Jim Nielsen: designer, developer, problem solver.

Currently: Director of Design & UI Architecture @ Insight Catastrophe Group.

Who are you? The answer you’re probably looking for is “I am a designer who codes.” But what I really do is solve problems and add value to the projects I work on. And that’s probably one of the less intersting facts about me, but you know, this is a website where I talk about myself professionally, so I have to say these things.

What are your skills? My practical skills aren’t what’s interesting about me. Yes, I design visual interfaces and leverage principles of design, color theory, and typography. I write code and intimately understand HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But my skills are tools to and end: to solve problems and provide value.

What’s your expertise? My expertise lies in synthensizing knowledge across perceivedly disparate boundaries. “Visual designer”, “Front-end Developer”, and “Product Manager”, I assume all those responsibilities in order to add value to a business, to enhance a company’s culture, to bring clarity to a project, or to just get along with humans (something often perceived as a difficult task for people who write instructions for machines).

How are you, you know, as a human? Don’t take it from me, here are the words of a peer when I was departing a previous employer:

Gonna be a real bummer here w/o you. You bring a lot of great design, and a lot of not-being-an-asshole-ness.

Do you have anything else to say? Yes, in fact, I’m glad you asked. Everything I am as a designer, developer, and just human in general is a result of the wonderful people who I’ve crossed paths with in my life. In technology in particular, I’ve worked with some of the most inpsiring, charismatic, curious, endearing, introspective, wise, unassuming, artistic, amiable, selfless, and sincere people you’ll ever meet (and I didn’t use the word “talented” because they all are). More than any project I’ve worked on, I’m proud of the people I’ve worked with and learned from. I’m sure you, dear reader, would be a wonderful person I could learn from as well.

— Jim Nielsen on Aug 2, 2018

Netlibox

Oct 16, 2018

Graphic I created to illustrate the Netlify + Dropbox process described in my guest post on Netlify’s blog.
404 page

Dec 12, 2017

Working on ideas for a 404 page for iosicongallery.com
Invitations

Sep 11, 2017

Been playing with some simple black and white invitations.
About page

Jun 23, 2017

Playing around with some design possibilities for an “about” page.
Login screens

Mar 1, 2017

Working through ideas around brand hierarchies and configurable content for a unified, multi-application approach to login screens.
Modal zero state

Feb 10, 2017

Working through ideas for a new feature which provides two pathways for accomplishing a related task. Trying to provide education for each action.
Logo grid

Feb 9, 2017

Working on bringing cohesion and unity to family of branded glyphs.
Google Sheets to JSON

Dec 15, 2016

Playing around with visualizing data from a Google excel sheet pulled as JSON.
Search auto suggest design

Nov 24, 2016

Redesigned the existing search autosuggest. Previously, results were merely concatenated into a big string of results. Now the results have a structured IA with helpful UI labels. Wrote a post about the process on my blog.
SassMe v2.0

Sep 27, 2016

Designed, built, and launched version 2.0 of SassMe: a tool to dynamically visualize the results of Sass color functions. Read more about it in my blog post.
Step Wizard

Jul 21, 2016

Building the front-end for this stepper/wizard UI I designed around sending event messages.
App login

Jul 18, 2016

Working on a new pattern and layout for views where users are unauthenticated (including this one, the login page).
View more at https://dribbble.com/jimniels ›

Improving Server-Side Rendering with React

Mar 18, 2019
One-Press Deploys: Triggering a Build in Netlify via an Amazon IoT Button

Mar 11, 2019
The Power of Prototypes in the Creative Process

Mar 6, 2019
Book Notes: “Creative Selection” by Ken Kocienda

Mar 6, 2019
Reading Notes, February 2019

Feb 28, 2019
Generating Shades of Color Using CSS Variables

Jan 31, 2019
Reading Notes, January 2019

Jan 30, 2019
How Apple Engineers Decided the App Icon Size for the Original iPhone

Jan 29, 2019
Building a Progressively-Enhanced Site

Jan 17, 2019
Designing the “Quick Quote” Experience in Agent Portal

Jan 8, 2019
View more at https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/ ›

SassMe

Visualize the result of Sass color functions in real-time.
- SassMe v2.0
Gimmie Dat Icon

Retrieve full-sized icon artwork for any app in Apple’s ecosystem, based on a tutorial published for Web Design Tuts+.
iOS Icon Gallery

A gallery showcasing great icon designs from the iOS ecosystem.
macOS Icon Gallery

A gallery showcasing great icon designs from the macOS App Store.
watchOS Icon Gallery

A gallery showcasing great icon designs from the watchOS ecosystem.
- Michael Flarup @flarup
  Apple Watch Icon Gallery. Neat little curated collection of great icons for the watch. http://applewatchicongallery.com
- Adobe Edge Animate @EdgeAnimate
  Right and round. A gallery full of inspiration for Apple Watch icons: http://bit.ly/1N5PjCK
Team Colors

A color reference of your favorite major league sports teams.
- Team Colors 2.0
- Team Color Codes
Logo Integrity in Focus

An experiment in analyzing the integrity of iconic logos. How well would you recognize a logo out of focus?
- Logo Integrity Brought into Focus
- My Little Cabin in the Woods of Logo Integrity
- Designer News @designernewsbot
  Logo Integrity
- Stéphanie Walter @WalterStephanie
  Weekly Web Design, UX & Front-End links not to miss: Isometric illustration tutorial, iphoneX design & gestures, Web Designer starter tips, inclusive design, logo integrity game, Front-end development in 2017, debugging CSS Grid Layout, iOS Sketch template
CSS Off 2012

Finalist in the global web design competition where entries were judged by industry-renowned experts on code, UX, browser support, responsiveness, and more.

