Richard Mather

Saving the world from bad websites, one line of code at a time.

About me

“Somewhere between design — a world of personas, pixels, and polish — and engineering — a world of logic, loops, and linux — lies frontend design. Frontend design involves creating the HTML, CSS, and presentational JavaScript code that makes up a user interface.” [https://lnkd.in/eB3tWAA] This is my space.

I'm a creative User Interface / Front End Developer. I pride myself in creating standards compliant and scalable HTML and CSS websites and apps. I have over 10 years of digital agency and client side experience in both permanent and contract roles.

My experience comes from the UX and design side of Front End Development. I work alongside Javascript developers who focus on the software functionality and programming, while I provide the semantic, scalable and accessible HTML and CSS user interface that brings a design to life.

I'm equally comfortable working within a React or Angular codebase as I am in Java, .NET and PHP.

HTML

CSS

Bootstrap

Accessibility

Javascript

React / Angular / Vue

Skills

HTML5

I wrote my first HTML in 2003 and never looked back. I pride myself on writing unbloated, semantic and standards compliant HTML with scalability in mind. HTML is the foundation of the web - if the raw HTML doesn't make sense then the rest of the build is an uphill battle.

CSS3 / SASS / LESS

I've been infatuated with CSS since I first saw a website using { position: fixed }. I figured out how to inspect the code and recreate the effect, and what a long strange trip it's been since then. My enthusiasm is always finding new gears and I live for fighting crimes against specificity. Cross-browser compatibility and responsive layouts are a speciality.

Accessibility

Nothing irks me more than a website that doesn't cater for common accessbility concerns. Something as simple as logical tabindex order is too often neglected, and I regularly badger designers for style guidance on :focus states. Coding for accessibility should not be regarded as doing something extra - it's doing your job.

Javascript

My first real contact with Javascript came via jQuery 1.3 for user interactions and progressive visual enhancements. I've used Javascript to compute layout calculations, although these will soon be usurped by advancements in CSS such as flex and grid. I'm now expanding my vanilla JS knowledge and experience on every new project.

Angular

The bulk of my Angular experience centers around 1.2.24 / 1.3. I'm very comfortable working within a Angular application codebase to create new templates and components. Angular is an area where I'm looking for more projects.

React

My first exposure to React really got me excited. Creating components this way was something like a holy grail to me. I've always got a React tutorial tab open in my browser and I'm interested in more React projects going forward.

Recommendations

I'm very pleased to recommend Richard both as front end developer and as a professional. Richard was part of my team at Rightmove, he worked tirelessly to tight design specifications, wrote quality code and never missed a deadline. Rightmove is 'lucky' to have so many talented and skilled developers and they all agreed Richard was one of them.

Patrizio S.

User Experience & Design Team Leader, Rightmove
Developers don't come much better than Mr Mather, honestly, they don't! So you're asking why? Because Richard's 'Can do' attitude is shockingly addictive, to the point where I'd often finding my myself questioning whether I could design better interactions with new UI patterns, the answer was usually yes. Richard is a great team member, with a ton of energy, empathy, intelligence and above all humour (that goes along way when dealing with indecisive customers and ego driven team members) I'd highly recommend Richard for the challenging, the mundane - for all weather development, where 'Above and beyond' will be delivered to your hearts delight!

Kofi Brenya

Interaction and Visual Design, Keytree
I've worked with and managed Richard for a number of years at both SixandCo and The BIO Agency and would love to work with him again. He's a great guy to have on your team, a warm and collaborative fella that plays well with others, especially when the going gets tough! Above all, Richard is a dedicated professional with a stellar work ethic and a real passion for development. Not only is he a robust coder but he is able to add that touch of creativity that makes user interfaces feel engaging, a talent that few developers possess.

Lloyd Tuckey

Head of Technology, The BIO Agency
Richard is an outstandingly talented Front End Developer. I have worked with Richard for four years at Keytree, collaborating on several projects. Richard has the ability to effortlessly transform a UX wireframe or PSD concept into a front end UI using the very latest HTML5/CSS3 and JS combined with a perfectionist mentality to only output best-practice, web standards compliant, fully-formed semantic code. Richard is a great problem-solver and loves a logic challenge. One of the Keytree internal projects was a refresh of a Wordpress site. Richard solved that one by building his own Wordpress theme from the ground up. He also loves electric guitars and has a fine 7-string Ibanez - which he has of course upgraded with new "filthy" pickups.

