Benjamin Knight

Berkeley, United States

Member since November 13, 2014

Benjamin is a web designer and developer with experience across the web stack beginning in his early teens before web standards. He codes with an eye towards providing a quality user experience and interaction, and enjoys making creative decisions. He loves Python and JavaScript (the good parts) and has worked in a variety of environments, from a large engineering team to a smaller startup and independent freelance work.

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Portfolio

Homely.com.au (via Toptal)
React.js, Babel, Reflux.js, SCSS, Gulp
Yelp
Python, jQuery, Closure Library
Couchsurfing
PHP, jQuery

Experience

CSS, 15 years
PHP, 10 years
JavaScript, 6 years
Python, 3 years
EcmaScript 2015 (ES6), 1 year
jQuery, 5 years
Responsive Web Design, 6 years
WordPress, 5 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

OS X, Unix, Git, Sass, Atom

The most amazing...

...thing for me is being able to work with people who challenge me to push the ever-evolving web platform to its limits.

Employment

Front-end Developer with Design Focus
Homely.com.au (via Toptal)
2015 - PRESENT
- Developed new front-end components.
- Implemented design for product features.
- Created mobile-first, responsive interfaces.
- Utilized advanced ECMAScript 6 and 7 language features for more expressive, flexible code.
- Worked with a remote team.
Technologies: React.js, Babel, Reflux.js, SCSS, Gulp
Front-end Software Engineer
Yelp
2012 - 2014
- Worked closely with the product team to build new features for the desktop and mobile site.
- Had a lead role on the small team that produced Yelp's first UI style guide, and then made it available to the public. The style guide precipitated an organization-wide push towards modular design.
- Completely rebuilt Yelp's most important page--the business page--from scratch, using advanced CSS features for layout and interaction.
- Led the development of a complete overhaul of all email templates, including Yelp Weekly, which is sent to millions of users per week.
- Gained unique experience working on a large-scale software project with hundreds of contributors. Learned extensively about release engineering, including testing and deployment, as well as common web security vulnerabilities.
Technologies: Python, jQuery, Closure Library
UI Designer/Web Developer
Couchsurfing
2011 - 2012
- Designed multiple experiments focused on optimizing user onboarding, using Optimizely's A/B testing platform.
- Had a fluid role within a startup environment, ranging from coding to graphic design and product management.
- Used Scrum.
- Redesigned the website's main navigation.
- Overcame challenges involved in modernizing the front end of a 7-year-old codebase.
Technologies: PHP, jQuery
Web Developer
Perch Design Studio
2009 - 2011
- Turned beautiful Photoshop designs into WordPress sites.
- Built some Shopify sites.
- Learned how to use WordPress as a framework for general application development, not just for blogging and static content.
- Built mobile sites using both custom mobile stylesheets as well as media queries when they were still a new technology.
- Got to work with many local businesses in and around my home town of Portland, Maine.
Technologies: WordPress, PHP, jQuery

Experience

Namecheap Mobile Promo (Development)
https://mobile.namecheap.com
I built this simple Twilio integration app for getting an app store download link through SMS. My role was co-designer and lead developer. The back-end was built in custom PHP. The responsive front-end is built using the Inuit.css SASS framework.
Namecheap Blog (Development)
https://blog.namecheap.com
Namecheap's WordPress blog, launched in January 2015. I designed and coded it.
Yelp Weekly Email (Design)
https://benknight.github.io/images/projects/weekly-yelp-iphone.png
Yelp’s weekly email, sent to several million users each week. I co-designed and built it. This was a mobile-first email design project, which was challenging considering the extreme limitations of HTML email. This project led to a further overhaul of Yelp’s entire HTML email template inventory, where I was the lead developer.
Yelp Styleguide (Development)
http://yelp.com/styleguide
I had a lead role on the small design team that created Yelp’s public styleguide. The styleguide precipitated an organization-wide effort towards modular design across all platforms.
Philips Hue Alfred Workflow (Development)
https://github.com/benknight/hue-alfred-workflow
I created this handy dandy workflow for controlling a Philips Hue lighting system, built in my favorite scripting language, Python.
Democratic Ads (Design)
http://democraticads.com
Home page design and development. Worked with client to design a new splash-style front page for their ads product, featuring a product overview, video, testimonials, and selected press.

Skills

Languages
EcmaScript 2015 (ES6), Python, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, HTML5
Frameworks
Bootstrap, inuit.css, Django, AngularJS
Libraries/APIs
jQuery, D3.js, React.js, Polymer, Node.js
Paradigms
Responsive Web Design
Platforms
Chrome Extensions, WordPress, Unix, Shopify, Google App Engine
Misc
Styleguides, HTML Email, Rendering Performance, Squarespace, BEM Architecture
Tools
Adobe Photoshop, Jekyll, Adobe Illustrator

Education

Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and Computer Science
Colby College - Waterville, Maine
2005 - 2009

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