Philosophy

Leadership

• My job as a manager is to enable success for my employees—to put them in an environment where they can thrive and produce their best work for the company.
• Weekly one-on-one meetings are key for communication. An employee should never be surprised to find out there's a problem.
• Hire people who are better than you, especially in your weakest areas.

Usability

• A web site should be clean, easy to read, and easy to navigate.
• For functional elements, it's best to stick with accepted standards; users have become used to certain practices, and they will navigate your site more quickly if you give them what they expect.
• Simpler is better. Flashy animations and JavaScript have valid and important uses, but shouldn't be used just because they can be.

User Experience

• Use clear visual cues to point your users to the most important functions on your site.
• At any step in a process, the user should know what they are expected to do and what will happen next.
• The business logic behind a form—that is, what error messages appear and when, how form elements change as other parts of the form are filled out—is more important to usability than the layout of the form.
• Intuition is not always right; it's an important tool in design, but it should be backed with user testing.

Code

• Semantic coding and CSS layout will allow you to reach the most devices with the least trouble.
• Keep your code clean and well-commented so that it's easy to maintain going forward.
• Use native functions and elements instead of recreating them via JavaScript, unless there is a strong business case.

Mobile

• When possible, start with your mobile design, and add to that to make your desktop site.
• Mobile cannot be ignored; currently roughly a third of all web-traffic is mobile-only. Serve that audience, and you'll grow your user base and conversions.
• There is such a wide range of mobile devices in use that you cannot assume your users will be on any specific devices. Make a responsive site that works at all browser widths and cover all bases.

Portfolio

This site (tonybreed.com) is meant to be a showcase of what I can do. Most of my work has been in a corporate environment, built by a team. The work in my portfolio here is either corporate work where I had a substantial role, or work I did freelance.

User Experience

Examples of UX documents are available on request.

Web Sites

• 

  TerminixPestControlOffers (mobile)

  Did all coding for the mobile site. Traffic to this site was to be exclusively driven by SEM, and as such was targeted exclusively at iPhone and Android devices. Design was provided by the creative department. Adapted design for optimal appearance in landscape as well as portrait modes.

  View source code | View style sheet

• 

  American Banker (and associated sites)

  Supervised initial design and coding. Advised on user interface and information architecture. Provided on-the-fly coding corrections during marathon phone meetings to tweak and correct the site.

  View sample source code | View sample style sheet

• 

  SaritaChiquita.com

  For Sarah Cativo and Sarita Chiquita Boutique in Providence.
  Designed, advised, produced images and HTML, and implemented. (Note: store has closed and site no longer exists.)

Advertisements

• 

  CHIRP Record Fair web ad

• 

  CHIRP Record Fair print ad for The Chicago Reader

• 

  CHIRP Record Fair web ad

Illustration

• 

  "Lost Bike, No Reward", a fake movie still created for a card game.
  Ink and wash with digital coloring.

• 

  Artwork for Lillstreet Art Center's 2012 holiday card.
  Ink and wash with digital coloring.

• 

  Domestic scene. Commission for a CHIRP Radio donor.
  Ink and watercolor.

Skills

• HTML5 and CSS3
• Django/Jinja
• ERb (Ruby)
• JavaScript, jQuery
• Hand-coding in all languages
• CVS
• Mercurial
• Mac / Unix / Windows
• Business analysis
• User experience design
• Process design and user flow
• CMS implementation and management
• Agile/Scrum and Agile/Kanban
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Responsive design
• Mobile Web Site development
• Web Standards
• SEO
• 508 Compliance
• Foreign and extended character encoding
• Localization