“The [Ecosystem Valuation] Toolkit is a comprehensive, searchable database of ecosystem service values constantly update[d] to stay on the cutting edge of [the] rapidly evolving field of natural capital valuation […] Since 1998, Earth Economics has been a world leader in [this] scientific & data-driven [domain …], provid[ing] insight to inform & inspire sustainable decisions that improve outcomes for people, businesses, communities, & natural resources.”
As a core member of the lean, diverse, & remote EVT team, I wore a number of hats.
On the technical side, I gained immersive, real-world, deployment-ready full stack development experience with Ruby on Rails & PostgreSQL. Mainly this was through detailed software testing — on both the unit & integration levels. I especially focused on rigorous manual & automated testing of the UI for EVT’s React & BEM/BUM-infused data analysis web app — using minitest, RSpec, Watir, Capybara, & PhantomJS. This general mix of frameworks also illustrates how my day-to-day dev tasks would usually range through refactoring legacy code, writing & documenting new test suites, & integrating large-scale API revisions — all while initially teaching myself Ruby, React, & the rest of the toolchain from scratch in 2015–16.
In my UX Designer role, I both led & assisted in the iterative implementation & improvement of the EVT interface. My design contributions included the hand-off & creation of pixel-perfect mockups, employing a Creative Cloud workflow. I also acted as the de facto ‘design thinking consultant-in-residence’ at Earth Economics, offering my formal graduate training in design methodologies as an informal but live & on-demand, remote knowledge base.
Every facet of my two-year period of intensive work & study on the Ecosystem Valuation Toolkit Rails app was through the framework of an agile process, with our remote-first scrum sprints powered by JIRA, Confluence, Slack, & SharePoint.
I amicably departed Earth Economics in mid-2017, simultaneous with my current career-focused sabbatical as an MS candidate in Information Management (UX Design specialization) at the UW iSchool.
The Ruby Koans are an in-depth series of self-directed programming exercises that teach test-driven development. Through a zen-like command-line interface, a Ruby “samanera” runs failing tests, fixes the relevant code, & then “take[s] a moment to see what it is teaching…”
Here we see this path to enlightenment’s end screen, completed as part of my in-depth experiential learning of Ruby on Rails in 2015–16.
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Adapting an external stakeholder taxonomy in Excel into pixel-perfect UI & web form designs with Illustrator.