About Me

Photo of Nikki Morley

I am a Denver Metro based developer and designer. I’ve been professionally designing since 2008 and coding since 2016. My career started with a strong background in print and promotional design, evolved to include experience helping start-up companies grow and market themselves, and then pivoted into development.

At present, the primary focus of my career is specializing in the planning, design, and execution of new software features. This involves collaborating with multiple departments, creating and presenting the design and specs, and coding out the new features primarily in the front end.

For the next stage of my career, I am focusing on mastering JavaScript and related libraries/frameworks with specific interest in React and Vue. I welcome any opportunity that will allow me to work under senior developers with expertise in these languages so that I may rapidly grow these skills while producing user focused new features.

I enjoy new challenges and collaborating to create something great. I pick up new skills quickly and believe the key to fulfillment in work and life is to never stop exploring and growing. In my free time I enjoy traveling, hiking, paddleboarding, off roading, painting, new experiences, and most things nerdy and sci-fi.

My Work and Experience

Skills

Code & Design Skills
  • Graphic Design
  • HTML
  • CSS (and LESS/SASS)
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • React
  • Vue
  • ColdFusion
  • MySQL
  • Bootstrap
Software
  • Sketch
  • Illustrator
  • Figma
  • Photoshop
  • InDesign
  • Google Suite
Other Skills
  • Effective Communicator
  • Product Development Collaboration
  • Hiring & Training
  • Quality Control
  • Writing & Product Documentation
  • Public Speaking & Presentation

Work History: Projects and Duties

Languages Used: React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, CSS (LESS)

At Seek, I am part of world wide team of highly talented developers all working towards building the best software for data analysis and visualization. Our platform helps users discover, connect, and visualize data. With a wide range of tools and features, the Seek platform caters to a multitude of verticals and skill sets.

I like to pick up the odd project, design work, or help out when someone needs extra assistance.

Design project I am most proud of:

I worked with one of my kickboxing coaches to develop a logo and marketing materials to promote his Elevate Striking Systems program. It was very fulfilling to create items for an activity I was very passionate about.

Photo of merchandise created for Elevate Striking Systems

Languages and Technologies Used: React, TypeScript, JavaScript, AngularJS, HTML, CSS (LESS), Storybook

At SlyceData, I continued to grow my FinTech knowlege while designing and developing new features or enhancements for our SaaS product used for complex data analysis. I used multiple strategies to analyze and design an improved user experience including heatmapping, analytics, and direct user feedback.

In a move to overhaul our entire front end and modernize from AngularJS, we made the decision to build all new UI in React utilizing Storybook for component development. Designs for a brand new Data Catalog and Admin Permissioning were created and in the process of being built; but due to current world events investment capital was hard to come by and SlyceData had to close the doors.

Languages Used: AngularJS, JavaScript, HTML, CSS (LESS)

At Elsen I had the opportunity to learn the intricacies of the FinTech industry and apply my design experience to improve the User Experience of our users while they used our platform to analyze complex data.

Elsen was a startup and unfortunately succummed to bankruptcy. However, as a silver lining our assets were purchased and the staff was able to be retained to continue to work on the software.

Languages Used: ColdFusion, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML, CSS (LESS)

In this role I had the unique opportunity to wear many hats and grow exponentially. I made it my mission to learn as much about our proprietary software platform as possible in order to provide the most value to our projects and the best advice to my coworkers.

Primary Projects in this role:

  • Design and build the front end for new internal pages for our CMS to drive conversions for our clients
  • Assist back end teams in building the user interface for new features, and sometimes build some of the back end features myself
  • Implement new features for our CMS and solve bugs as they arise
 

Other duties in this role:

  • Mentor/assist Jr. Front End devs
  • Assist in hiring, interviewing, and training new roles
  • QA check all themes after they are built to ensure high quality code and match to design
  • Prescreen and check new designs to make sure they can be built seamlessly for our software
  • Manage flow and assignment of custom themes and communicate timelines to staff
  • Write specs for new features as needed
  • Write guides for new features and announce new releases
  • Write, maintain, and organize training docs for new front end devs and GDW staff
  • Assist staff with questions related to our CMS and brainstorm solutions for their clients
  • Upon request, will assist in software demos for potential clients

The project I am most proud of:

The Great Dental Websites software platform is always improving. One of the largest client facing projects tackled is a complete overhaul of the User Interface. The challenge with this project was threefold: the software is a multi-tenant software platform, we have to be able to support any clients on older designs and layouts, and we have to find a way to design something that looks good for clients with very little content, and clients with massive amounts of content.

On a page by page basis, I designed a way to achieve this balance and bring a modern design to our clients with new features built into our platform. One of my favorite redesigns, and one of the most extensive design overhauls to date, was our smile gallery page showing before and after images cases.

Click on the images to see full page screenshots:

Old Layout - Smile Gallery View All
Photo of the previous version of the smile gallery
Old Layout - Smile Gallery Individual Case
Photo of the previous version of the smile gallery case view
New Layout - Smile Gallery View All
Photo of the new version of the smile gallery
New Layout - Smile Gallery Individual Case
Photo of the new version of the smile gallery case view

My main duties entailed managing swag and promotional merchandise between my customers, vendors, and our warehouse and shipping facility. I ensured my customers needs were met by providing high quality swag options based on years of expertise that fit their needs, budget, and goals. I drove sales and promoted our service by providing demos of our platform, sales collateral, and marketing advice to potential customers and existing customers looking to expand their marketing goals. I actively took steps to understand my customers' goals so I can help them succeed with their marketing plans.

I built close working relationships with our vendors to ensure consistent high quality printing as well as fast turn around times on swag orders. Close working relationships were also maintained with our warehouse and shipping facility to ensure orders were fulfilled on time and special event orders arrived on or ahead of schedule.

Using my design background, I was able to ensure the best available print and layout for my customers on their merchandise as well as provide professional imagery on the Printfection platform.

I decided to take time out of my career to follow a dream to solo travel. I used savings to backpack through Europe for 6 months having such adventures that include but are not limited to:

  • Walking the ancient pilgrimage path of the Camino de Santiago through Spain completing 792 KM (~492 miles) in 42 days with more stories than I can count on both hands and feet
  • Learning to make homemade jam in the hostels in Bulgaria
  • Losing so many games of Blackball in a local pub in the most northerly part of Ireland, Malin Head

At Morgan Awards I became an expert in promotional products and used my knowledge and design experience to provide the best products and imagery for my customers.

The project I am most proud of:

Some of my favorite projects at Morgan Awards involved creating custom awards in various materials. I was given the opportunity to create the artwork for Hunter Douglas' Plant The Seed award. I created the watermelon design from scratch using CorelDraw which was then applied to custom cut acrylic.

Photo of a custom acrylic award created for Hunter Douglas

Education

Contact Me

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