Student Brands

(formerly Studymode)

As the first official front end engineer hire, I worked with the CTO and general manager to help scale our front end development team over time optimizing the codebase in the process. I worked on a variety of projects from merging five codebases into one global template, an internationalization admin project, overall site performance evaluations, a/b testing for sign up conversions, and prototyping new projects.

Duties

Principal Front End Engineer merging 5 different codebases into 1 reusable global master template for vertical and horizontal markets
Prototyping of new products
Build out and maintenance of new features on existing properties
Managed in-house and outsourced teams
Technologies: Javascript, JQuery, PhP, MySQL, AngularJs, ElasticSearch

Projects

StudyMode search
Research Paper Document Viewer
Citation Generator
Cram Flashcard Interactive Study Module

Results

Cut development time by 30% by utilizing global templates to handle properties across vertical and horizontal products
Optimization tests to increase overall site speed and performance by 20%
Modernized codebase from Php/Ember templates to AngularJS framework to assist in overall site speed and performance moving rendering to the client side

One Template for Multiple Products & Verticals

With multiple sites sharing similar functionality of large databases of searchable user generated content, I was tasked with creating one global front end framework that would be easily configurable and adaptable to handle multiple international languages, styles, and layouts. Over the course of 6 months, I lead the front end development to optimize the codebase, refactor code into shared libraries, come up with a global style guide, and transition the codebases into one master template cutting the overall development time by 60% reducing the need to update 5 codebases.

Research Database

With a large database that rivaled LexisNexis, my primary focus was working with the backend developers to figure out an optimized solution for searching effectively and quickly. Within the 4 year period, I led the front end developer team to improve the search user interface and document viewer. In addition, I prototyped a list of features to help with conversion including a Shared Drive application, Messaging App, and a new version of the monolithic site transitioning the codebase from Php and Jquery to NodeJS and Angular.

Flashcards

I worked with in-house developers and led outsourced teams to develop and deliver an interactive study module to gamify the learning process and help users create their own flashcards, study them, and practice simulated testing scenarios. A lot of research and prototype testing was done to create a modified version of the Leitner system, an efficient way to study flashcards.

Citations

A simple 2 page web application that allowed users to generate works cited pages for their research papers in the proper formats. I teamed up with a backend developer to build the custom interface available on all devices and released the product within a three week timeframe.

Memorization Flashcard Game based on a modified Leitner system

Test Results and Gamification for Studying