31st December 2015
Led the team getting GOV.UK ready for the 2015 general election. Got a new job working for Deliveroo. Spoke at Pivotal Lunch & Learns, Devoxx, State of the Browser and Epic Front End London. Attended TXJS, and was surprised to appear on stage, twice. Competed in 8 cycling hill climbs, up a variety of excruciating hills.
2015 was also by far the most stressful, challenging and emotionally torturous year of my life so far, both personally and professionally. It pushed me to breaking point and then kept pushing. It forced me to grow more than I could have predicted, and hopefully left me a better person at the end. At points I felt like I was just trying to survive this year, trying to get to the end still alive.
I’m so very grateful for my friends who’ve been there for me this year, who provided me the support and advice I often required. My year’s set to end better than I imagined possible just a few months ago. I’m happy to be looking forward to 2016, who knows where it’s going to take me!
…read the rest of this entry.
1st July 2015
Google Analytics is widely used to gather information about how users interact with websites. As a developer, designer or product owner it’s really useful to use the information it collects to inform decisions. However, I often find that the Google Analytics interface can get in the way of getting the right data out quickly.
…read the rest of this entry.
15th December 2014
A lot has been written and said about diversity within the technology sector, one thing that everyone is fairly sure of is that there is a problem. Two weeks ago I asked on twitter:
Does anyone know of any charities working on things that will help with improving diversity in tech?
…read the rest of this entry.
11th December 2014
When trying to develop a site with a consistent look and feel it’s common to develop a style guide with patterns which can be reused across the site. This lets designers easily reuse standard patterns and lets developers know how to make things look.
…continue reading on the Technology at GDS Blog.
22nd October 2014
A year an a half ago I got early access to the then unreleased Google Analytics real time API. I knew that I wanted to use it to make a visualisation to display the data it provided around our office. Something to remind people that there are real people out there interacting with the site we are building, who have real user needs they want solving.
…read the rest of this entry.
16th October 2014
We have a grid we use on GOV.UK which is based on percentage width columns (multiples of either 25% or 33% of the container width) with a 30px gutter between the grid columns. The columns on narrower devices shrink appropriately as the container gets smaller and eventually go to a single column on narrow devices.
…continue reading on the Technology at GDS Blog.
17th September 2014
On 7th September 2014 I cycled the 220 miles from Manchester to London to raise money for Ambitious about Autism. This was by far the longest ride I had ever embarked on, and one which was going to test me to my limits.
…read the rest of this entry.
16th September 2014
A couple of months ago I was called out for a word I picked to describe a situation. It was a common word in my vocabulary and I thought nothing of using it. I wasn’t called out because this word was rude but because of the unintended consequences of it’s use.
…read the rest of this entry.