Hi. I'm Christoph.
I design & build sites and apps.

I build software throwing in PHP, Go, JavaScript and Shell scripts into the mix. I design and build User Interfaces with a diverse set of devices in mind, manage projects and occasionally do the one or other Ops thing with SmartOS, Amazon Web Services or Puppet.

I created open source tools and libraries to make it easy to run multiple versions of PHP side by side, to manage front end assets and automate projects. I’m also a contributor to open source projects like Composer or Stack.

I spend most of my time trying to make the life of other PHP programmers more joyful through Open Source, but I also know some Ruby, know my way around Rails, and think that Go is an awesome language for developing systems and services.

When away from the computer I'm a photographer, a cyclist and serving in the local volunteer fire company.

You can find out more about my projects and contributions at Github or view my CV at StackOverflow Careers.

I believe

  1. Web Designers should be able to code. Being able to code lets Designers prototype ideas longer — which leads to better thought out ideas, and thus to better products.
  2. Designing in the browser is superior to designing in Photoshop. A drawing of a web site is never able to communicate the full breadth of possible interactions, and is a far cry from the result.
  3. Tell people what to do and why —not how.
  4. Involving engineering as early in the design process as possible yields the best results. Programmers often have valuable feedback, and often are as “design-minded” as people who call themselves Designers.
  5. Project managers are not able to tell the future. processes should deal well with the changing nature of reality.