I'm Neil and I build websites.
I’ve been building websites for decades. My main area of expertise is WordPress and I can make it do anything you need without resorting to a mess of third party plugins.
I am also a skilled front-end developer with years of react experience. From local government to small businesses, fashion marketplaces to charities, the BBC to local gyms; I’ve done it all!
Let's see how I can help you...
For agencies and product teams
I love to be part of a team
My last 2 contracts totalled 8 years – I hope the fact I was retained for so long speaks volumes about my skills, reliability and approachability.
I’ve worked with a diverse range of clients from a start-up education project, to a fashion marketplace, to the BBC, and I’m equally happy switching between multiple smaller projects, or getting stuck into a nice, big, long-term product.
Front-end and React
I've worked on two large headless WordPress projects behind React and Next.js front ends, that make use of REST and GraphQL. I am also highly adept at building custom Gutenberg blocks.
Wordpress theme development
My go-to starter theme is Roots Sage, so I'm highly proficient with Laravel blade templating and Tailwind CSS.
Performance optimisation and SEO
I have undertaken site speed and Core Web Vitals work using PageSpeed Insights. Also, technical SEO and structured data: schema.org implementation at scale (product and content markup).
Flexibility and rapport
But it's not just coding... I'm happy training non-technical colleagues, mentoring junior team members, reviewing PRs, presenting work at show-and-tells and generally pitching in where needed in the team.
Recent contract work
For charities and businesses
Great value business websites that are easy for you to maintain
This might sound like a strange business model, but when I build a site, I build it so that you won’t need to contact me again for help! You want a simple brochure site? Easy. E-commerce? No problem. An events management or facilities booking site? I’ve built a plugin for the job.
I have all the bases covered when it comes to making a small/medium business website: from initial requirements meeting, through design, build, launch, SEO, Google Analytics, site speed optimisation and even hosting.
Easy to use Wordpress content management system
Wordpress is the CMS behind millions of websites because it makes page editing easy and empowers you to update your own website.
Unique sites for your unique business
I build custom code specifically to meet your business needs. Lots of so called Wordpress "developers" will charge you a fee then cobble your site together using an off-the-shelf theme and a mess of third party plugins.
Site speed and optimisation
I'll make sure your site runs fast and is optimised for best SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation - the fancy new term for AI) with things like schema.org markup and PageSpeed Insights.
Eye-catching design
I like all my client's sites to look good of course. I'll also make sure it works nicely on mobile screen and is accessible and easy to use for all your customers.
Recent ScreenCandy work
This is me in my natural habitat: wearing a geeky t-shirt, combat shorts, and clutching a beer while dragging my kid around a music festival.
Get to know who you'll work with
A little bit about me
I’ve been making things for the web since 1997 (remember internet cafes and table-based web design?!) and I still enjoy pushing pixels, which I think shows in my work. I also really enjoy working with lots of different clients and projects, and learning something new from each thing I work on. I’m based in London, and I’ve been told I’m easy to work with, warm and always bring a bit of fun to the team.
I also like to tinker with DIY and electronics, Lego, retro video-games, craft beer, DJing and snowboarding.
If you’d like to ask me any questions, just drop me a line!
I am delighted with Screencandy’s work – I now have a fantastic website, even better than I had envisaged. Neil was an absolute pleasure to work with- inventive, responsive, efficient and professional with a solid grasp of what would make a good website.
Flora — Femusings team
Start a conversation.
Use this form to drop me a line. The more information you can give me, the more useful my response will be! I will try my best to get back to you within 2 days.
Contract · WP development
Open Door Digital Agency
This design agency in Kent was looking for a developer on a part time basis to help maintain their current clients' sites as well as design and build new ones. The design part of my job is always something I have loved, so after 8 years in two long term contracts which were focussed mainly on development, it's nice to get back to pushing pixels for a whole range of different clients!
Contract · front-end
BBC.com redevelopment
I worked on this project through the digital agency: UIC Digital.
I was pivotal in the BBC.com redevelopment: Along with one other Wordpress developer we built a headless Wordpress CMS that contains 1M+ articles, consumed from many different sources and APIs. We created a suite of custom Gutenberg components that could be used to build up lists of articles, based on either a set of user defined criteria or by simple curation. There were some very intricate and complex business and technical requirements for this project - Indeed, even representatives from Wordpress themselves had never seen an implementation like it!
Contract · WP headless CMS
The Sole Supplier
Another high traffic site, The Sole Supplier had millions of impressions per month and when I joined was a flat PHP site. It contained thousands of products and used a complex Advanced Custom Fields implementation rather than relying on a third party plugin. We got it running more smoothly and reliably than it had been, then set about a full redesign and redevelopment to turn it into a headless WP site with custom WP REST endpoints feeding a react front end and a native iOS app. This took the site to the next level.
Contract · WP development
Third Space Learning
This new company had a great product and needed to get the word out. The project for me was mainly building on their existing WP site and trying to reduce the reliance on third party plugins - of which they had a lot. They also had many integrations with marketing platforms such as SumoMe and Unbounce which needed to be connected to their site. I also helped them set up a site for a separate sub-brand, but related product using an Advanced Custom Fields page builder.
Plugin development · PHP
Event manager plugin
I've used plenty of event management plugins in my time, but each time I do there's always something slightly lacking that makes me think: I could do that better. So I took the opportunity to build my own when I started working on a couple of websites that needed one. One of my aims is to make something that can be operated at different levels depending on what the client needs: you could choose to have just a bare-bones event listing or you can choose to make further options visible like multiple event types, locations, ticketing, etc. It's as simple or complicated as you need!
Design and build · Wordpress
Open Door Digital
I was tasked with redesigning and then redeveloping a website for an online marketing and web design agency. Working from their existing brand, but with plenty of freedom to take it in a new direction. I settled on nice bold fonts and chunky blocks of colour with plenty of contrast. In developing the site I used Advanced Custom Fields (one of the handful of plugins I use) to create a nice custom page builder system - Much cleaner than their existing WP Bakery page builder.
Design and build · Wordpress
Oliver Boniface
For this project I was asked to create a minimalist site with lots of white space so an artist could showcase their work. Usually when I see these types of requests I get a little disheartened because the "minimalist" part means it's not as much fun to design and build! So I introduced my own twist, literally, by turning the page 90 degrees anticlockwise and putting the header on the left side like a "spine". I also decided to load page content with no page refresh - which I think adds to the slick feel. As expected with an artist's site, this also included a gallery which uses a masonry layout, as well as a listing of upcoming shows which uses my own SC Events Manager plugin.
Design and build · Wordpress
Uckfield Civic Centre
Uckfield's Civic Centre website was looking a bit tired so they wanted a full redesign and redevelopment. I had to use their brand colours and keep in mind accessibility standards (WCAG AA), and I decided not to go for anything too jazzy since this is a community website with a wide audience. The site has three main purposes: Community events listing, booking a room or hall and the onsite Luxford's restaurant. I separated out the events listing and room bookings into their own plugins so I can reuse them in other projects, then created an alternate template for the Luxford's restaurant sub-brand.