerging today. I saw this conflict of standards and emerging techniques as a challenge and have spent the past eight years learning, developing, testing, cursing at IE, and developing again. I've now been hand-coding in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the past eight years.
I've worked for several big-name companies and on countless household-name brands - the most salient of which at the moment would be working on the BBC website, and a number of projects for the London 2012 Olympic Games with Cisco. I work obsessively with a keen eye for detail and - some say - a mild case of OCD. There's nothing I like better than getting my teeth sunk into a new project and showing people how it's done.
Apart from all of that: I'm a qualified rally driver, an every-day petrolhead, I listen to a lot of music and often enjoy it quite loud, I watch movies and American TV shows, I try and get to as many gigs as possible, occasionally I turn my hand to cooking (and most often end up setting food substances alight), I play Mario Kart and Goldeneye (and I'm quite good), I'm a published author, I appreciate good-quality whiskeys and dark rums (and then ruin them by adding coke), I like to travel to hot climates where they don't speak English. I'm heavily dependant on caffeine, and I regularly function on less than four hours sleep a night.
