Matthew Harvey MA (hons) Edin
Lead front end developer
Experienced front end web developer with design, e-commerce & hybrid app development experience. Interested in emerging technologies and new techniques, with a particular interest in web animation. Eight years of commercial experience.
Employment history
Front end web developer, Studio 24
March 2015 – June 2017
Front end web developer working on multiple client projects, specialising in responsive, accessible user experience design, interactive javascript applications, data visualisation and web animation. Key projects included East Anglian Air Ambulance, the home page and interactive map for Crossrail, and a museum walk-through interactive guide for the museum exhibition Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail. Also developed a new mobile app for CBM, an overseas disability charity, to help humanitarian aid workers provide care to people with disabilities.
Senior front end web developer, Jagex Games Studio
October 2012 – February 2015
Part of a team of front and back end developers creating and supporting the website for Transformers Universe, including the player-facing website and services to support the game. Additional projects included an in-house CMS as well as monitoring dashboards and admin interfaces for various modules and services. Also worked in a smaller team to build the website for the Steam game Block N Load and provided technical advice and feedback to design and UX teams during product planning phases.
Webmaster, FRONT Magazine
March 2011 – September 2012
Sole responsibility for the development of the Front Magazine website. The role involved development of new website features, content generation, email marketing campaign management, web analysis and SEO. Other duties included video editing, occasional design tasks and technical support for the Front head office. Also created and launched an e-commerce sub-site and carried out research, supplier selection and quality assurance for the digital version of the magazine making it available on multiple platforms including Android and iOS.
Web & Marketing Designer, Spiral (clothing brand)
August 2010 – February 2011
Responsibilities included design of marketing materials and project managing the development of a new online shop, liaising with external e-commerce platform providers to do so. The role included design and construction of working page templates, development, testing, and optimisation for all web browsers. Other tasks included restructuring the shop’s antiquated user database system and using web analytics and e-commerce case studies to improve the user experience of the online shop, leading to a boost in sales and positive customer feedback.
Technical proficiencies
Proficient in javascript (vanilla and jQuery), HTML and CSS, both writing code from scratch and using pre-processors such as Sass and Stylus. Experience in server-side languages includes PHP for development of WordPress websites and Thymeleaf for the development of admin interfaces and client-facing websites. Demonstrable experience using a range of libraries, frameworks and publishing platforms in large-scale projects. Key skills demonstrated in recent projects include the following:
- HTML, CSS, javascript, jQuery
- Sass, Compass
- Angular
- Sketch, Photoshop
- Foundation, Bootstrap
- WordPress
Comfortable working alone and managing my own workload, or operating as part of a team, with experience in an agile environment using scrum development practices.
Career achievements
- Launched a full CMS-driven website for the upcoming Block N Load game despite time constraints and staff limitations caused by an on-going redundancy period within the company. The website surpassed expectations and allowed the marketing team to get through all phases of the product launch without the need for any further development.
- Delivered a new home page for the Transformers Universe website in my first week of employment at Jagex, learning the company’s proprietary server-side language as I worked.
- Doubled traffic to the FRONT Magazine website in less than a year, from 280k to over 600k unique visitors per month, with SEO achievements giving Front top rankings for a huge range of related keywords including names of well-known models who also appeared in competing magazines.
- Designed and re-built the Spiral Direct website and e-commerce platform, and also introduced social media campaigning to the business.
Education & qualifications
The University of Edinburgh (Aug 2004 to June 2008)
MA Japanese (hons) Grade: 2:1, with distinction in spoken Japanese.
Included a year abroad studying in Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
The Billericay School (Sept 1997 to July 2004)
A Levels in Information Technology (A), Art (A), Media Studies (B), General Studies (B) & Physics (C)
GCSEs in Double Science (A*A*), Art & Design (A*), French (A*), English Literature (A*), English Language (A), Maths (A), Media Studies (A), RE (A), Information Technology (B) & Graphic Design (B)
References
Simon Jones, Managing Director, Studio 24 Ltd.
Email: simon.jones@studio24.net
Adam Barnwell, Lead web developer (line manager), Jagex Games Studio
Email: barnzy@gmail.com
Contact details
Tel: 07870 801 999
Email: m@ttharvey.com