Front-end, WordPress Developer, UX Designer, Digital Consultant

Damian Wajer

Damian Wajer

I create web applications that are fast, accessible, easy to use, and effective.
You can think of me as a creative front-end developer and WordPress developer, combined with a UX designer and digital consultant.

I enjoy gaming, blogging, and more 👨‍💻

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How can I help?

Depending on your needs, I can:

  • create a new website, landing page, or application
  • improve the existing website or app
  • create a pixel-perfect implementation of your design
  • create WordPress theme or plugin
  • review and advice about maintaining a large-scale project (CSS architecture, design system, style guide)
  • improve the user experience and increase conversion
  • audit your website (SEO, UX, performance, accessibility, etc.)
  • improve the workflow in your organization
  • help to build a professional front-end and UX/UI team
  • consult a variety of digital and web-related topics

Not sure what exactly your project needs? No problem, let’s talk.

About me

I’m a creative, open-minded, UX-oriented web developer with over 18 years of web development experience. My work often lies at the intersection of front-end development and UX design, and it’s also called UX engineer, UX developer, UI developer, full-stack designer, or design technologist. I create standards-compliant, progressively enhanced, fully responsive, optimized for performance and SEO, accessible, user-friendly interfaces.

I follow industry blogs and news, I like to participate in meetings and conferences. I love to create tangible results. I have experience working in Agile, Scrum, Kanban methodologies in an international team. I’ve worked with different projects and technologies related to front-end and WordPress, TYPO3, Symfony, Ruby on Rails, Magento development (not accidental order). I like to learn through doing. I’m always looking to apply best practices and improvements to my workflow.

I’m self-motivated and self-disciplined. I pay extra attention to details, accessibility, usability, and productivity. I also have a strong background in SEO, social media, UI, and UX. When it comes to writing CSS, I’m an advocate of a component-based approach and BEM/ITCSS in combination with the utility classes. I like to share knowledge.

I’m committed and passionate about my work, and I’m very happy to be a part of the web industry. We live in fascinating times when amazing things are possible. So, let’s get in touch and do something great together (or you can continue reading for more information).

User Experience Developer – Design Technologist, UX Engineer

With years of commercial experience in web development and practical knowledge of UX best practices, I always try to find the best balance of user needs, business goals, and technical viability.

I deal with UX on a regular basis as a front-end developer and a UX consultant. I create user-friendly prototypes and interfaces. When working with me, you can expect pixel-perfect precision and user-oriented implementation. I have an appreciation and understanding of the UX best practices, user research, empathy, psychology, and how they can impact digital products.

Combining front-end development with UX is very exciting and has much potential, from conversion to overall user satisfaction. It’s easy to underestimate the impact of implementation on UX, but often it’s a crucial part of product success.

More than work (background story)

Despite the great passion for programming and UX, I also try to find some time for other activities. I pursue a healthy lifestyle with intermittent fasting, a semi-vegetarian diet (also called a flexitarian diet), and daily workouts. I like books, psychology, philosophy, art, photography, nature, and walks. I’m interested in video games, especially competitive and challenging ones like fighting games (I’m semi-pro Tekken player), movies (there’re too many to mention), and martial arts (for some years I trained Taekwondo and Wing Chun).

These hobbies led me in 2005 to creating Honmaru.pl – fighting games community, where I’ve published hundreds of news, articles, and tutorials over the years. I’ve organized many events and game competitions. It was a great, important, and valuable experience to be editor-in-chief and work with an awesome passionate team on such a project from scratch to well known in its niche. Honmaru was featured in national trade press and recognized abroad.

This was also where (and when – 2005) my programming and UX journey has started.
Since then I’ve been doing a lot of non-profit side-projects. Furthermore, back in the days, I’ve been an active freelancer and I’ve managed to complete a lot of different commercial projects under GraphCore brand (this page has some project examples from the past but it hasn’t been updated for a long time).

In 2012 I’ve started to work as a full-time web developer (from SEO webmaster in an interactive agency, through WordPress specialist & front-end developer in a software house to UX developer in an e-commerce start-up).

Currently, I’m using my UX and web development experience working on Restaumatic.com – an app and set of tools for restaurateurs. If you’re in the restaurant business, make sure to check it out 🙂

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Skills

Key skills

  • UX Design
  • Figma
  • Semantic HTML
  • CSS methodologies
  • WordPress themes & plugins
  • Accessibility (WCAG)
  • JavaScript
  • User Experience (UX)
  • E-commerce
  • Mobile first
  • Attention to details
  • Conversion
  • Page speed (performance)
  • Atomic Design
  • Component-based approach
  • SEO
  • Analytic mind
  • Commitment
  • Team player

Advanced level

  • Design systems
  • DOM
  • BEM
  • ITCSS
  • SMACSS
  • OOCSS
  • SCSS (Sass)
  • Less CSS
  • PHP
  • jQuery
  • CSS box model
  • Flexbox
  • CSS Grid
  • Bootstrap
  • Git
  • Grunt
  • Liquid
  • Handlebars
  • Twig
  • Haml
  • Embedded Ruby (ERB)
  • W3C
  • Progressive enhancement
  • Node.js
  • NPM
  • Yarn
  • RWD
  • E-mail templates
  • Adobe XD
  • Photoshop
  • DesignOps
  • Miro
  • Style guides
  • Material Design
  • Project management
  • Notion
  • Agile
  • Social Media
  • Wireframes
  • Mockups, prototypes
  • Content management (CMS)
  • User-centered design
  • Information architecture
  • Productivity

Some experience

  • React
  • React Native
  • styled-components
  • CSS Modules
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Gatsby
  • Ember.js
  • Webpack
  • Test automation
  • Ruby on Rails
  • Symfony
  • Magento
  • TYPO3
  • DevOps
  • PureScript
  • TypeScript
  • MySQL
  • Zurb Foundation
  • Strapi
  • Joomla
  • Drupal
  • Webflow
  • Jira
  • Value proposition
  • Business model
  • Design thinking
  • User research
  • Usability testing
  • A/B testing
  • Video editing
  • Event planning
  • Marketing
  • Recruitment (UX, front-end)
  • Google Analytics
  • AI

Portfolio

Because of the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) associated with most of my projects (definitely the best ones), I can’t share here my favorite code examples, project names, or clients.

