Hello 37signals, I am Finley.
I figured, instead of just submitting a few pieces of my work, I'd create a little something fun for you. It's a mix between a portfolio, a résumé, and a love letter for user interface. I'll take you all the way from the monks that inspire me to modern inspiration in our industry.
I love what I do, so let me show you some stuff.
PS
As we push the edge of what is possible in the browser, often times we utilize technologies that don't work in all browsers. This page uses CSS3 box shadows, text-shadows, gradients, rounded corners, and web fonts. All of these work in Safari, Chrome and Firefox. jQuery is used to keep the panes in sync, which works beautifully in Safari on the Mac, but is a bit jittery in Firefox and Chrome.
PSS
Right! The fonts used on this page are from The League of Moveable Type and Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Body copy is set in Junction, headers are set in League Gothic and supplemented by Gotham. Oh, and that font up top ("I am James.") is Chunk, a great alternative to one of my all-time favorite fonts, Archer.
holiwrit
holiwrit, an app designed from my heart. When the iPad was first announced, I saw the Bible on it. All the main stars of the Bible "market" for the iPhone were announcing their apps and even sharing screenshots and one word described them: lackluster. To quote my article, published a few months after the release of the iPad:
Before the printing press, the monks and other people that copied the Bible word for word spent countless hours making the Bible a work of art. With the printing press, the Bible is printed with reproducible care and typographic precision. Now with these apps, we just take the text and fill a jar that we design and forget about this important part? A little CSS here and there, but no real care and focus? Where is the art?
The monks, they cared about the Word, illustrating and accenting pages beautifully. Their love for the Word was very evident. I'm not saying that these modern monks — these developers — don't love the Word. Quite the contrary: they care to bring the Word to a whole new platform, embracing technology as soon as it is available! I'm saying that the lack of thought that goes into the interfaces is sometimes too much for me. See, from my perspective, other Bible app developers were focused on introducing tons of features. Note taking, bookmarking, tweeting, commentary: advanced stuff. But 80% of users use 20% of your features, right? When I grab my Bible, I want to read first and foremost. So start with the basics: a good Bible app must have a kick-ass reading experience. If you fail there and succeed elsewhere, then your focus isn't on the Bible.
That's what caused me to step in. It's one thing to comment from the sideline and nitpick things. It's another to get involved and be a thought leader. My leading thought: produce a kick-ass half instead of a half-assed whole, as 37signals would say. Below are screenshots from the first version of holiwrit, followed by screenshots of the latest version that hasn't been released yet.
Each chapter is split into pages of two columns, the custom paginator at the bottom allows for easy access to pages. The next and previous chapter buttons allow quick access to keep reading.
Pull to Navigate was something I came up with to allow the user to quickly flick through long lists of books and chapters to get to a page as fast as possible.
The second version of holiwrit refines the page look, brings navigation to the top, and adds a number of great navigation additions.
Ashes
Ashes was a joint adventure between Tom Krush and myself to create an RSS reader based on Shaun Inman's Fever. I handled all the interface design and flow; Tom handled the Cocoa.
Reading took focus here to, just like holiwrit. If we were going to display blog content outside of it's shell, I wanted it to look great.
Our split view utilized two navigation controllers, one for the categories and feeds and one for the articles and reader.
Community Online
Community Online was an opus after many years of working towards Internet Ministry. Getting hired in 2009 by Community Christian Church, I started work on a dream of a social church, spreading the Word through the Web. They came to the table with many thoughts but needed someone to make it happen. I went beyond making things happen: I brought inspiration, thought, passion, and — most of all, in my book — heart.
This wasn't just another web project, another coding project, it was a chance to make an impact. From pushing myself to learn new techniques in PHP & mySQL to learning Amazon S3 & Flash media streaming, I built a site that allowed for not only online church services, but a place for Christians to discuss, to "do life together" throughout the week. Email chains get long in small groups, and I wanted to change that. Email notifications went out if you wanted them, a "daily digest" could allow you to not be swamped, and beautifully clean group pages were the centerpoint of life on Community Online.
The unfortunate thing is the money wasn't there to make our dream come true. We launched in December of 2010, and the position was cut in January. My hope is the remnants of the dream still ring true at Community, that an impact is made with my contribution.
Please be sure to check out this project on Github.
Récuté
Since 2001, James has pushed the edge, learning everything he could get his hands on. HTML and JavaScript were a good start, but as soon as James had a Mac in front of him, he buried himself in CSS. James has worked in PHP since 2003, developing CMSs, web apps, and much more. The CodeIgniter framework has revolutioned his efficiency and ability to rapidly construct any challenging project in front of him.
He lives for the thrill of bleeding edge.
Education
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The Illinois Institute of Art – Schaumburg
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Web Design & Interactive Media
December 2008
Skills
- HTML5
- XHTML
- CSS 2.1
- CSS 3
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- ActionScript
- PHP 5
- CodeIgniter
- mySQL
Experience
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Abt Electronics – Developer
Skills used: PHP5, mySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery and user interface design
January 2011 – present -
Community Christian Church – Web Development Director
Built a completely awesome new website that brings a brand new view of social interactivity to church websites and also brings a full online church system for running both live and prerecorded services. Honing his skills in AJAX, Flash, PHP and relational databases, this was one of his biggest projects yet.
Skills used: PHP5, Code Igniter, mySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery, ActionScript 3.0, design and layout
December 2009 – January 2011 -
Clear Channel Radio – Senior Online Content Manager
Built an application for managing the office paperwork that covered everything from the sale of an ad to a client to the production and airing of the ad on the radio. Not only this, but was also largely in charge of the websites for two radio stations in Chicago.
Skills used: PHP5, Code Igniter, mySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery, ActionScript 3.0, design and layout
September 2008 – May 2009
Freelance
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Roe Conn (work no longer active) – the Snoble Media Group – 2008
Was brought in to build out this project from PSD to a working site within a CMS, along with constructing an audio player in Flash and a Podcast system.
Skills used: PHP5, HTML, CSS, ActionScript 2.0
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Christian Life Church (work no longer active) – 2007
Worked with another developer to design, strategise and build this site, delivering a Podcast, news feeds, and much more.
Skills used: PHP5, mySQL, HTML, CSS, ActionScript 2.0, jQuery, design and layout
-
Middle Coast – SnowFire Creative – 2006
Built the website from PSD on a custom CMS and customized Big Cartel CSS.
Skills used: PHP5, mySQL, HTML, CSS
-
Talent Drive – Telegraphics, Inc. – 2006
Built many small pieces to the puzzle, including custom content management tools to meet the needs of Talent Drive.
Skills used: PHP5, mySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery
I'm Social
You can find a lot about me on the web. I encourage you to check out my Dribbble account for a look at many of my recent projects (much of which isn't on this page), my Github account to see much more of my code (including the entire Community Online project), and my Twitter account to see if my personality is what you are looking to add to your team.
If you wish to chat, you can call 630-362-4486.