Ryan Hirst

Professional programmer, accessibility advocate, terrible carpenter, middling cook.

dark mode

I like to make things, and I've got over 9 years of frontend engineering experience, a degree from Michigan State University, and a love for all things computers and internet to help me make them well.

ReactJS

My current framework of choice, React has made managing more complex frontend features, such as Comcast's prepaid dashboard application or Firestone's online scheduling, much more pleasant experiences. The addtion of Redux to handle state management also allows for simplified but robust user interactions and data handling. Building with a focus on modularity and using typscript to improve readability has also allowed our bigger teams of engineers to hand off code and work together in a more satisfying way.

Drupal

Open-source development at it's finest. It was about eight ago that I was introduced to Drupal, doing a site build for Ford's Drive for Your School program. The robust CMS provided plenty of challenges for me to cut my teeth on, but once I tackled the steep learning curve and realized what it was capable of, there was no looking back. Since then, I've worked with a multitude of Drupal 7, 8 and 9 sites, kickstarting research with Mcubed 3.0 at the University of Michgan, protecting the Great Lakes through Blue Accounting, and creating a more secure world with RF Ideas.

JAMstack

Back to the basics. Static site generators have evolved rapidly in the past few years, allowing developers like myself to spend less time buildling the backend and more time to focus on looks, functionality, and accessibility. Building with these is a blast, and I've spent endless hours exploring the variety of frameworks, and engaging with the community through JAMstack_conf and local meetups.