Background, craft, and what I’m building toward

I’m based in Grimsby, in North East Lincolnshire on the Humber — a region where many small businesses, trades, and professional practices still rely on word of mouth or outdated websites that no longer reflect how good their work actually is. I’m currently in my second year studying Software Engineering (BSc) at the University of Hull, which gives me a formal grounding in software practice, systems thinking, and engineering discipline alongside the project work I take on as a freelance web designer and developer.

Before university, I completed college with a Distinction* in Games Design. That wasn’t a detour — it was deep training in iteration, user experience, visual hierarchy, and performance-aware thinking under constraints. I still use those instincts every time I design a layout, tune typography, or decide whether an interaction helps the visitor or only decorates the page.

I’m not trying to sound like an agency. I’m an early-career developer who prefers honest delivery: clear scope, maintainable code structure, and UI that earns trust — especially in sensitive contexts like legal services or any business where credibility is the product. If you need a faceless account team, I’m not the right fit; if you want a direct line to the person who implements your site, we are likely aligned.

University of Hull — Software Engineering (BSc). The degree pushes me to think beyond tutorials: requirements, testing mindset, architecture, and how software behaves in the real world. I apply that learning directly when I structure Nuxt 3 applications, separate layout from content, and keep components reusable so a site can grow without turning into a patchwork of one-off pages.

Games Design — Distinction*. That pathway taught me to critique UX, prototype quickly, and care about feel — how friction shows up in a player’s flow, and how small details signal either professionalism or neglect. Those skills map surprisingly well to marketing sites, service pages, and anything where a visitor decides in seconds whether to stay, trust, and enquire.

I use “web design” to mean how the site looks, reads, and feels — hierarchy, spacing, colour, typography, and trust. I use “web development” to mean how it is built: semantic HTML, Vue 3 and Nuxt 3, responsive layouts, and a frontend that stays understandable when you add pages or services later. Most of my client-facing work combines both: I design in the browser and ship production code rather than handing off static mockups that never quite match reality.

I’m biased toward component-driven interfaces: shared sections, predictable page patterns, and fewer duplicated layouts. That approach matters for maintainability — your site should not break every time you add a new service line — and it pairs naturally with SEO-minded information architecture: clear routes, sensible headings, and metadata that matches what each page actually says.

I care about accessibility and performance as part of good UX, not as optional extras. Keyboard navigation, focus states, sensible heading order, and practical choices about images and scripts all affect whether real people can use the site on a mid-range phone on a patchy connection — which is the default for a lot of local search traffic in our area.

When I talk about SEO on a project, I mean structural work: page intent, titles and descriptions, internal linking between related services, and copy that doesn’t promise something the business cannot deliver. I’m not selling guaranteed rankings — search is competitive and depends on many factors — but I do build sites that remove self-inflicted obstacles: thin pages, duplicate titles, confusing navigation, and metadata that ignores what the user sees on the page.

For businesses in Grimsby and surrounding towns, local SEO often means clear service geography, honest location language, and a site that loads fast enough that people don’t bounce before they read your phone number. I write and link dedicated pages that match how people actually search — for example SEO in Grimsby — and I keep internal links sensible so visitors and crawlers both understand what each URL is for.

Strong SEO also depends on substance: real services, real locations, and copy written for humans first. I’m happy to advise on how page titles, headings, and service descriptions align with what you actually offer — especially for professional services and trades where trust and accuracy matter more than keyword density tricks that stopped working years ago.

I like frontend systems that don’t fall apart when content grows: reusable components, predictable layouts, and patterns that scale from one hero page to a full set of services. I also care about UI polish — typography, spacing, and motion that support the message instead of distracting from it. A site can be technically correct and still feel cheap if the rhythm of the layout is wrong; I spend time on that balance.

Most enquiries from local search still land on a phone first. That is why I treat responsive web design as default: breakpoints, touch targets, and typography that stay readable without zooming. A “desktop-only” polish that collapses on mobile is not a finished product for a trades van, a clinic, or a firm whose next client is standing on a pavement comparing two Google results.

Outside of pure web work, I spend time in Unreal Engine 5 on environments and gameplay-related experiments — a survival-style project with landscapes, foliage, and performance tuning. It keeps my technical problem-solving sharp in a different runtime: constraints, iteration, and frame-time awareness — and it complements how I think about UX and performance in the browser. I document some of that work openly on this portfolio so the split between “shipped client work” and “learning projects” stays honest.

I’m a good fit when you need a credible website that generates enquiries — shops and trades with outdated sites, consultants who’ve outgrown social-only marketing, small companies where the current site doesn’t match the quality of the work, or teams that need clear structure and SEO foundations without agency overhead. I work with people across North East Lincolnshire and nearby — including Cleethorpes, Immingham, and rural businesses that serve the wider Humber area — not only Grimsby town centre.

I’m not pretending to be a 20-person studio. I’m one developer you can email directly — and I’ll point you elsewhere if the project needs a specialist I don’t offer (for example heavy back-end or brand strategy beyond what I can scope). For what I do cover, see web design in Grimsby, web development in Grimsby, and SEO in Grimsby, or get in touch.

The strongest proof asset on this site is a real client Nuxt 3 build: the Paul Petruzzi criminal defense website — a full case study covering challenge, goals, design approach, SEO and content structure, and technical implementation. If you want to see how I handle structure, metadata, and professional presentation under pressure, that is the page to read. Everything else in projects is labelled honestly as experiments, coursework, or personal learning — including SEO methodology write-ups and UE5 work — so expectations stay clear.

I work best when we agree early on what the site is for: who it serves, what a successful enquiry looks like, and what content you can supply (photos, service text, credentials). I don’t hide behind vague proposals — I’ll give you a realistic view of timeline, what I need from you, and what I’ll deliver. For freelance web projects, that usually means a structured build with room for revisions, clear handover, and documentation that helps you or future developers extend the site without guessing.

I prefer maintainable frontends over clever one-offs: if you might add a new service line or location page in six months, we should design routes and components so that update is boring rather than expensive. That mindset is part of why I invest in structured content, reusable sections, and honest metadata — not because SEO is a checklist, but because clarity compounds over time.

After launch, I aim for a clean handover: what was built, how sections map to your services, and where to edit copy safely. I’m not interested in locking you into mystery maintenance — if your business website needs to evolve, the codebase should welcome that rather than fight it.

Games reward clarity under complexity: players should understand what matters without reading a manual. Websites — especially professional services sites — have the same pressure: communicate authority, reduce ambiguity, and guide the next step. My background in games helps me stay user-led while implementing technically sound solutions in Vue and Nuxt.

The overlap is practical: both domains punish sloppy hierarchy, both reward iteration, and both need you to notice when performance problems come from “too much” rather than “wrong idea”. Whether I’m profiling foliage in UE5 or trimming layout cost on a marketing page, the habit is the same — measure, simplify, and keep the experience coherent.

I publish dedicated pages for people searching for a web designer in Grimsby, web developer in Grimsby, SEO in Grimsby, or a freelance web designer in Grimsby. There’s also a supporting North East Lincolnshire web design page for wider-area intent — useful if you’re in Cleethorpes, Immingham, or elsewhere in the county and want a local web designer who understands regional businesses without treating every site as a generic template.

I’m based in the United Kingdom (England), and I work with clients who want a modern responsive website, clearer service pages, and a foundation that can grow. If you’re comparing options, start with the case study and service pages, then email with a short brief: what you do, your timeline, and what “success” means for this project.