Paul Ross

Front End Developer UI/UX Designer, Keytree
It's always great to have Richard in the team because he has a good understanding of the creative process and, because of his great nature, he always get on well with the other team members even during difficult situations. He's always suggesting new ideas and he promote his tech knowledge to help creative and UX thinking in another ways and exploring new ways of translating the requirements into a real solutions. He never says no and he's always able to find the best solutions to create something that works online and that meets both creative and business requirements.

Roberta Ganzetti

User Experience Architect, SixandCo
I was working closely together with Richard for over a year at SixandCo. Throughout this time, he was reliable at all times in performing tasks in a speedy, dedicated manner, while never losing the eye for details and delivering to highest standards. He communicated complex technical issues in a very understandable way and remained patient and calm in times of pressure. On a personal level, he is always helpful, easy going and a great pleasure to be around. He will be a great asset to any team.I would recommend Richard without hesitation.

Anna Pinckernelle

Account Manager, SixandCo
Richard is a very talented and challenge driven web developer. He has built complex platforms at the highest standards and shown an incredible commitment throughout the projects, making his contribution regularly a key factor of success. He has a true team spirit and is really a pleasure to work with. I'll fully endorse him.

Julien Lescure

Director, SixandCo
Richard is an absolute professional, knows his stuff and delivers the goods in an extremely efficient manner. In addition to his expert knowledge and attention to detail, he is approachable, friendly and became part of the team very quickly being very flexible to the demanding situations that crossed his path whilst at other. I must admit that I am somewhat hesitant to recommend Richard as I don't want to make his expertise public knowledge as he will be harder to book going forward when I need him!!

Aya Ito

Digital Project Manager, Other Creative Ltd
Richard is a genuinely lovely guy, who works well with people from all different departments. He is thorough and passionate about digital. He understands the creative process and has always shown a great deal of respect and integrity in translating the creative idea into something that actually works online. He's calm, hardworking and would be a valuable addition to any agency.

Cara Howard

Associate Creative Director, SixandCo

10
Years

20
Companies

50
Clients

Projects

Here's a pick of my most relevant work.

Severn Trent

HTML & CSS templates, AEM

Cadent Gas

Lead Kentico CMS developer

National Grid split its gas and electricity provision into two companies. Cadent Gas is the newly introduced gas distribution brand.

The team provided the end-to-end strategy for this new digital presence, right down to the selection of the CMS (Kentico), information architecture and content strategy.

Despite having no previous experience with Kentico, I took the reigns and led the project, learning something new about developing a site with Kentico every sprint. I often put in extra hours to refactor when I'd figured out a better practice solution.

Each time I had learned a new feature, I would jump on a screen-share call with my colleague. Through pair programming I would knowledge share and teach how Kentico worked.

We worked alongside Cadent's large editorial team and provided a level of simplicity in user experience, achieved through an accessible, engaging, minimal design – giving Cadent an entirely flexible configuration that can grow with the new brand.

Skills:

Kentico CMS
HTML
CSS
Bootstrap
Responsive
Javascript
Gather Content

Visit website

Rightmove

Developed a custom Bootstrap

Wordpress

Bespoke theme and marketing sites

Matrix Booking

Overhauled Front End codebase

Matrix Booking provides real-time information about resources available at any time in any location and is the only true, mobile-first Software as a Service (SaaS) room booking system.

When I joined the project the codebase was a delightful cocktail of the Bootstrap and Foundation frameworks, peppered with some edited core Bootstrap CSS. I painstakingly unpicked the code and extracted all the Foundation references in the markup and refactored to use pure Bootstrap, and then used Bower and NPM to include the Bootstrap SASS component and separate all the custom CSS into logical SASS files.

Much of the development was undertaken without any fresh UX or design, so I had to use and improve on existing examples throughout the application as a style guide.

Greenfield work on the product came in the form of building a fully responsive and scalable HTML & CSS tablet app for installation on tablets outside meeting rooms. This was then ported to Android via Phonegap.

We also built an Office365 plugin, which involved the use of TypeScript

After a third-party accessibility audit was conducted, I rectified a number of legacy issues on the desktop app that were mostly refactoring instances of "ng-click" on HTML elements that are not naturally clickable, and introducing :focus states so the application could be navigated properly with a keyboard.