Delivering front-end code at scale
Hello! I’m Amy.
I am an frontend developer and designer with more than 15 years of experience building inclusive, user-friendly digital experiences. These days, I’m especially interested in design systems, web accessibility, and product design.
Highlights from my work history
- For the last six years, I’ve worked exclusively in design systems. I created my first component library and style guide in 2019 and I haven’t looked back since. My experience has shown me that a good design system delivers smart solutions at scale, freeing up downstream teams to focus on the problems that really matter to them. I have to admit, I’m hooked.
- I’ve led major initiatives in challenging environments. I successfully advocated for the creation of design systems in a risk-averse culture that didn’t yet understand the value of the task. Through teamwork and advocacy, we were able to successfully convey that the product would quickly pay for itself and provide more consistent results than their current disjointed system. From there, we did a full audit of the UI components, defined requirements based on practice area needs, and developed a component library and branding style guide that helped make it faster and easier to build for both the intranet and public-facing websites.
- I leveled-up on the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) core team. On this highly-collaborative and incredibly talented team, I matured as a developer and team member. I learned how to write code that is self-documenting, readable, and reusable; designed new products and processes; triaged bugs and feature requests; and developed a passion for web accessibility and open source communities.
- My work history spans multiple practice areas. I am a developer, a designer, and a writer. I also have years of experience in web accessibility and product management. This diverse experience gives me the ability to effectively translate needs across functions and build code that meets the needs of everyone on the product team.
- Related link: My contributions to USWDS on GitHub
What excites me at work
- I am passionate about the front of the front-end. Front-end development is a multi-faceted and deep discipline that often gets undervalued. To me, front-enders are the guardians of the user experience and interface. A good front-ender ensures that the diligent work that comes from usability research, accessibility audits, and content strategies gets translated into a product that is accessible and usable for the end user.
- I love building code that serves product teams. Working in design systems has taught me that the end user is not the only consumer we need to consider when writing code. Building smart code systems that anticipate the needs of development, content, and design teams brings business value by reducing friction during handoff and minimizing re-work.
- I care deeply about the developer experience. My time working in open source has taught me the value of creating self-documenting, readable code. Writing high-quality pull request descriptions, release notes, and architectural decision records (ADRs) creates a living history as we build. This gives teams have an easy reference to better understand our decisions from the past, and not waste effort pursuing solutions that have already been ruled out.