Ben Eelen, Developer in Hamme, Belgium
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Ben Eelen

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Ben is a web developer dedicated to helping brands and businesses deliver better-designed products and captivating user experiences. With over 17 years of experience in designing and building digital products across various industries, he helps marketers and business owners create more value for their businesses by delivering people-first digital experiences.

Portfolio

Thinc
HTML5, CSS, CSS3, WordPress, WordPress REST API, JavaScript, jQuery, HubSpot...
MAC21
PHP, Drupal, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS, Sass, Responsive Web Apps...
MSC Medlog
Adobe Flex, Flex, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD)...

Experience

  • HTML5 - 15 years
  • User Interface (UI) - 15 years
  • PHP - 12 years
  • WordPress - 12 years
  • Front-end - 10 years
  • Sass - 10 years
  • jQuery - 8 years
  • User Experience (UX) - 8 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Visual Studio Code (VS Code), WordPress, Cursor AI, Figma, ACF PRO, Astro

The most amazing...

...custom editor I've developed allows the creation of artwork engraved on wooden planks. It was used for an art installation at the world's largest EDM festival.

Work Experience

UI/UX Designer | WordPress Developer

2014 - PRESENT
Thinc
  • Built a full website on Hubspot COS (CMS) for a marketing agency.
  • Developed multiple websites on WordPress CMS with custom, tailor-made themes and plugins. Custom-made block themes.
  • Designed modern user interfaces for eCommerce websites to sell car accessories. These were four different websites, each for a specific car brand belonging to the same group.
  • Handled custom web and app development using Strapi CMS, Astro, Supabase, Vercel, and Svelte.
  • Created minisites and landing pages for multiple clients using Astro, Astro DB, Vercel/Netlify, and custom form integrations.
  • Developed a calendar and resource management system on WordPress CMS for an event agency to manage and keep track of product stock and availability for their field events. This also included after-event reporting with PDF and XLS exports.
  • Programmed a user management tool, similar to a CRM, for a market research company. It enabled them to manage their user base and create surveys on WordPress CMS.
  • Designed multiple modern user interfaces for various clients.
  • Used Node.js to develop a website for the largest media publishers in Belgium.
  • Worked on information architecture, wireframes, and UX design on multiple projects.
Technologies: HTML5, CSS, CSS3, WordPress, WordPress REST API, JavaScript, jQuery, HubSpot, HubSpot COS, Node.js, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), SCSS, MySQL, Yoast SEO, Web Design, Figma, Page Speed Optimization, Elementor, Back-end Development, Core Web Vitals, Performance Optimization, REST APIs, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Tailwind CSS, API Integration, Full-stack, Full-stack Development, Multilingual Websites, i18n

Digital Manager | Web Developer

2012 - 2013
MAC21
  • Developed and maintained multiple websites for clients in a wide range of industries.
  • Managed various web design and development projects.
  • Developed a custom eCommerce website with an integrated editor to create custom designs engraved on wooden slates and used in a permanent art installation for the world's largest EDM festival.
Technologies: PHP, Drupal, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS, Sass, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD), SCSS, Page Speed Optimization, Google Analytics, API Integration, Full-stack, Full-stack Development, Multilingual Websites, i18n

Web Developer

2012 - 2012
MSC Medlog
  • Developed a new functionality and screens for a cargo container tracking application.
  • Fixed multiple bugs and uncompleted features for a cargo container tracking application.
  • Maintained and tested a cargo container tracking application.
Technologies: Adobe Flex, Flex, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Page Speed Optimization

Web Developer | UI and Interaction Designer

2008 - 2012
Verso Europe
  • Developed four minisites for a financial institution to highlight the different products and services they provided.
  • Developed extra functionality and improvements for an in-house custom CMS written in Adobe Flash to create, edit, and manage full Flash websites.
  • Developed functionality for a custom sales presentation software that included asset management written in Flash.
  • Developed a custom website for international travelers that want to get a newspaper or magazine from their home country. Used a mobile website and GPS location to find newsstands where they sell the newspaper or the magazine they are searching for.
Technologies: Flash, Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Responsive Web Apps, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Page Speed Optimization, Google Analytics, API Integration, Full-stack, Full-stack Development, Multilingual Websites, i18n

Graphic Designer

2007 - 2008
AIM Productions
  • Created graphical assets for a mobile device video game.
  • Designed 3D models with different states for a mobile video game.
  • Created graphical assets for a cycling simulator video game.
Technologies: Adobe Photoshop, Modo

Experience

Boagworld—Website Rebuild

https://www.boagworld.com
Complete rebuild of Paul Boag's website. This included integrating modern WordPress practices like the Block Editor and creating custom Blocks to suit the client's needs. The project also included data migration from the old site to the new one.

