Hi! My name is Mike, and I love the web.

I’ve done just about anything and everything related to taking an idea and putting it online. Before going into business independently in 2007, I worked with a lot of excellent people at companies like Real Networks, Intuit, and Washington Mutual. I started my career way back in 1996 as the “webmaster” for Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Over the years, my primary strength is what I now specialize in – writing superb web UI code, implementing complex designs, and fostering the best user experience possible.

I write front-end code

I love hand-crafting HTML and CSS, and utilize tools like Sass, Compass, Bourbon and Neat to create and maintain complex object-oriented CSS.

I was writing web UI code before javascript was widely adopted, and I’ve been excited about every new development to add dynamic elements to websites with script. Lately, libraries like jQuery have made it even easier to do a lot of commonly-requested interactions (but I still enjoy writing raw javascript when necessary, or when using a library would add more page-weight). I’m learning about new object-oriented client side frameworks, and I work with a team who codes in angular.js.

I write back-end code

I mainly write PHP on the server-side, and in recent years I’ve done a lot of complex WordPress themes and plugins, including administrative customizations and extending the Post/Page and Category/Tag structure with new taxonomies to produce more intricate relationships between content and data.

I love collaborating with designers

For most of my career, I have been a technologist among design professionals. At Intuit I was an Engineer in the User-Centered Design division. In the five years I spent at Washington Mutual, I spent more time interacting with marketing, design and user experience than most anyone in my technology division.

I do lots of other stuff

Like I said in the beginning, when I started making websites, I had to do everything. Set up the hardware, install and configure the server software, set up DNS, everything. I do still maintain a few servers myself, it keeps me humble.

– mike

 

what is squaredesign

Squaredesign is the business website and blog of Mike Susz. Have an inquiry? Give me a shout on Twitter.

notes and credits