Hello, my name is Katja Durrani. I am a web developer living in Bristol, in the UK.

I have worked for myself, managing my own clients, as part of web agencies, and for a startup.

This website will give you an insight into what I can do.

painted tree and me with laptop

Skills

My skills span frontend, backend and basic server admin. I am familiar with important concepts of JavaScript and React, as well as functional programming paradigms.

I work well in a team, and am interested in working on large-scale projects with new technologies and responsibilities.

  • HTML+CSS
  • Responsive Design
  • JavaScript
  • ReactJS
  • Git
  • PHP
  • MySQL/PostgreSQL
  • Wordpress
  • SilverStripe
  • Concrete5
  • Python
  • Django
  • Commandline tools
  • Puppet
  • Vagrant
  • Docker

Projects

Freelance (from 2010)

Working for myself, I
  • built a directory site for therapists from scratch, with CMS SilverStripe
  • managed and further developed sites built on custom PHP frameworks and CMSs
    (Clients: Holistic Community, TLT, European Law Firm)
  • built a number of smaller sites for individual clients. Examples:
    illustrator Henning Löhlein
    Website for book Furry Logic http://furrylogicbook.com/
Screenshot Furry Logic website

Agency and Startup (2013 - 2022)

I worked as a regular freelancer for Fanatic Design for a year, and I was employed by Wiredmedia for three years.
 
From 2019 - 2021 and then again in 2022, I worked for Bristol startup Solverboard (now part of Sopheon as Acclaim Ideas).
 
In those roles, I

  • worked on an application using ReactJS on the frontend and PHP and GraphQL on the backend
  • worked with various services in Docker containers
  • used AWS, for example Lambda functions, DynamoDB
  • created HTML templates and CSS from Photoshop designs
  • integrated templates with CMSs Wordpress and Concrete5
  • programmed custom features in PHP
  • managed servers (manually, or through puppet)
  • used git for version control

Examples of sites I worked on: https://londonspeakerbureau.com (changed since) https://www.ellenboroughpark.com (mostly as when I left)

Own/Play/Study

A project I did with my friend Tom while running a Code Club for kids: Using Python code to place blocks in Minecraft in order to emulate 3D Logo turtle movements.

With our JS study group (see below), we created a React Redux app to which I contributed a lot, as well as to our JS101 site.

I wrote a little proof-of-concept static site generator and analysed our Meetup group's most popular programming languages.

I also built a book-swapping app with Django.

Organising

In January 2014, I set up Codehub with my friend Gicela Morales. I was its main organiser till the start of 2022 when I left the organising team. Originally aimed at people working from home, it has grown into a helpful community of developers with diverse backgrounds, skills and experience levels.

With Codehub, I organised workshops and ran one myself, on Git. I organised three one-day JavaScript workshops and ran a JS study group. For half a year, I hosted our hack nights. I also helped start a mentorship programme.

Being involved with, and running, the group did not only improve my technical skills, but has also been an invaluable experience overall.

Contact

If you want to get in touch, drop me an email at mail@kdurrani.co.uk or tweet me at @kdurrani.