Hi, I'm Zach Smith.

Empathy and humility

It's about the user.

I believe we should strive to meet our users where they are and minimize assumptions we make about them. The world is full of unique people and you don't always know who will be accessing your site, let alone how or when they do. I build sites with semantic HTML and follow accessibility best practices as often as I can, to make the web an inclusive space. I also have experience internationalizing and localizing large web sites so users can feel more at home.

Always learning

Best practices are a moving target.

Technology moves quickly on the web and I love learning new things. The chance to use a new technique or learn a new approach excites me, and I always try to do things the best way that I can. I'm not afraid to say I don't know something and I'll dive into learning it when I can.

Flexible and adaptable

Things change. Requirements, projects, scope, design, even implementation — and I like changing with them. I'm agile and more than willing to adapt to the needs of the project and team.

Deliver value

I believe in first making a solution work, then making it right, then making it fast. This lets me quickly learn if an approach is viable before investing too much time into optimizing it.

I prioritize substance over flash as much as I can. I view it as an obligation to my users to be responsible with their privacy and their resources, such as their bandwidth and CPU. Not every user has a powerful device or a strong connection. I strive for the balance between visual aesthetics and lively animations and delivering a minimally obstrusive experience. I love it when there is a solution that adheres to the design's intentions but in an efficient way.