Wray Bowling

Principles

I like making things that are interactive, respond instantaneously, and communicate ideas elegantly. I’m big on small files that do a lot, banishing unnecessary stateful UX, documentation as I go, and recyclable object-oriented structures. When I’m not programming for work, I do it for fun, and when I’m not designing things for work I do it for fun. I’m seeking a position that is looking for someone who has a passion for bridging the gap or even managing it.

Key Skills

  • User Experience Research
    • Data Modeling
    • Wireframing
    • Usability Interviews
    • Creating custom data retrieval and analysis solutions
  • Interactive Design
    • gut checks
    • Rapid Prototyping
    • Job stories
    • Eye tracking
  • Front-End Web Development
    • creating custom frameworks
    • complex responsive layouts on grid and off
    • minimalist semantic markup for accessibility and SEO
  • Back-End Web Development
    • Prerendering HTML with lightweight workflows
    • Custom content management systems
    • Microservices and Functions for AWS or Firebase
    • Using Apollo Server to unify multiple API endpoints

Technologies & Teachings

  • UX
  • Web Technologies
    • JavaScript
      • Node.js
      • Babel
      • Webpack
      • Netlify
      • Vue
      • Apollo
    • SVG
    • CSS Grid
  • Databases
    • MySQL
    • ArangoDB
    • MongoDB
    • Neo4j
    • Airtable
    • GraphCMS
  • APIs
    • GraphQL
    • MapboxGL
  • Computer Graphics
    • Blender
    • OpenFrameworks
  • Hardware
    • Arduino
    • Raspberry Pi
  • Automation & Scripting
    • Python
  • Operating Systems
    • Debian
    • MacOS

Work Experience

Founder, Product Designer, Electronics Engineer, Sep 2018 - present / Swamp Flux (Lexington, SC)

  • Starting my own small business designing electronic musical instruments compatible with Eurorack and Buchla modular synthesizers.
  • Showcased at Superbooth 2023, Berlin

Software Development Engineer IISoftware Development Engineer II, Mar 2022 - Oct 2023 / Kaseya (Columbia, SC)

  • Refactoring application code to use React 17 with hooks
  • Initiated an iterative migration from Redux to React Query
  • Grew into a design advocate role, becoming a part of weekly web design discussions, and organizing the company's front-end developers to stay in sync

User Experience & Front-End Web Developer Aug 2015 - Aug 2018 / Richland Library (Columbia, SC)

  • Richland Library is a nationally acclaimed, South Carolina State run, public library.
  • Designed and styled buildingyourlibrary.com to showcase the renovation of 12+ physical locations.
  • Deployed a digital wayfinding kiosk using a Vue, Vuex, and Mapbox frontend, and Node backend on Google Firebase
  • Learned to love: Node.js, Webpack, Babel, Vue, Graph Databases, Card Sorts, Eye Tracking, GraphQL, Airtable, working with a large content team, and of course public libraries as a whole

Designer & Developer Sep 2013 - Jul 2015 / Caktus Consulting Group (Carrboro, NC)

  • Caktus is a Django development shop that has an affinity for humanitarian clients.
  • Designed and made art for a gamified medication adherence app targeted at youths with HIV.
  • Provided UX to Mozilla for their Mozillians.org phonebook and wrote JS/CSS.
  • Obtains skills in building interactive and animated mockups, user testing under strict privacy restrictions, code linting, progressive web applications, local storage, jinja2 templates, contributing to a git repository with heavy activity.

Designer Sep 2011 - Sep 2012 / Avelist (Raleigh, NC)

  • Avelist.com was a startup offered list-making and sharing as an online service.
  • Lead the design process with the team’s developers and owner.
  • Created a design brief with iterations, and translated layouts into markup for templates.
  • Obtained skills using UX playbooks, Mercurial, test-driven development, touch events, and hallway usability testing

Front-End Developer / Neogence (Raleigh, NC)

  • Developed a custom CSS framework to meet complex layout demands
  • Lead the team through a redesign after investors expressed dissatisfaction with the start-up's original product. The new product aggregated social media posts by geolocation.
  • Obtained skills in jQuery UI, mobile app development, scrum & agile workflows, project management
  • Why I left: I was only willing to work without pay for 1 month.

Developer & Designer Jan 2010 - June 2013 / Intuvoe (Raleigh, NC)

  • Intuvoe was a contract webdev shop focused on e-learning.
  • Built courses for clients and improved the company’s workflow by building in-house scripts.
  • Built full web sites and fixed existing sites for clients using various technology stacks.
  • Obtained skills using SVN, Drupal, CodeIgniter, Flash, git, Python, Web Inspectors, regular expressions, vim, working with various types of clients (university, startup, personal connections, commission, & otherwise)

Education

University of North Carolina Asheville Fall 2006 - Spring 2009

Degree: Interactive Multimedia Arts & Sciences (BA) Focuses: Interactive Design / Realtime Graphics / Actionscript 3 / AJAX / Print Design

Wake Technical Community College Fall 2003 - Spring 2005

Focuses: C++ / Physics / Math / Writing / Public Speaking / Music Theory