Ben Grout developer
- bengrout@me.com
- phone
- 07545 887986
- download
I am an excellent web developer with over four years of commercial experience. The past three years have been spent in an agency environment working on a number of projects on a wide variety of technologies.
2011 – Present
Front End Developer at Madgex
2008 – 2011
Developer at 3rd Eye Vision
During my time at 3rd Eye Vision I have been responsible for leading development on a number of projects with a particular focus on high quality front-end output.
My day to day work varies from turning Photoshop designs into HTML, developing re-usable code for our PHP libraries, writing jQuery plugins and designing database structures. I work as part of a team on collaborative projects but operate just as effectively on my own.
Recent projects have included:
www.thechemicalbrothers.com – Social media rich website built with Ruby on Rails and jQuery. The front-end of the website uses jQuery templates and consumes the backend Rails app as an API. All pages load over AJAX to allow for uninterrupted playback of audio and video. The site is integrated with a number of third parties for a variety of functions including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and Brightcove. My role on this project was lead developer working in a small team. The website is a shortlisted nominee for the BT Digital Music Awards 20111.
Twining’s in-store iPad app – A webkit based app for Twinings designed to run in their retail stores and built with Ruby on Rails and jQuery. This app follows a similar architecture to www.thechemicalbrothers.com: consuming our own API built on top of a Magento ecommerce store to render jQuery templates. A very smooth and fast user experience was achieved by using CSS3 transitions and transforms instead of the usual jQuery animations. My role on this project was again as lead developer.
www.simplychateau.com, www.statelyescapes.co.uk and www.simplycaribe.com – A series of luxury holiday websites built with Zend Framework and Typo3. Several technical challenges were overcome including: building a complex but high performance search system with Sphinx; developing a template system to allow for rapid rollout of subsequent sister sites.
2007 – 2008
Developer at Complete Minilab Services / Veritek Global
My main duties at CMS involved designing and developing new features for a service management tool according to business needs as well as debugging and testing existing code. Other projects included designing and developing a bespoke corporate Intranet and re-developing a mobile web application with a strong focus on user experience. I introduced many initiatives such as a comprehensive testing program, use of version control and strict adherence of W3C standards in front-end code.
technical skills
- Cross-browser compatible HTML and CSS to W3C standards including HTML5 and CSS3 for a range of devices.
- Web application development with PHP 5 and Ruby and web application frameworks including Zend Framework and Ruby on Rails.
- Database technologies such as MySQL and MS SQL Server.
- Javascript and Javascript frameworks, notably jQuery.
- Version control with Git and Subversion.
- Knowledge of CSS grid systems such as 960.gs.
- Experience with content management systems, particularly Typo3 and Wordpress and ecommerce with Magento.
- Search technology including Sphinx, Lucene and Google Search Appliance.
education
- 2004 – 2007: University of Plymouth
- Internet Technology & Applications BSc
Awarded prize for best final year project. - 2001 – 2003: Sussex Downs College
- Computing AVCE
- 1996 – 2001: Cavendish School, Eastbourne
- 10 A – C grade GCSEs
personal
When not making websites or experimenting with computers I can be found reading trashy science fiction, participating in pub quizzes or riding my bike around town.
I also enjoy playing video games, amassing gadgets and binging on DVD box-sets.
My personal code repositories can be found at github.com/3evben
References available upon request.