Auvik—Website Rebuild

https://www.auvik.com
Rebuilt Auvik's WordPress website with a modern block theme. The project included creating custom post types, taxonomies, and custom blocks powered by ACF. Another part of the project also included content migration and updating that content to work with the block editor.

Whitedreams Invest—Real Estate Website

https://www.whitedreamsinvest.com
Designed and built a custom WordPress website for a small real estate business specializing in vacation homes.

SEO was a big priority from the start, so another part of the project was developing a custom SEO-optimized faceted filter plugin for the property listing pages.

Royal Botania | Luxury Garden Furniture

https://www.royalbotania.com/
I was involved in the initial workshops to gain clarity and determine the project scope, create an information architecture on wireframes and UI design, and then develop the website on WordPress CMS.

Earlyfeed | Young Animal Nutrition

https://earlyfeednutrition.com/
A website for an agricultural firm's sub-brand specific for young animals' nutrition. They offer innovative solutions and expert advice to maximize the animals' genetic potential through a healthy and profitable rearing strategy. Built on WordPress CMS with a custom theme, custom blocks, and a few small custom plugins.

CEFIC | User Interface Design

To improve its communication and collaboration processes, both internally and externally, CEFIC wanted to offer its members, non-members, and staff an online platform to share essential information. I was commissioned to design a user-friendly Salesforce community UI following the CEFIC brand guidelines.

Agrimprove | Animal Feed and Nutrition

https://www.agrimprove.com/
A website for a new sub-brand of an agricultural firm promoting functional feed ingredients and nutrition to raise healthy animals for sustainable human consumption. It was built on WordPress CMS with a custom theme.

INVE | Aquaculture Website

https://www.inveaquaculture.com/
A website for a leading brand in aquaculture. They support hatcheries and farms worldwide with new concepts, best practices, and technologies to enable sustainable healthy growth of fish and shrimp. It was built on WordPress CMS with a custom theme.

ELD Architects

https://eld.be/
A website for a European independent multi-disciplinary firm of architects, engineers, consultants, technical specialists, project managers, and cost consultants. It was built on WordPress CMS with a custom theme.

Car Accessory | Webshop Redesign

D'Ieteren provides a wide range of mobility services and is a long-time exclusive importer of most Volkswagen group car brands in Belgium. They manage multiple websites. A few of them are eCommerce websites that offer a wide range of accessories for the car brands that D'Ieteren distributes. I was commissioned to design the new UI for the accessory shops for Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen, and Audi.

Website for a Marketing Agency

https://thom.be/
The House of Marketing commissioned me to build their website on the HubSpot COS, CMS. After a complete rebrand, I also made their new website on HubSpot, and over the years, I've optimized the existing pages, built new ones, and created a bunch of custom modules inside the HubSpot CMS.

Debugging and Performance Optimization for a Bank

One of the sub-sites of a large bank in Belgium had a lot of issues. I was commissioned to analyze the issues, create a to-do list with priorities, and plan to resolve them. The issues ranged from minor visual and layout problems to bugs and speed performance. I worked on fixing all of them, including debugging a complex custom-built plugin.

Optimizations and Changes for an Online Magazine

I was commissioned to work on one of the websites for a physical magazine of a large publishing firm. I did some optimizations and created some extra features on the website that was built in Node.js.

Education

2005 - 2007

Bachelor's Degree in Multimedia and Creative Technologies

Howest University of Applied Sciences - Kortrijk, Belgium

2002 - 2005

Bachelor's Degree in Electronics ICT

Thomas More University of Applied Sciences - Geel, Belgium

Skills

Libraries/APIs

jQuery, WordPress REST API, WooCommerce API, WordPress API, REST APIs, Node.js

Tools

Adobe Experience Design (XD), Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Gulp, Adobe Photoshop, HubSpot COS, Gutenberg Editor, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), Google Analytics, Flash, Adobe Flash, NPM, Figma, Modo, Git, ACF PRO, Astro

Languages

PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, Sass, CSS3, HTML, Timber, HubL, SCSS, PHP 5, PHP 7

Frameworks

Twig, Adobe Flex, Tailwind CSS, Flex

Paradigms

Web UI Design, UX Design, UI Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Platforms

Visual Studio Code (VS Code), WordPress, WordPress Theme Design, WooCommerce, Drupal, HubSpot, Windows Server, Linux

Industry Expertise

Web Design

Storage

MySQL

Other

Web Development, Front-end, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), WordPress Plugins, Wireframing, Information Architecture (IA), Website Performance, WordPress Themes, Performance Tuning, Site Speed Optimization, WordPress Design, Front-end Design, Responsive Web Apps, Content Management Systems (CMS), Yoast SEO, Page Speed Optimization, Back-end Development, Core Web Vitals, Performance Optimization, API Integration, Full-stack, Full-stack Development, Multilingual Websites, i18n, APIs, Elementor, Google Tag Manager, Cisco CCNA Voice Certification, Plugins, Cursor AI

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