Hi, my name’s Hugh Guiney (🗣 GUY-knee). I’m a UX Developer, which means I design and code thoughtful digital products. I’ve worked with organizations of all sizes, from startups to SMBs to household names. In my spare time I build open-source software, play fighting games, and make movies.
I offer experise in the following areas:
With traditional app development, there are two main phases: design and development.
First, the designer creates mockups—a series of pictures of what the app will look like. Then the developer translates those pictures into actual code. This duplicates the work of the designer, costing you time and money. Often the designer lacks technical knowledge. At best, this makes the developer’s job harder. At worst this means design revisions. Either way it means more time and more money.
There’s a better way. As a hybrid designer–developer, I don’t do mockups—only functional prototypes. That way you can feel what the product will be like, rather than just imagine it. And with fewer cooks in the kitchen, you get to launch and iterate faster.
50% of the world’s population isn’t online yet1, but they soon will be. As this happens, they will largely arrive by way of mobile, not desktop. And not on the iPhone 11, either—more like the iPhone from 2011. This means sites and apps designed for Westerners with the latest tech will break for the rest of the world.
I believe the Internet should be for everyone. I keep accessibility, performance, and user friendliness top-of-mind at every stage of development. This helps your product reach the broadest possible audience. It’s not just good karma, it’s good business.
Just because you’re moving fast doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice quality. Today’s MVP is tomorrow’s legacy codebase. Left unpaid, technical debt manifests as bottlenecks. New features start to break old ones. The app slows to a crawl, increasing bounce rate and costing you sales. Current employees get pulled away from product work to help onboard new employees.
Contracting with hughx is an insurance policy against code rot. Modular functions, unit tests, and detailed documentation all come standard. If your customers don’t thank you, your dev team will.
You’ll get a list of actionable feedback from me on ways to improve your app or site. For an additional fee I’ll send you a screencast of me using your product with real-time commentary. (Fee waived if you give me permission to use the video for marketing purposes.)
I’ll work hands-on with your team to improve your app or site, one week at a time. Add a new feature, fix bugs, give your UI a facelift, improve your process… If it can be done in a week, we’ll make it happen.
I currently maintain the following software products:
