Spotlight on Jim

One year in, Jim…how have you found your time at Rolley so far? 

It’s been amazing! I still can’t quite believe I’m here! Leaving my principal role at my previous employer and saying goodbye to some amazing colleagues and clients (some of which have grown to be life-long friends) was not an easy decision to make. I couldn’t however pass up the opportunity to get together with the Rolley bunch! The guys have been so welcoming, I’ve learned a ton of new stuff and it feels like we’re just getting going. Watching Rolley grow over the past 12 months has been a real privilege and I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

What drew you to Rolley in the first place? 

A group of highly talented people from all disciplines, all of which were former colleagues that I’ve hugely enjoyed working with in the past. The tech stack was also a good fit. I’ve previously loved building apps with Vue, so I’m very much at home working with Nuxt, but I’ve also really enjoyed working with 3D models using Babylon. Having worked in a multi-national corporate environment for the past 5 years, I was ready to flip the scale and ‘go small’ again and be a part of Rolley's growth, and grow we have. What a year!

As our lead web developer, what does your day-to-day look like?

Tea -> stand up -> blast off. Some projects span several weeks (or even months), and others just days, but the variety is what keeps me on my toes. Some days it’s building UIs from beautiful Figma designs, others it’s building calculator engines in TypeScript. Sometimes it’s helping improve our e-commerce offerings for our clients, getting my hands dirty in Directus (our headless CMS of choice) or doing other cool things like building interactive 3D experiences using Babylon. But it’s not just dev work…I love exploring new opportunities with clients, getting in a room together and thrashing out ideas with like-minded people. I’m also an advocate of breaking up the day with some exercise. Squeezing in a 5K run on a lunch break does wonders to clear the mind and gets me away from the screen for a while.

What's the most complex or satisfying build you've tackled in your career?

If I’m only allowed to pick one, it has to be a one-stop financial wellbeing app we made for a major US financial services company. It was a hugely ambitious app that ended up being a first-to-market offering, giving employees guidance in all aspects of financial planning and wellbeing. It was a fantastic collaborative effort spanning several years, working with an amazing team and a fantastic client — bliss! I worked on this project for so long that I had the client’s logo burned into my screen (and this was before OLED)!

Web development moves fast. How do you keep your skills sharp and stay on top of what's new?

I’m probably supposed to reel off a list of influential people I follow, newsletters I subscribe to or tech meet ups I attend (all of which I don’t do anywhere near as often as I should) but honestly the best way I stay sharp is working with people. Regardless of their role, past experience or seniority, I’m a firm believer that everyone can bring something to the table, and anyone can teach. I’ve learned so much from working with others, whether it’s colleagues, other agencies, client digital teams or graduate devs. Having an open mind, respect for others and a thirst for knowledge will take you far.

What's something non-developers would be surprised to learn about what goes into building great web experiences?

Whilst many users might appreciate the ‘delight’ of a polished UI, there’s a great deal of work involved in making sure a UI works seamlessly across a wide range of devices and user preferences. Ensuring keyboard navigability, controls that respond well to touch, respecting user motion preferences, colour mode preferences (if appropriate), use of semantic markup, assistive technologies, particularly with interactive elements (e.g. a slider that drives a changing value somewhere else on the screen). Many of these things will never be ‘seen’ by the user, but they all contribute to a frictionless experience that ‘just works’.

What's your favourite tool, language or framework right now, and why?

Right now? It would have to be Nuxt combined with Nuxt UI and the newly released Vite+ for pretty much zero config. Being able to quickly scaffold an app with just about everything you need with no friction means you spend less time configuring and more time building. I’m also really enjoying Directus having not used it previously and it’s great to be recognised as an official Directus partner.

Away from the keyboard, what keeps you busy?

Family time, gaming (whether it’s the latest PC AAA titles or firing up an old Amiga classic), watching movies, losing myself in an audio book and staying in shape with running. I’ve not managed to get the Rolley team to sign up for the Wakefield 10k yet, but there’s hope for 2027!

Oh, and spending far too long painting our fence (nearly done, only 3 panels and 2 lots of trellising left)! Nerdy fact... if I were to lay down the individual fence slats end-to-end, taking into account 2 coats per panel, the equivalent physical distance painted would be a little over 2 miles long!

What are you most looking forward to building or achieving in year two?

It feels like our calculator offering is taking off with a feature-rich retirement calculator nearing completion and several other tools in the pipeline. We’ve also got some exciting upcoming projects with some brand new clients which we’ll be sure to talk about later in the year. Stay tuned!

And finally, what’s your favourite biscuit?

I initially wanted to go for the GOAT, the chocolate covered Hob Nob, however I’ve been informed that Dan had already bagged this one and we’re not allowed to choose the same biscuit, so I’ll go for the mighty Wagon Wheel instead! This has been the source of much controversy in the team as to whether this qualifies as a biscuit or not, however this matter was settled when I recently found these in the biscuit aisle rather than confectionery. Including marshmallow in a biscuit is a unique and bold move. The only downside is its size, making dunking difficult, but not impossible.