In this edition of "A Day in the Life at Catalyst" we meet David Malone, Creative Developer.
What does your role involve?
I am a creative developer and I work in the content management system team (CMS) at Catalyst. My role involves building large government and commercial websites coding in Silverstripe combined with front-end technologies. As well as working with designers, back-end developers, project managers, business analysts, quality assurance testers and clients.
Some of my duties include:
- Turning Invision / Figma / Zeplin designs, wireframes and user stories into functioning Silverstripe driven websites.
- Keeping up to date with current modern web coding standards and best practices.
- Ensuring our websites meet the WCAG and New Zealand Government's accessibility standards.
- Ensuring that websites look and function consistently across different web browsers.
- Developing responsive websites that look great on mobile devices and desktops with varying screen sizes.
- Working across multiple projects with virtual machines using Docker and Lando.
- Working in a team-based environment using version control systems and platforms such as (Git, Gitlab and Github).
- Handling project dependencies and updates with composer and npm.
Tell us about a recent problem you helped solve.
After noticing a trend of commonly used components and requirements across many government websites, I founded Catalyst Starter. Catalyst Starter is built with Silverstripe and is a solution for organisations to hit the ground running. With the ever-increasing government, accessibility, website requirements and tighter budgets, Catalyst Starter provides:
- more starting value for clients
- a solid foundation
- shorter development time frames
- a way for us to learn and build upon experience.
Since its inception, with the input of many talented Catalyst teams and people, it has grown into an even greater and refined solution for our clients.
What do you enjoy about working at Catalyst?
I like the teamwork approach and the company philosophy of freedom to innovate. I also like working in an industry that is both challenging and constantly changing in exciting ways. I like that we all share a combined passion for open source technology and are driven to solve tough and challenging technical problems together.
What does your typical day look like?
I usually start the day by going to an early morning Gym or Muay Thai kickboxing class before work. After checking emails and attending any morning project Standups, I begin by looking at user stories and getting stuck into project work or issues. Sometimes, I will need to split my day between multiple projects which is made easier with the right tools. Such as Docker and Lando for quickly spinning up different local development environments that can match production as closely as possible. I also check other developers' work by peer reviewing to ensure that we maintain the best code quality and help where I can.
I enjoy working at Catalyst and look forward to future challenges it brings.