Nick Spiel
Building device agnostic, future-friendly websites.
Building device agnostic, future-friendly websites.
Fast karts need a fast website.
To fulfill some very unique business rules from the client we built a booking and ecommerce system from scratch.
The ecommerce and booking engine will form the core of their business, so every ounce of effort was spent ensuring they were as performant and scalable as possible.
We are immensely proud of how user friendly and efficient the site is and can't wait to seeing what difference the new site makes to the the business.
A whole new perspective and approach to building websites – patterns over pages.
I have been working to the mantra of patterns over pages in my front end stack for quite a while now. This was the first build that I applied the practice to the back end.
There is only on page style on this site. Each page is made up of interchangeable 'strip' modules that are managed drag-and-drop style from the CMS. The user can craft a page out of any combination of the 30 plus available modules. So future, much friendly, such wow.
My most ambitious SilverStripe build to date.
Not only did we deliver a cutting edge public facing site for the guys at Sheen, they were also treated to a device agnostic intranet. The (IMO slightly over the top) intranet comes complete with custom built online store, blog and event calendar.
This build is the most clean and efficient site I have built on the SilverStripe framework. I am quite proud of this site and can't wait to see how it performs.
Evoke was not a typical conversion focused build.
The focus was not so much on SEO or conversion but creating an exciting site to showcase their high calibre event services.
Breaking out of the tried and true conversion patterns was a welcome opportunity. I had a lot of fun on this build experimenting with some new design patterns and some bleeding edge (for the time) CSS features.
This site is a rippa! The speed coupled with clean design and good user experience has seen the client double their conversion rate in the first month after launch.
We elected to build this small ecommerce store in SilverStripe, which brought on a new set of challenges. A lot of the features that come packaged with the dedicated ecommerce stores had to be built from scratch.
Oh and the title bars have bubbles in them too, and who doesn’t love bubbles?!
The Digital360 dashboard is an absolute beast. Almost every conceivable insight into your online business is at your fingertips.
Built on Laravel with some slick new frontend tech like flex-box and pJax, I learnt a lot from this build and had a lot of fun doing at the same time #nerdlife.
I am looking forward to building this tool out further and seeing the impact it has on our clients.
Integrated Technologies Australia needed a flashy site that reflected their sophisticated home automation systems.
ITA gave us a lot of freedom to take their site to the level required to represent the brand effectivly.
This was the first build that I truly felt I had mastered SilverStripe and I thoroughly enjoyed laying down some squeaky clean code.
This industry can change dramatically in just a matter of months (if not, weeks). In order to stay up to date with hip new web tech I am currently skilling up in the following.
React
Did someone say JSX-appeal!? React is so clean, fast and friendly. I need more of it in my life.
Redux
Man this was a game changer. Life was so hard before I found Redux.
Vue JS
Brushing up in the never ending quest to stay on top of the latest JS frameworks.
Laravel
At Digital360 we're continuing development of a large application in the Laravel framework.
System JS
I have recently replaced Require JS with System JS for dynamic module loading.
Webpack
Awful documentaion made the learning curve steep but learning Webpack was totally worth it.
I am always looking to stay up to date with the latest web technologies and trends through online training and daily participation in web forums and communities. I also frequent industry meet ups and functions, especially when free beer and nibbles are on offer.
I have over 8 years of experience in the web industry in a variety of roles. Below is a listing of my more recent work history.
Digital360 are a passionate bunch who focus all their energy into creating high-converting websites and applications. I was employed as a Front End Developer, working on intricate mobile-first web and application builds in a number of different frameworks.
I was hired as a Front End Developer and while working closely on these sites with the backend developers I steadily built up my backend coding and server administration skills and am now working in a more general developer role This was an extremely rewarding scenario and I found myself becoming more and more confident with the Backend coding and server administration skills. MVC, OOP, MySQL, PHP are a couple of the acronyms that now adorn my CV as a results of this exposure. Working predominantly in SilverStripe, Magento and Laravel often as the sole end-to-end developer on a number of projects. I was able to work with a great deal of autonomy.
I have always worked hard to keep our Front End Technology stack up to date with the latest frameworks and methodologies. We are currently working with Vue.js (ES6 transpiled with Babel), Webpack, CSS Modules and Flux style state management.
The most refreshing aspect of working at Digital360 is the high level of quality and attention to detail every member of the team aim for. I am immensely proud of the work we produce. Every project we work on is polished to the point (in my opinion) of near perfection.
Working with both internal clients and external departments, my role was to provide guidance and build professional, usable and engaging web sites and applications.
The efficiency and quality of work that we produced had our team in high demand from many Victorian government departments. This provided opportunities work interdepartmentally as a consultant on a couple of large projects.
My experience with different areas of the industry saw me later move into the role of IT Project Manager. In this position I was required to write functional specifications and supporting project documentation, build and follow project plans and manage project teams. I learnt a great deal in this role and enjoyed building valuable leadership skills.
Working in a small web agency I was required to facilitate both the design and development of medium sized websites. In the Web Developer role, Alkemi’s large and diverse client base enabled me to gain experience in many different Content Management Systems including WordPress, Business Catalyst, Joomla, Magento and Shopify.
Alkemi is fast paced web agency where at times I was required to wireframe and produce multiple interfaces each week.
These tight deadlines forced me to streamline my design process to ensure projects were delivered on time.
The quality of these designs did not suffer under this restraint, and still managed to fetch high conversion rates. These rates we so high that Alkemi guaranteed they would convert at 4% (which is double the rate of the average website). Working with the persuasion architect we met this guarantee with strict user experience methodology and proven SEO techniques.
As Alkemi grew, my workload could no longer be sustained and I took on the role of Web Consultant, overseeing many out sourced projects and assisting with development when required.
Some kind words from those I have worked with recently.
Nick earns the respect of all those he works with. He is highly regarded by all for his customer focussed solutions and drive to deliver to the highest possible standard.
I threw some pretty serious work at Nick and he was able to deal with everything I gave him with outstanding results.
Nick impressed me with all aspects of his work throughout the project. He left no doubt in the minds of our clients as to our competence, and helped to develop a high level of client-trust.
I have worked with Nick on a number of projects and am continually impressed by his strong work ethic and passion for his craft.
