Wes Hulsizer - About Page

Creating digital solutions through human-centered problem solving

Creating digital solutions through human-centered problem solving


Wes headshot

Designer, developer, hobbyist, & maker

Hi there!

My friends call me Wes. I'm a hobbyist, homesteader, designer, developer, and an accessibility consultant.

My passions are focused on helping others, supporting natural living, and rule #32 (enjoy the little things).

My career has been focused on solving problems and making a positive impact on the world, or at least on the people in it.

This website is designed, built, & maintained by me. No CMS. It's built with JQuery & Bootstrap 5.

The intent & purpose of this site

  • A home for some of my frequently used web apps
  • Give people a primary location for information & requests
  • Explorations & testing of design or development concepts

If you want to know more about me and my work...


Consulting, Product Design, Engineering & Support

I work in this field because I chase the dream of helping people through digital solutions. What better way to help the world than by enabling them to learn, grow, and solve problems together? I've spent 10 years supporting, designing, & developing accessible web applications. My career has taken me through e-commerce, ed-tech, CMS & LMS. I enjoy frontend development, database design & writing SQL queries, but my passion is in design. I've had the opportunity to be a UX Engineering on occasion where I took accessible web applications from idea to concept to development and delivery.

Read more on my web resume page, and my portfolio page, and I invite you to check out my LinkedIn profile .

  • UX Engineer
  • UX Designer
  • Product Designer
  • Software Engineer (Full Stack & Front End)
  • Scrum Master
  • Accessibility SME
  • Accessibility Consultant
  • Advanced Support Engineer
  • Product Owner
  • Project Manager

My diverse professional journey through various roles and titles reflects a career built on adaptability, continuous learning, and a passion for embracing challenges in the dynamic tech industry. From UX Engineering to Product Management, each position has been a stepping stone, allowing me to accumulate a rich blend of skills, perspectives, and insights. This varied experience enables me to approach problems creatively, lead with empathy, and drive innovation by integrating the best practices from each discipline. Whether it's enhancing user experiences, leading agile teams, or consulting on accessibility, the common thread has been my commitment to excellence and growth in the ever-evolving landscape of technology.

Wes and Kayla at the creek house

Accessibility

I've been testing, developing, and designing for accessibility for nearly a decade (about 8 years). I've led training for developers and I've created business pitches to sell accessible software packages & solutions at marketing agencies. I've completed redesigns for those same accessible solutions.

I worked closely with the other accessibility teams while at Blackboard (now known as Anthology) for years. We built off their automated alternative file format downloads for disabled users and we built out an API integration for automated page scanning for the CMS educators & admins would use to build out content.

I've worked with health, education, and government clients and I've worked directly with businesses & school administrators who were battling accessibility litigations. I was also the first to build an accessibly focused alternative eCommerce theme for BigCommerce with others.

My largest project to date was an audit and overhaul of the entire CorpU platform for the learner experience. This was a planned 1-year project. The first quarter of the year was spent with planning, design, & customer interviews, and the other 3 quarters were spent on a complete frontend re-development. During this time, I was also able to start the foundations of the CorpU component library.

Accessibility is at the core of every project I've taken on in the last several years. It's not because of the natural inclusivity, it's not because it's legally binding, and it's not because it's profitable. It's even more simple than those already good-to-great reasons. It's because it's the right answer to every problem. We have the data backing many of the most popular decisions to create more accessible environments. The common study is that closed captions, live transcripts, and other accessible media narratives help non-disabled viewers retain information when compared to the environments lacking those features & tools. I love to reference how much more comfortable it is to use a public restroom that has a single, well-designed family restroom versus larger facilities with no changing stations that were simply "built to code".

My skills in accessibility revolve around the use of automated scanning tools, my personally developed accessibility color contrast checker, and manual testing (typically keyboard testing with VoiceOver). Automated tools include the axe linter, Siteimprove, various axe-core plugins, the WAVE tool, estensions on Figma, Adobe, MS products, and more.

