I am in an awesome situation where my life feels like an MMO and work feels like my guild chat

Designing and Building a Scalable Marketing Experience

Translating a service-based business into a clear, high-performing digital product
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Role: Product-Focused Engineer (UX + Front-End)
Timeline: 2 weeks
Tools: Figma, React/Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind

Overview:

My client needed a marketing website that clearly communicated their services and positioned the company as a modern, credible technology partner. I led the end-to-end design and development, translating business goals into a structured, user-centered digital experience.

🟢 PROBLEM

The existing experience lacked clarity in messaging, structure, and visual hierarchy. Users could not quickly understand what the company offered, who it served, or how to take action. The challenge was to transform a service-based business into a clear, structured digital experience that supports user understanding and engagement.

🟢 GOALS

• Clearly communicate services and value proposition
• Improve information hierarchy and navigation
• Create a cohesive visual system aligned with the brand
• Guide users toward key actions (contact, inquiry)
• Build a scalable foundation for future growth

🟢 MY ROLE

I owned both design and implementation:

• Defined user flows and site structure
• Designed wireframes and high-fidelity UI in Figma
• Established visual hierarchy and layout system
• Built the production website using modern front-end technologies
• Iterated based on feedback and evolving requirements

🟢 PROCESS

Defining Structure & User Flow

Before designing visuals, I focused on structuring the experience.

• Identified key user questions:
• What does this company do?
• Who is it for?
• Why should I trust it?
• Organized content into clear sections:
• Services
• About
• Contact / CTA
• Designed a user flow that quickly answers these questions within the first scroll

Designing for Clarity & Hierarchy

• Created clear visual hierarchy using typography, spacing, and layout
• Prioritized scannability to reduce cognitive load
• Designed consistent section patterns to guide users through the page
• Balanced branding with usability to ensure information is easily digestible

Building the Product

• Translated designs into a responsive, production-ready website
• Built reusable components for scalability and consistency
• Ensured performance, accessibility, and responsiveness across devices

Iteration & Refinement

• Refined layout and content based on stakeholder feedback
• Adjusted spacing, hierarchy, and flow to improve clarity
• Continuously balanced business needs with user experience

🟢 KEY PRODUCT DECISIONS

1. Prioritizing clarity over density
I reduced content overload and focused on communicating core services quickly, ensuring users could understand the offering within seconds.

2. Structuring for first-impression impact
The top section was designed to immediately answer what the company does and why it matters, reducing bounce risk.

3. Designing for scalability
I built reusable layout patterns and components so the site can expand without losing consistency.

🟢 OUTCOME

• Delivered a cohesive, modern marketing experience aligned with brand goals and modern design practices
• Improved clarity of services and user understanding
• Established a scalable design and dev document with a front-end foundation for future growth
• Enabled the business to present itself more professionally and effectively online

🟢 REFLECTION

This project reinforced the importance of structuring information before focusing on visuals. By approaching the website as a product rather than a static page, I was able to create an experience that balances business goals, user needs, and scalability.

Keeping up with a lot of classes and two jobs is great until all your group mates have less general workload and put more time into the project than you and you end up feeling the laziest and less useful everywhere

Oh, I also just want to put it out there that if anyone who sees this post is stuck on debugging some problem on their Linux system, I am historically pretty handy at solving such problems and you are welcome to message me if you need any personalized help.

high and highest priority bug reports: *exist*

my developers: hey so there’s this low priority bug report from 2022 that fell between the couch cushions, can we get a tester to check if it still does that

(it does not still does that - as the developer might know if they ever checked anything without using an admin account)

(no, seriously, they broke our test environment yesterday afternoon pushing a change that stopped all functional processes unless you were an administrator)

no, you have to stop testing using your admin account.

No, really, you need to stop checking bug reports with your admin account.

No! Really! Actually really! Stop using your admin account! To check the bug!

STOP TESTING YOUR BUGS WITH ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES!