Director of Design and UI Architecture @ Insight Catastrophe Group

2016 to Present · Jersey City, New Jersey

More info to come as the role evolves and develops...
- Project: Agent Portal
  
  Web application allowing agents to quote and bind insurance policies via Insight’s platform. Initial work has included redesigning exisiting problematic UI interfaces and simplifying front-end implementation approaches. Tools: Sketch, Sass.
UI Engineer @ Timshel

2016 · Chicago / New York City

Worked on the front-end team doing engineering, design, and product management for a variety of web applicaitons and services. In other words, when stuff needed to be built, we built and shipped it.
- Project: Admin
  
  Web interface for clients administering their account on The Groundwork platform. Handled creating, designing, and engineering various features for the application’s view layer. Tools: Sketch, Sass, CSS Modules, Radium, Javascript, React.js, Redux, Bootstrap, Material UI, Git.
  - Redesigning and Engineering the UI/UX for Unauthenticated Users of Timshel’s “Admin”
  - Designing Integrations for the Admin Application at Timshel
Designer & Front-end Developer @ Postlight

2016 · New York City

Succeeded in consulting, designing, and building internal web applications (on tight deadlines) for one of Postlight’s biggest clients: Time Inc.
- Project: Assignment Desk
  
  Part one in a series of internal web applications for Time Inc. Handled sketching, wireframeing, and mocking the UI/UX of the application while simultaneously engineering the view layer. Tools: Sketch, Sass, Javascript, React.js, Redux, Bootstrap, Git.
- Project: Digital Content Production
  
  Designed and built based on the Assignment Desk application framework. Handled everything from UI/UX to product management to front-end development. Tools: Sketch, Invision, Sass, Javascript, React.js, Redux, Bootstrap, Git.
  - Designing and Developing the DCP Application for Time Inc.
Lead Designer, Front-end Developer @ Kindling

2012 to 2016 · New York City

Led this startup’s design vision (product, brand and identity, marketing). Wrote code. Wore lots of hats. Built software people enjoyed using.
- Project: Kindling the Application
  
  A fully-responsive web application used to discover, discuss, evaluate, and decide on great ideas. Handled 100% of the app’s UI/UX: from ideation on paper to digital wireframes/mocks to browser code to cross-device testing and more. Tools: Sketch, Photoshop, PHP, Sass, Git, Invision, Asana, Trac.
- Project: Kindling the Marketing Site
  
  Designed and built two different versions of this site: the first powered by Wordpress, the second by a static site generator. Hands were full with conceptualization, UI/UX, code, and everything in-between. Tools: Photoshop, PHP, Wordpress, Sass, Javascript, Metalsmith, Node, Git, Hubspot & Google Analytics, Asana, Mailchimp.
- Project: Kindling the Brand
  
  Owned the Kindling brand and identity, which encompassed everything from business cards to company-wide email signatures, as well as a guidebook which fostered internal standards and awareness around maintaing brand integrity. Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.
  - Kindling Rubber Stamp
- Project: Kindling Loves Startups
  
  Designed and developed this responsive website as the central piece of a marketing campaign. It employed a few (at the time) cutting-edge tricks, including a progressively-enhanced pulse animation. Tools: Photoshop, PHP, Sass, Javascript, jQuery.
  - [Archived]: kindlinglovesstartups.com
Web Designer @ Arc90

2012 · New York City

Solved problems for clients with design and code. Updated and enhanced the agency’s website. Hacked cool (and useful) side projects.
- Project: Knovel
  
  Worked on designing product landing pages and diving into application code – right before the client’s contract was cut short. Tools: Photoshop, Javascript, jQuery, Backbone.js.
- Project: arc90.com
  
  Created new artwork and assets for Arc’s exisiting website, then implemented them in code. Tools: Photoshop, Wordpress, PHP, CSS.
  - Arc90 “Work” Page Design Updates
Marketing & Multimedia Designer @ Dixie State University

2010 to 2011 · St. George, Utah

Raised design bar 110% on every public-facing widget I could get my cursor on: web design and development, graphic design, page layout, marketing campaigns, social media promotion, annual reports, brand identity, and more.
Multimedia Development Intern @ SkyWest Airlines

2010 · St. George, Utah

Interface design, logo creation, web maintenance, layout design, product photography, and more.