UI Development
Over 10 yrs of experience developing in front-end frameworks such as React, Angular, and Vue.
About Me
Hi! My name is Luis Silva. I am a Software Engineer with over 15 years of front-end development and design experience, specifically in Single Page Application design & development using React, Angular, or Vue. I discovered I had an interest and talent for graphic design long before I wrote my first line of code. By the time I started developing web code, I realized I was always fascinated with the product presentation. And so, I began to fine-tune my skills in UI and UX development alike.
After many years of research, seminars, trial-and-error, and admittedly, many mistakes, I was able to come to the results that I still employ today and have proven very successful. I am a firm believer that a true front-end developer should be well-versed in design and development and not sway heavily into one specific direction.
I am framework-agnostic. Although I do have my favorites, I try my best to not limit myself to one framework. If I am currently working in Angular, it doesn't mean I can't dive right back into React. I just need a day or two to rewire my brain, and I am back in action. Being able to cycle through frameworks is what makes you a great developer. You can't afford to learn them by memory. You have to learn them conceptually.
Fast-forward to today, and I feel I have invested my professional time wisely. I can manage an application from a simple thought or idea to paper and wireframes to beautiful responsive designs, to flawless front-end functionality and API communication. But, I am not stopping here. I love my profession, and I continue to grow every day.
Skills Set
My goal is to be able to understand and master front-end design and development from end-to-end. I want to be able to decipher the needs and requirements and wireframe them into visual representations that can be analyzed and broken down further. I want to be able to do this by also having an understanding of what it will take to be coded and how much of an effort it will consume. Furthermore, I want to be able to bring to life my designs with easy to read, bug-free, and maintainable code.
I believe this is what a senior level Front-End Engineer should be able to do. I do not believe that UI development and UX design have to be separate concerns. Another benefit of this is the ability to produce high-fidelity designs by knowing that whatever you put in front of your project manager for approval, will be most likely developed without problems and supportive of the technology stack in place.
Naturally, I don't know every single details of every piece of technology. But I feel professionally efficient in these, and I am always expanding within them, as well as adding more to the list.
JavaScript
Next.js
Angular
React
Vue
Material-UI
TailwindCSS
Sass
Bootstrap
UIKit
Git
GitHub
Figma
Adobe XD
Sketch
Balsamiq
Jira
Slack
VS Code
WordPress
Gatsby
Most Recent Projects
Over the last 15 years I have been part of many projects of different sizes. I have been part of large-scale deployments and small organization builds. I have been a dedicated UX and UI designer. I have performed solely as a front-end developer. And I have been in end-to-end roles for front-end design and development. I have jumped in projects that were already started and needed improvements, and I have started projects from the ground up as well. I have worked in several Frameworks, some of which I had no knowledge or experience in, and quickly learned them in a matter of days. In summary, there is very little that I haven't done or seen. And even when I am off work, I am often found in my home office learning and expanding my tool belt. Don't believe me? Ask the wife!
Below, you will find a small list of some of the largest projects I have been a part of. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the data these organizations work with, a lot of their sites are not public and only available to those who are members or authorized to access them. But, for your convenience, I took the liberty to grab a screenshot and add it here. I am also giving you a small summary of each project to help you understand their background and what was expected of me. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Most Recent Tutorials
One of my old college professors once said to me "You know that you know something, when you can teach it to someone who knows nothing about it". That always stuck to me. This is one of the reasons I am a YouTube educator. I love to help and share my knowledge, but I also want to prove myself that I know my craft. And the best way to know that is to see if I can, conceptually, break it down to explain it to someone else.
Below, are my most current tutorials. Although I am not always as available as I would like to be to create content frequently, I do make an effort to add new tutorials as often as I can. For a more complete list of my tutorials, head over to my channel or look further in the tutorials page.