We announce the user permissions associated with a bug report! For EVERY bug report! fucking USE IT

oh huh wow this works exactly as designed can you retest? Can you turn off GOD MODE REAL QUICK AND TRY THAT AGAIN?

remembering not to out myself at work (as a software dev) by stopping myself from putting in fictional character names as test users (someone looks up who luo binghe is and i’m COOKED)

developers trying and reiterating that i’ve tested wrong when the same test works in lower environments

developers trying and reiterating that i should retest differently instead of actually trying to test it themselves

developers that have never, ever followed steps to reproduce bugs because it’s easier to assume it’s not a problem, blame me for doing it wrong, or insisting it’s a data issue, or ask me to do it again

and when it’s a data issue, it’s Somebody Else’s Problem and it’s Not Related to the issue and So We Can Close The Defect? And Also Please Close Your Other Tasks Because We Don’t See You As Capable Enough To Do Your Own Housekeeping?

jesus fuck if you spent as much time looking at my goddamned bug reports as you did crawling up my ass about my tasks, we wouldn’t be having these conversations!

Bell Notes 🛎️ 📝

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I get it, I know why, but it’s so, so stupid. Yes, technically, from a architectural level, an array variable is a pointer to the array. Yes, that’s true, because an “array” is an abstraction of a pointer that can seek over multiple memory locations. Like cool I get it. At the same time, however, if you are not a low level programming language, why the FUCK would I want to have something like:

var myArray = [0, 1, 2, 3]
var newArray = myArray

Be such that changing newArray changes myArray too. I get why it does it. Because I’m just making newArray equal to the myArray pointer, but that’s not anyone’s intention or desire. Who out here is going “Yes I’d like to set the pointer to some other variable so that it works the same in as if I just had the original variable”.

Also, I can draw cards from my deck now and I drew one (1) card art

Again, you can steal this, but why.

github will say you should choose a descriptive name for your project and then suggest shit like “purple-earthquake”

macros v1

https://github.com/JaidonLalor/macros/tree/main

Single day challenge - next iteration from my php cli util.

in software development we call introducing new things to the code a “rollout” because software dev is a sisyphean task

The new manager wanted to see my GitHub contribution history so I showed him. He was shocked, wondering why it was so low considering my experience. He said he had like 3 times the amount of commits.

I was so confused at first because how could he have a history 3 times that when he just joined the company.

Then I saw him advising some new people to use their personal GitHub accounts and ask for access to the company’s repos and then I understood.

I honestly didn’t know people were using their personal accounts to connect to company resources. I usually just create a new account every job I get. Not all of my jobs used GitHub either so honestly even if I had been using my personal account the whole time it wouldn’t have mattered much in terms of history.

It hasn’t really mattered in the long scheme of things–I’ve never been in an interview where someone has brought up my account history. However, maybe in the future I will use my personal account just for kicks.

The most boring meetings ever are people debating Firefox versions.

When prod breaks 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

New Blog!

Hello. I created this blog because I was listening to a programming podcast and the guy talking said it was really good to keep a blog of what issues you’ve come across. I figured I’d go through my old journals and start documenting weird issues I’ve come across and how to fix them. In addition, I’ll probably just be typing up anything about programming I think might be interesting or important to the future. Either for myself or others. I know tumblr isn’t normally the place for this sort of thing, but it’s what I already use. Feel free to ask me questions about anything I post.

Hey you. New grad SWE. Breath. Unclench your jaw. Take a 15 minute break. No, the last few minutes you spent on your phone avoiding a task does not count. I mean go outside if you can, and breath. And don’t start counting those minutes until you’re outside either.

Think about the last chat you had with your manager. Did they seem upset with your progress or your speed?

If you answered no, then good. Take the breather. You’re here, you’re hired, you’ve done it. You have a lifetime to get to where you want to be.

If you answered yes, think harder. Did they say, “you aren’t writing code fast enough?” Or did they maybe ask, “how can we unblock you?” That’s a normal question. Projects slip. For everyone, everywhere.

Are you stuck, and stressed? Ask questions. Never *stop* asking questions. Ask them till you’re dead in the ground. I don’t care if someone already explained it to you. It’s okay. I’ve explained the same thing 5 times to a coworker, and I’ll happily explain another 100. Ive asked the same question 200 times, and maybe on 201 will stick!

You’ve got this, and I’m proud of you. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

Ran across this a while back and it’s become a meme in my group chat. Are you a left programmer or a right programmer?

I’ve decided I’m a secret third thing: depressed programmer.