Green Web Developer – Bence Szalai

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My name is Bence and I’m responsible for the proper execution of the challenging technical aspects of our projects.

Am I a web-developer?

Some may argue that web development is not really programming.

Sure, making a website may not require programming skills. However the kind of websites we like to make do require it. Why is that?

• Because the standard structure like pages, blog posts, images is rarely enough. Everyone has some special aspects to manage and shovelling all of these into pages upon pages won’t cut it when it comes to efficiently managing that content and providing well defined uniform presentation across a website. When these things come up, programming is required.
  We would not develop a CMS from scratch, as that would be reinventing the wheel. However we look at any CMS we work with as a foundation to build upon. Sure, the most common things are there, but there are always custom aspects that need to be tailor made for the needs of the project. One must not fear to dig deep and customise behaviour of the systems which are only there to give a basis to build upon. I am confident to look into the deepest details to find the right solutions, also sometimes I find issues in the base systems as well.
• Because downloading 35 plugins and calling it a day will result in a site full of compatibility and security issues as well as slow performance, inconsistent UX on the admin and many times on the public side as well. It’ll waste resources by processing thousands of lines of unnecessary code and offering hundreds of unneeded functions so that it can solve one issue we began with while giving us 5 more we are not yet aware of. And the maintenance? It’ll be a nightmare.
  Again, we don’t advocate developing everything from scratch. We know a bunch of great plugins that fulfil some very specific needs in excellent quality and have a track record of being maintained and reliable for years. Fair game. But when the customer has a specific requirement, it is often not generic enough to be solved with some off-the-shelf module. Attempting so will almost always bring questionable results and a lot of compromises.
• Because grabbing a site builder and making a website like a Powerpoint presentation may give aesthetically pleasing results and a “quick-win” feeling for the designer, however these systems are usually closed, meaning the first time the customer would have a custom requirement or own idea it will be met with a negotiation forced upon them where they have to abandon the idea of what they wanted originally for something that is possible within the platform’s boundaries.
  Having a well curated set of defaults in terms of features and functionalities is a great way to jumpstart a project and can help the customer to efficiently compile a list of their core requirements. However once it is in place, it can be guaranteed that more ideas will come up. The big question is what happens when the ideas start to flow? Are they met with a sea of possibilities where a competent developer can help to navigate, or are they met with a narrow passage of possibilities and no help as there are no options to change the way the system behaves.

My background

I’ve been programming since my childhood, and at times it may look like my brain is even just a software crunching data. Sometimes it is a bit low on memory too. But I know how things should work and I know how to achieve it. I enjoy understanding complexity and designing comprehensive solutions. My brain likes to do it too.

I have extensive experience working with large organisations as well as small businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa especially in discovery and due diligence related to technical projects let them be in the phase of pre-sales evaluation, proof-of-concept, the actual delivery or monitoring and upgrades.

I choose to work as a freelancer because I am more interested in design and technical excellence than office politics and corporate jargon.

I do not only develop websites, but applications and software services too, but most of my projects utilise web related technologies anyway. I am confident to work in a good few languages and systems and the web only requires one particular constellation of these skills. However over time I have become proficient in making sites fast and efficient, and this is something I take time to research and practice continuously as we deliver websites.

How can I help you?

• My questions often help clients better understand their own needs, properly phrase their goals and turn those into requirements. This helps a lot to lead the discovery of customer needs and formulate them in a way that clarifies the understanding of stakeholders and provide a well defined scope for the project at hand.
• I am quick to generate ideas and to identify possible causes, outcomes, risks, and requirements in a variety of fields. I can also raise attention to possible unwanted future issues with a focus fixed on prevention, mitigation and solution.
• I’m passionate about improving things while my attention naturally flows towards abstraction so I can help you to choose the optimal solutions.
• I’m keen to set clear expectations and address possible misinterpretations of deliverables or conditions in due time. I am also willing to bring bad news to the table as well, if that’s needed to avoid misinvestment and to protect the stakeholders’ longer term interest. 
• I have a strong process perspective accompanied with high sensitivity to structure, level of details and adequateness of the information at hand. This usually leads to improvements being introduced to the work-streams I’m involved with in areas of process formalisation, information completeness, documentation clarity, and overall consistency of the way organisations approach their business.

My role

If you order a web design audit or a new website from Coconut design, I’ll take the heavy lifting when it comes to diving deep into the technicalities as well as I will jump in the process when the requirements and solutions need to be laid down for you.

In other words I’m responsible for the technical aspects of our projects and to make sure you will get a reliable, maintainable, efficient and secure solution that is state-of-the-art and is in accordance with the industry best practices and relevant standards.