A bit about myself

I'm Julie Ragsdale, and I'm passionate about solving problems through design. My job title at the moment is rather open-ended since I'm both a web developer and UX/UI designer for my team. While I can work a full stack, my strengths lie in design and front end development. I often see products end-to-end, but the design process is what truly gives me life.

I'm eager to learn new technology and approaches to design, and I exist in a state of continual improvement. This permeates all aspects of my life, but everything comes back to design. In my spare time outside of the code editor, I like to make things. That's vague, isn't it? I'll elaborate. I've been painting with acrylic for the past 14+ years and have more recently gotten into watercolors, oils, and digital art. I make macrame plant hangers and cement planters. I cast resin and sculpt polymer clay charms for keychains and lapel pins. Nearly all of my hobbies are related to creating delightful and functional designs.

This thoughtfulness and thoroughness translates into my work as a web developer. I actually studied plant sciences in college and have a Master of Science in biology. Why is this relevant— apart from keeping the office foliage alive? I'm trained in the scientific method and use that to approach design. Devising experiments, pouring over literature, and conducting research was a huge part of my life for several years. User experience is everything on the web. Without the user, why should we build anything at all? Without the user, who are we communicating to, and what are we even trying to convey?

Figma, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, React, Node.js, Express, Bootstrap, MySQL, PHP