About Me
Sarah Schmalzer
Hello, I'm web / UX designer and front-end developer in Portland, Oregon, focused on creating beautiful responsive sites. My background spans from painting and illustration to logo design to ebook development to web design and development. I studied art and writing in college, and have worked in web design and marketing since graduating in 2011.
Skills & Process
I started out as a web designer with just enough coding knowledge to do damage; but now I've moved more into the middle, and am just as comfortable creating Sketch or Photoshop mockups as I am coding out those mockups. My process focuses on UX - let's design something beautiful to look at and intuitive to use. There's no point in creating a beautiful site no one can figure out how to navigate.
Software & Languages I use: Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, HTML/CSS, LESS, and JS/JQuery
Atomic Design
I focus on atomic design - designing pieces that work together and roll-up to bigger elements to create a more consistent, more complex design without more maintenance. No one wants to have to change dark green to light green in twenty places when you can just do it once.
Design Systems & Style Guides
Like atomic design, I focus on creating consistent designs through design systems. Creating a comprehensive design system that easy to use is key to creating a consistent digital presence, especially if you have a team of designers and developers working on a single applicaton.
HTML / CSS / LESS
I spend my days writing HTML & CSS (or LESS depending on the project), working with divs and styles. I'm completely comfortable laying out sites in divs within divs, with some more divs; but please don't make me develop a table-based site.
Responsive
I won't pretend to be an expert in responsive design; everything's constantly changing, but I try to keep up and create sites that will not completely explode when the next iPhone with new dimensions comes out.
Contact
Interested in working together on a project?
Email me at hello@sarahschmalzer.com.