However, I will be happy to talk about the scope of my work and experience without disclosing any confidential pieces of information.

Let’s talk
See endorsements

Key experiences ⬇️

Timeline (key experiences)

The most significant projects and employment in my career.

2005

Honmaru.pl

Non-profit

  • Founder
  • Full-stack developer
  • Editor-in-chief
  • Community manager
  • UX & Graphic design
  • Product owner
  • QA

Developing and supporting the main website and other related projects. Creating gaming websites and graphics. Managing day-to-day tasks and social media. Contacting sponsors, maintaining relations with partners. Organizing tournaments and supporting the Fighting Games Community.

Basically, everything that the brand new project needs, to become well-known and successful in its niche.

2005

2009 – 2016

GraphCore

Freelance, self-employment

  • Co-founder
  • Full-stack developer
  • Project manager
  • Digital consultant
  • UX engineer

Creating, implementing and managing a lot of different websites for clients as an independent contractor. Estimating and pricing web projects. Supporting and consulting.

2009 – 2016

2012 – 2014

Talem Technologies

SEO agency

  • SEO webmaster
  • Front-end developer
  • WordPress developer
  • SEO strategist

Auditing and optimizing websites as a member of the SEO department. Designing and implementing websites, positioning, SEM.

2012 – 2014

2014 – 2016

SourceBroker

Software house

  • Front-end developer
  • WordPress specialist

Front-end development for large-scale international projects. Implementing designs to the high standards that enterprise-level clients demand. WordPress development. Estimating projects. Providing ongoing support and maintenance as a dev team member.

2014 – 2016

2016 (ongoing)

Restaumatic

E-commerce

UX Manager / Web Developer (Head of UX Department)

Dec 2022 – Present

Various tasks regarding web development and UX/UI as a UX manager. With the main focus on aligning the user goals with the company business objectives.

Coding, designing (low-fidelity mockups and high-fidelity designs), preparing user flows and system logic, team leading and mentoring, consulting, improving company products. Setting UX standards and design processes, collaborating with different teams, providing day-to-day support.

Head of UX/UI

Jun 2021 – Dec 2022

Head of UX/UI department role was mostly focused on creating (recruiting) and leading (mentoring) two teams: frontend (UI) and UX.

During that time, apart from team building, I also did some coding (frontend, WordPress), designing (Figma), and product management.

Front-end Developer / UX Consultant

Jul 2016 – Jun 2021

Improving existing and building new company products. The role was mostly focused on coding, but also UX consultancy with some UI design.

The biggest challange was taking charge of development of the key product, complex theme system for restaurant’ websites with lots of customizations and settings, and combine it with other responsibilities of a multi-role position in a fast growing startup.

2016 (ongoing)

Bonus points

Volunteering

Community Manager / Editor-in-chief / Full-stack Developer

Honmaru.pl · Jan 2005 – Present

Developing, maintaining, and supporting various Fighting Games Community projects. (Co)Organizing tournaments. Creating graphic materials. Managing day-to-day tasks and social media. Writing articles, guides, and news. Contacting sponsors, maintaining relationships with partners (see sample coverage of e-sports events).

Community Supporter

Ahoy.so · Jun 2022 – Nov 2022

I was involved in community development, mainly topics regarding web development and UX (technical writing, answering questions, participating in educational events, etc.).

Publications

Conferences & meetups

  • Polishopa Bydgoszcz local, Poland (2021)
  • World Usability Day – PoWUD Poznań, Poland (2018, 2019)
  • Monadic Warsaw, Poland (06.2018)
  • meet.js Bydgoszcz #1, Poland (2016)
  • WordUp Bydgoszcz #1, Poland (2014)
  • TYPO3 Developer Days, Nuremberg, Germany (2016, 2015)
  • TYPO3Camp POLAND II, Poland, Poznań (2014)
  • Bydgoszcz Web Development Meetup, Poland (2014 – 2017)

Public projects

Over the years, I’ve been involved in different fansites, open-source, and non-profit projects.

Internships

  • IT support at Bydgoszcz City Hall (2010)
  • Game tester, QA at Frontline Studios (2008)

More

If you want to know me better or send me a message, I encourage you to visit:

Thanks for your time and see you around the web! 🙂

Contact

Don’t hesitate to reach out via the contact form, e-mail, or on social media. Let’s keep in touch!

If you want to hire me, please keep in mind that I’m only interested in high-quality work that is worth the time and effort. I don’t compete on prices, and I don’t do low-quality, quick projects in which the focus is only on when not how.

I’m not accepting new commissions at the moment, but I’m open to making new connections for the future.

In terms of hiring, if you represent a non-profit or charity organization, you can count on special discount or even free help (depending on your budget and what you do).

Contact form

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E-mail

[email protected]

Social media

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