I'm a front-end developer & UX enthusiast from Cape Town.


About Mareli Basson

FRONT-END DEVELOPER & UX ENTHUSIAST


I'm passionate about Front-end Web Development and User Centered Design. I love building amazing websites and user interfaces to the best of my abilities.

Over the last decade I've been a teacher, a newspaper layout artist, a start up intern monkey, a freelancer, a front-end developer at a branding firm and now a front-end and ux developer on an enterprise app development platform. I've gained skills in a myriad of fields and I learnt to work in a range of environments with a host of great colleagues (and learnt how to play nice with the less than nice ones). All those different jobs led me to front-end as the field I'm pursuing as a career. It's that perfect blend of creative and technical that keeps me coming back since fiddling with CSS in high-school.

While I'm still relatively new to front-end (since June 2014), I have a decade of professional working experience and an extensive portfolio, which I know showcases my passion and ability. I am an avid learner and given the right environment and structure I am very confident in my ability to pick up new skills.

Please take a look below at some of my favourite projects I've worked on.


My Resume






I make things I'm proud of



Most recent work
Sir Fruit - Good Future Bot

HelloFCB



Older work
My Beauty Kit

Retro Photo Booth


Faitsch Products





These following sites are unfortunately no longer live, but I'm still proud of the work I did on them.


JourneyApps

Sinekamva
Atlantic Fertilizers

Brooklyn Optica
Functional Milk

LuminAID

DP Architechts


Other Skills & Passions

I have a range of skills - each feeding off the experience and knowledge I gain learning them.



UX Development


I care very much about the UX of a site and often find myself suggesting structure changes that would make a website more useful to it's users. When I was studying design, the Bauhaus movement fascinated me and UX, as it stands today, is the strongest embodiment of the Bauhaus tenet I've seen:
Form should follow function.

Teaching


My first job was teaching highschool students photography, graphic design and Photoshop; by chance I discovered I had a knack for teaching people and that I love doing so. I've learnt much over the years, from each of my different jobs, but I'd have to say this is the one that taught me the most in terms of people skills (and patience).

 

Photography, Makeup, Illustration and Costuming


Photography is my longest standing hobby and I love it's blend of creative and technical. Follow the basic rules and you can take a good photo; Add some creativity and you can take a great one. Doing makeup evolved from my photography and then became it's own little monster. I absolutely love what makeup does and how much can be done with it.

As a side project I started creating pasties in 2013 for dancers in the Cape Town Burlesque community. Mostly I just like figuring out how to make things, so creating costume pieces is a great outlet for this, especially with the rise of cosplay and all the wonderful materials that are now available to crafters.
And when time allows I sometimes doodle an illustration or two. It's something I've been doing since primary school and the bug hasn't let go just yet. To see some of my creative side projects

Go to the link below to see a sample of my hobby work.

My Creative Skills Portfolio