Letter of intent
Professor Gibson, Professor Owens, and Dr. Abel:
First of all, thank you for your time. Allow me to introduce myself.
I have worked in the web industry for the past 15 years or so, in various capacities. This has meant wearing different hats somewhat interchangeably:
- Front-end developer
- Information architect
- UX designer
Though I do not purport to be an expert at everything, I strive to do my best in accomplishing the task at hand. I am also constantly trying to improve upon what I already know, and round out areas in which I lack.
To that end, I am eager to be involved with the MA in IXD program at the University of North Texas.
Thus far, I suppose you could say I am "self taught." However, I have always felt that term does not adequately do justice to the numerous people from whom I have gleaned knowledge over the years. I do hold a Master of Divinity degree, though I cannot say it has done much to dispel the imposter syndrome that I imagine most of us practitioners feel amidst an ever changing digital landscape.
Without meaning to sound trite, my aspiration for enrolling in the course of study at UNT is to continue doing similar work, only better. Though I feel like I generally do well at my job, I would like to pursue formal training in order to gain more confidence and expertise in the field.
I greatly enjoy designing, tinkering, and building things that can help people accomplish tasks in their daily lives. Up until now, I have been all-in on the "how" and "what" but a little light on the "why." I look forward to learning more about the theory behind the practice, so to speak.
More recently, the realms of usability and accessibility have come into sharp relief in my life. In October of 2019, my wife had a stroke. We had known about her AVM for about a decade, and it was always a "watch and wait" sort of scenario. She has since had brain surgery, and is essentially fully recovered at this point.
Due to where the doctors operated, she lost about 40% to 50% of her vision in the left of each eye. That may improve over time, or the vision she has now may just be the "new normal" for the foreseeable future. With varying degrees of success, I have always tried to design and build things that are accessible. I am now more acutely aware of how much it affects her in a tangible way.
If you were to accept me into the MA in IXD program, I would want to work towards a capstone that somehow incorporates aspects of design adaptability. I am not yet sure what that would look like, but I am excited at the prospect of potentially studying under your tutelage.
Let me preemptively and optimistically say, I am looking forward to it!
Sincerely,
Nathan Smith
Professional experience
A full PDF export of my LinkedIn profile may be downloaded here:
Work summary
I have worked on projects across a variety of industries:
- Cloud computing
- Consulting
- Education
- Finance
- IT
- Nonprofit
- Retail
- Search
Books
I coauthored two books: Textpattern Solutions, and jQuery Cookbook.
I have tech edited several others, including: DOM Enlightenment, and jQuery Enlightenment.
Writing
Occasionally, I will write guest articles for other publications. Here are a few links to posts I have written.
Speaking
I have presented at a number of conferences and local meetups.
- Adobe MAX
- Art Institute of Dallas
- BibleTech Conference
- Dallas Society of Visual Communications
- Design 4 Drupal at MIT
- Drupal Camp Austin
- Drupal Camp Dallas
- DrupalCon Chicago 2011
- Dynamic Church Conference
- Echo Conference
- Gospelcon
- M2LIVE
- Red Dirt JS
- Refresh Dallas
- Refresh OKC
- SXSW Interactive
- Think Vitamin
- Webmaster Jam Session
Speaking engagements slowed somewhat after I became a father of two rambunctious boys. And perhaps needless to say, presenting has dried up quite a bit more due to COVID-19. Still, I enjoy talking with others and sharing what I know whenever possible.
Videos
Although most of my presentations are now relegated to slide decks, there were several instances of interviews and talks captured on video. Here are a few links to recordings that might be worth a watch.
Podcast interview: React Wednesdays
https://youtu.be/rx2RrVpFTooPresentation: Node.js and Style Guides
https://youtu.be/SoEPoww5BdAPresentation: Accelerated Grid Theming
https://youtu.be/kYHzUK0jcUM
Portfolio
960 Grid System
project type: open source
The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels.
I built this awhile back, when working as an information architect for a company called Geniant. We were later acquired by EMC, which eventually became a subsidiary of Dell.
Background Checks
project type: client work
While employed at projekt202, I worked as the lead front-end developer for the Background Checks redesign project. We revamped their site, to work across multiple devices.
That site uses a grid framework I built.
Fellowship One - design patterns
project type: documentation
I worked as both a UX designer and front-end developer at Fellowship Technologies.
As part of that effort, I documented design patterns and code standards that we used in our flagship app, Fellowship One.
InVision Studio
project type: desktop software
I worked as a lead software engineer, on the InVision Studio desktop app. It has feature parity with apps such as Sketch.
During my time there, I was focused on implementing new features and fine tuning performance bottlenecks.
