About

How I Work

I believe great digital experiences happen when design and technology work together not against each other.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Accessible first. Because good accessibility is good everything.

Accessibility is a priority for me, not a cleanup task. I try to understand who actually uses a site, from a traveler on a phone to someone using a keyboard or screen reader to a staff member updating a page at the end of a long day, and build around them.

It pays off elsewhere, too. Clear structure, real headings and alt text, and fast pages are what search engines and AI-driven search (whatever we’re calling Generative Engine Optimization this month) use to understand a site. Good accessibility is good SEO.

Sometimes an older site can be coaxed into accessibility. Sometimes it’s better to start fresh. I’ll tell you which one I think it is.

Design is more than decoration.

My background in graphic design taught me to think about hierarchy, storytelling, accessibility, and how people actually experience information.

A beautiful interface is wonderful. A beautiful interface that makes sense? Even better.

Design is more than the decoration to me. Design filters into how the system works, the structure of where the content lives, and how it’s organized.

Build it right. Then build it to last.

I love solving problems, but I’d rather not solve the same problem every Tuesday.

I build things that are easy to look after and can grow with the people using them.

Because today’s clever workaround shouldn’t become tomorrow’s emergency.

The server is part of the story.

I don’t stop at the front end.

Where a site lives matters as much as how it looks. Hosting, backups, security and speed decide whether visitors stay, so I look after those too.

If something breaks, I want to understand why. If something works, I want to know how to make it better.

And if something mysteriously fixes itself, I’m definitely going to investigate.

Problem solving is a job requirement.

I am not one to review the surface of an issue and move on. I dig deep to understand the root cause and find the best solution. Each challenge is a problem to be solved.

Knowledge is meant to be shared.

Documentation, training, and thoughtful handoffs are part of the job.

I want the people using the sites and systems I build to feel confident managing them.

A successful project shouldn’t require a developer standing nearby with a magic wand. A well trained staff should be able to manage the sites and systems I build. I take pride in sharing information freely.

In practice

I back up first. Before any change that is hard to undo, I take a copy of the database and settings, and I write down where it is.
I write it all down. Every job gets a write-up: the goal, before and after numbers, what changed, what is still open, and what I got wrong.
I audit for accessibility, not just speed. Headings, alt text, contrast, keyboard paths, and focus get checked on every site I touch, and the findings go in the same write-up as everything else.
I fix things so they stay fixed. Small add-ons and settings instead of changing the theme itself, so an update doesn’t undo the work.

The Road So Far

From pixels to platforms. And everything in between.

I started in print and layout design at a young age, pasting up the yearbook and later the weekly student newspaper using PageMaker (pre InDesign days). By 18 I was a paid editor at the OakLeaves, the student paper at Manchester College (now Manchester University) in Indiana. Later I went back to school at a technical institute in Jacksonville, Florida, for web development and information technology, and graduated summa cum laude and valedictorian.

Print taught me that typography matters, deadlines are real, and sometimes the smallest details make the biggest difference.

Design soon became a part of making things look good online. Then I learned that development was just another way to use software to communicate.

Design became development. Development became accessibility. Accessibility became infrastructure. Infrastructure became security, performance, and an ever-expanding collection of interesting technical challenges.

Today I build, manage, and fix live websites. Not just the code layer either. I understand the underlying systems that keep them running. I taught myself how to code, and I taught myself command-line interface tools.

I still care deeply about how things look.

I also care deeply about what happens when nobody’s looking.

October 2025 – Present

Senior Web Developer & Systems Engineer

VistaMedia, Inc. · Contract

What I did: Senior Web Developer & Systems Engineer, VistaMedia, Inc. · Contract

I look after the technical side of about 120 WordPress websites: development, servers and hosting, security, backups, speed, accessibility, and the occasional emergency.

I also built tools that audit every site’s health and turn the findings into a to-do list.
January – October 2025

Technical Account Manager

Newspack, Automattic

What I did: Technical Account Manager, Newspack, Automattic

I helped more than 300 news publishers with the technical side of publishing: WordPress, integrations, analytics, and workflows.

Over 500 issues resolved and a 95% satisfaction rating taught me that the best technical answer is useless if nobody understands it.
2019 – January 2025

Senior Web Developer & Systems Engineer

VistaGraphics, Inc. and Vista Digital Agency (now VistaMedia, Inc.)

What I did: Senior Web Developer & Systems Engineer, VistaGraphics, Inc. and Vista Digital Agency (now VistaMedia, Inc.)

I started as a contract lead designer on the print side, then was hired onto the web team and helped build, maintain, and modernize more than 120 websites in publishing, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment.

Highlights: a WordPress network for a franchise, more than 60 accessibility-focused websites, and 85 websites moved to Google Analytics 4.

The rest was hosting, troubleshooting, and figuring out why something worked perfectly yesterday and changed its mind overnight.
2013 – 2018

Graphic Designer & Special Research

ActionPages · Remote from 2015

What I did: Graphic Designer & Special Research, ActionPages

I designed an average of 50 to 75 ads a day for local telephone directories, working with clients to get their content and approval.

I also researched and wrote the special sections: local government, schools, recycling, and activity guides.
2007 – 2016

Art Director, Production Manager, Web Developer

Dive News Network

What I did: Art Director, Production Manager, Web Developer, Dive News Network, Full time until 2013, then part-time contract until 2016

Before I was worrying about server configurations, I was worrying about the perfect font choice.

I led creative and digital work for a company with 5 regional scuba diving publications, 2 dive and travel expos, and websites with social media to match: editorial design, advertising design, branding, websites, and digital strategy. Working with industry professionals and local dive enthusiasts, tourism beaureaus from around the world, and technical divers within the industry contributed to my beginning years as a professional. I have many names I could drop of who I got to work with during my tenure at Dive News Network, but I'll save that for another time.

And yes, I still can spend an inordinate amount of time picking out the exact right font.

Funny thing about leaving a job: I keep ending up back helping. A big part of my contract work comes from people I’ve worked with before, and I don’t take that for granted.

Let’s Make Something Better.

Good ideas deserve great execution.

Maybe you’re looking for a developer who understands design.

Maybe you need someone who can untangle a complicated website, speed it up, or keep it running.

Or maybe you’ve inherited a website that technically works, but nobody’s entirely sure how.

I’ve been there.

I bring a designer’s eye, an engineer’s patience, and a weakness for a good puzzle.

Let’s build something that works today and is ready for whatever comes next.

hello@irisjeanjames.com