Greetings Again!
Glad to see you could make it.
My name is Kris Arneson, the curator of this little corner of the internet you've found yourself in.
I'm a Software Developer with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from Michigan Technological University and passionate about quality. I wear all kinds of hats in many different roles both professionally and personally. From photography, to web design and development, technical communication, brewing and recipe developing, and to biking, I love to engage in a wide variety of fulfilling activities and work.
Below, you can see a bit of my professional work through my GitHub portfolio, my resume, and some project examples. After that, I'll chat a bit about myself outside the office and about who I am as a person!
Work & Experience
I enjoy crafting meaningful digital experiences by:
- honing in on client desires: determining needs, requests, scope, and working timeline
- being Agile and utilizing best development practices for a smooth experience
- creative collaboration: whether collaborating on design or collaborative development
- creating flexible, dynamic, and impactful designs: something to leave a lasting memory and work on all devices
- utilizing graceful implementation: using modern tools where appropriate or handrolling my own
- providing user satisfaction and usability: products are for everyone and all should leave feeling good about their experience
Tangible, NDA-free, open source work:
WhenIsGucci
Like WhenIsGood.net but... gucci.
Role: Front End Engineer & SCRUM Master
For a University course, myself and a team of 3 decided to bring WhenIsGood (a popular time scheduling web service) to the modern era. Using fullcalendar.js, Nunjucks, SCSS for the front end, we were able to rapidly implement a functional, flexible product that is reusable, modular, and efficient. On the back end, Node.JS in addition to MongoDB allowed for deep event storage and functionality.
My Portfolio
What you're currently browsing and enjoying.
Role: Lead Everything
To finally focus on my own work, I created this small bastion of internet space. As many businesses know, it's most frequently "client first", and you can fall behind on internal tools that need some love and care. To show that love and care, I handrolled the CSS involved, with no additional libraries. I kept SEO and optimization in mind as I laid out the page, div by div so that as many users can find it as well as use it.
rnjeesus
Role: Lead Designer
After using some other RNG (random number generator) services online, it was decided that they need to look better. Rnjeesus was born from an inexpensive domain, a desire to create something visually appealing, and so people can be served as many random numbers that they can stomach. Beginning from a quick sketched wireframe, then taken to more high fidelity compositions, then implemented from those designs, rnjeesus was designed to be sleek and beautiful.
Intagible, human, personable work:
Working in any technical field introduces many challenging aspects to communication that can lead to lost time, headaches, and even lost business. The art of disseminating information to the proper audience can be a nuanced one. You don't want to overestimate your audiences experience but even more so, you don't want to underestimate it. Striking balance between respecting your audience and understanding your own biases isn't always an easy one, but being conscious of it and working toward it provides a meaningful difference to all involved. First hand experience with this communication pattern through client work and across interdisciplinary teams led me to focus on technical communication throughout my undergraduate and professional experience.
This, combined with a desire to share knowledge led to a powerful, budding passion. Translating between the technical world and non-technical world can be tricky, but is deeply rewarding. Imagine explaining IPV6 to your grandmother, or how a CVT has "infinite" gear ratios. Most would like to say it's impossible, but I like to say it's "Engineering speak for the sane".
More about Kris, the human
Outside of the Office
This is just a little section to get to know me a little better and see what we may have in common or find things you'd like to hear more of!
If you're a hiker or biker, there's a good chance you'll run into me on your local trails! One of my favorite activities when in a new area is to explore the trail systems that are nearby. I've hiked, biked, and explored loads of places throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and am currently exploring Virginia and all that it has to offer. As someone who loves to be active and enjoys the outdoors, you'll probably catch me out in Chacos with a solid supply of fresh water.
If you're not an avid outdoor goer, there's still a great chance you'll catch me in your local eatery, sampling just a bit of everything from the menu. Food and the culinary arts has always been close to my heart since being a young child in an environment that allowed expression through such means. As professional home cook, you'd find me crafting all kinds of edible treats (and blogging about it too!). I love to share, so chances are you'll get to sample some as well, if you so desire. I cook for all diets and pay attention to many allergens, so my food is edible by nearly anyone.
Who I am
I am a young professional with desires to succeed and bolster others' success. Empowering others through community support and creating an environment that is conduscive to inclusivity is very important to me and I hope to contribute to a community as such. Ethical business practices as well as open work environments are some ways that I find can achieve these goals. We are all human beings and from whatever social, geographical, or economic environment we come from we should care for and respect one another!