Marcus by Goldman Sachs
project type: client work
While employed at Genpact, I worked as the lead front-end developer for the newly incubated Marcus business unit. I was responsible for code quality on several employee facing React apps, used when agents are issuing micro loans to consumers.
Neiman Marcus
project type: client work
While employed at projekt202, I was the lead front-end developer for a redesign project at Neiman Marcus. We revamped their site to work across multiple devices.
That site uses a grid framework I built.
RKV Component Library
project type: UI codebase
While employed at Reaktiv Studios, I created a set of internal React components, for use on client facing projects. I also built vanilla JS versions of those UI elements, to be used with flat HTML. This versatility allowed us to apply the same markup and styles for single page JS apps and/or CMS generated content.
NOTE: My portfolio page uses that UI.
Slack Future Forum
project type: client work
While employed at Reaktiv Studios, I was the lead front-end developer on a micro site we built for Slack. At the time of this writing, we are still working with them on a retainer basis, and will be adding more features as time goes on.
We used the aforementioned RKV Component Library as the underpinnings of the site.
Unsemantic Grid System
project type: open source
Years ago, one of the initial criticisms of the 960 Grid System was that I authored it with "unsemantic" class names. That was before the industry began shifting to BEM naming conventions as the norm.
A colleage jokingly suggested that if I ever made a responsive grid framework, I should literally name it unsemantic. Lo and behold, the domain name was available. So I did!
Wi-Fi Alliance
project type: client work
While employed at projekt202, I worked as the lead front-end developer for the Wi-Fi Alliance redesign project. We revamped their site, to work across multiple devices.
That site uses a grid framework I built.
WordPress VIP
project type: client work
While employed at Reaktiv Studios, I worked as the lead front-end developer for the WordPress VIP documentation redesign project.
In terms of layout, this required a bespoke multi-pane approach. I also built instant search functionality using the Svelte JS library.
Recommendations
Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to work with gracious colleages who put up with me. Thankfully, some of them even had nice things to say.
Here are a few choice testimonials, copied over verbatim from LinkedIn.
I had the pleasure of working with Nathan during his time at InVision. While I didn't work directly with his engineering team, we did work together through our Diversity and Inclusion programs. He always expresses his views in a way that is informative, compassionate, and focused on improving awareness. He makes people feel at ease, even when having really tough conversations. I really enjoyed working with him, and would be happy to have the opportunity to do so again.
Jennifer Aldrich
I long time ago, I made a decision to work only with people smarter than me, and Nathan aptly fulfilled that role. Both in and out of the web design wold, Nathan succeeds. His ability to solve problems is a great asset that was put to use more often than I could count. His knowledge of front-end coding makes designing along side him easy. Having someone as smart and talented as Nathan next to you makes you look good and design better. Knowing what Nathan is possible of makes planning adventurous projects fun and less scary.
Aaron Martin
Nathan is like a sponge. He knows so much yet he yearns to learn so much more. My frequent conversations with him have taught me that. Nathan is an gifted individual with a great taste for good design. Ambitious and level-headed, he's also one of the most dedicated individuals I know when it comes to supporting causes that mean the most to him.
Bryan Veloso
Nathan is a very bright, creative individual that is an absolute joy to work with. During our time working together, I saw him quickly find his way around very complicated codebases multiple times. Every time, as he moved along he untangled the previous chaos and left behind a path of organized, sensible changes that made the code easier to understand and modify. A proactive individual and great at teamwork, Nathan was always willing to jump in and help me debug a complicated problem, and would always provide actionable, comprehensive feedback on our team's PRs. Absolutely recommend him.
Marco Buono
Nathan Smith is an important figure in the history of web development. His 960 Grid System is one of the seminal open source CSS projects and was the de facto grid system of its day.
When Nathan joined my team, he was already an established "Rockstar". He would never use that term though, because his personality is nothing like that. He's humble, kind, and compassionate. He's a teacher at heart and always has time to help others. Oh, and he's funny too! In the four years I worked with him, Nathan was a pillar of our engineering practice.
I hope to work with Nathan again in the future. He leads by example, is a master of his craft, and never stops learning.
Mundi Morgado
Usually, when you sit down to write a description for what you want in your next hire, you end up with a collection of traits you're sure you'll never find in a single person: talented yet humble; a leader and a team player; someone who takes action, but is patient. Then there are those traits that are sadly rare all by themselves: ethical, transparent, thorough, hard-working. I'm pleased to say that in the time I got to work with Nathan, I found him to be a person who possessed this rare and almost paradoxical set of characteristics. If you are looking for someone who will not only help build your product and your business, but also infuse your work culture with good, you need not search any further.
Rob Eisenberg