About

Hi, I’m Dan

I started coding in high school, teaching myself by making Minecraft mods. That turned into freelance work, and then a career. I’ve been building software for 11 years, and I still like it.

Since 2019 I’ve been a website developer at Born Digital, which has recently merged with Effect. Alongside that I take on freelance work for small businesses and organisations around Auckland, and I build my own projects

What I do

Websites and web apps, from first sketch to live server: the design, the code and the hosting. I stay on afterwards to look after what I build, with updates, fixes and changes as you need them. On some projects a handover makes more sense, and we can work that out up front.

You’re never locked in. If you want to move on, you can, at any time.

How I work

I keep things simple. I start with plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript and only add a library when it earns its place, so sites stay fast, cheap to run and easy to look after. At work I do a lot with Umbraco, so I’m comfortable with bigger, content-heavy sites too.

I’d rather build something small that works well than something big you can’t change. You deal with me directly, I explain things in plain English, give clear quotes, and tell you when something isn’t worth building.

How I use AI

I use AI tools every day, in client work and in my day job, for code and for copy. They make me faster and let me try more ideas. They don’t replace judgment: I decide what gets built, I check what comes out, and I’m responsible for the result. If you’d like to know how I use them on a particular project, just ask.

Outside the keyboard

My faith matters a lot to me, and so do my friends and family. I love a good board game, and I’m getting married next year, so life is busy in the best way.

Want to work together?

If you’ve got a project in mind, or you’d like to chat about one, get in touch.