Homesteading

I started taking care of chickens in 2018. I feed them layer feed from Purina along with flock party mealworm. Most importantly, tons of veggies, other kitchen scrap healthy treats, and all the goodies they get from roaming the homestead! (plus keeping my yard tick-free is a huge bonus!)

3D Printing & Design

3D printing holds two philosophies for me: #1 is about the freedom to create & fix the everyday items you need. Few things feel as great as fixing your kids' favorite toys or making something that changes the way you charge your phone every day. The second philosophy is around the creative liberty & license of everyday people who get to rethink the mold of how you might interact with everyday objects. I love the 3D printing communities and all I've learned since 2017.

More details available and more to come when on my 3D printing and services page.

Political Affliations, Movements, and Petitions

Pass the Kids Online Safety Act

Help protect our children from the harmful, shameful side influences of social media

Read more at act.parentstogetheraction.org or visit the Dove.com information page.

Hobbies & Interests

I consider myself a hobbyist, there's a lot I've tried and more I'm looking to start. I am a

  • student pilot
  • boat captain
  • scuba certified diver
  • motorcycle rider
  • 3D printing enthusiast
  • homesteader
  • small business owner

I'm raking up certificates & licenses like video game achievements .

IT Consultation

My journey into IT consultation is rooted in a lifelong passion for empathy-driven technology solutions. From my early days at Best Buy during high school and college, I've been dedicated to helping others navigate and solve their technology challenges. My approach is about demystifying technology and making it accessible and actionable for everyone. Whether it's optimizing your existing infrastructure or constructing entirely new solutions, my goal is to empower teams and individuals with tailored IT strategies. To ensure the highest quality of service, I leverage a small, trusted network of colleagues who assist in bringing these ventures to life. Together, we're committed to enhancing your business through strategic, personalized IT solutions.


I'm continously updating this page with relevant information as well as my resume. If you have any questions, I welcome you to contact me via my Google form or via your preferred social network.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Questions not written into cards yet: 1. What is your experience working with vendors? 2. What design strategy do you use when the design roadmap is unclear? 3. Where do you see yourself in the net 1-3 years? 4. What project are you most proud of? 5. Tell me about a project that wasn't successful and why? 6. Greatest strength / weakness 7. How do you win over customers who feel accessibility is unimportant? 8. What's the first rule of Aria? 9. What is your ideal team / work environment? 10.

Every part of the design process is important, and each stage serves a unique purpose in achieving a successful outcome. However, if I had to choose one aspect, I would say understanding is the most important phase in my design process. Furthermore, if I had to pick one activity, I would have to say user interviews and other user research activities. Understanding activities that include further exploring the business goals, comparisons against identified user needs, fully defining the project scope, and conducting user research is critical to success measurements and stakeholder buy-in. In my career, I've found that these activities provide us with a deeper understanding of the problems we are trying to solve.

Design systems are living entities and I've seen them be treated in two ways - like a tool in the company's toolbox or like a product. The key to scalable design systems is treating them like a product and starting with well-defined strategies -
  1. Growth & architect mindset - Planning for the growth of the design system outside of current project needs. How to accommodate features and functionality as well as how to prevent overlaps and inconsistencies.
  2. Documentation - guidelines, training, FAQ, requests, and communications to name a few of the important requirements of a successful and scalable design system. Documentation will ultimately enable or hinder other designers (as well as other stakeholders such as engineers) from contributing to and using the system.
  3. Modular / ATOMic - This feeds into the proper growth of the design system itself with a focus on interoperability. Tokens need to be usable by the components while tokens should still be usable across all elements inside of new features. This allows for greater flexibility and adaptability. The ultimate goal here is to provide support in accommodating new and different scenarios.
  4. Testing & feedback - This feeds back into treating the design system like a product. User testing, focused workshops on features or workflows, reviewing code, and deploying other analytical tools to measure the adaptability of the design system.

Yes, relocation is an option for us given the terms are fair and accommodating. I also ask in return, what are the in office cultures you value and what support do you give your employees to help them manage their work-life balance?

I see myself creating new and accessible features for learning, financial, and priviate business organizations. I intend to contiue growing my personal brand, my startup company, and to stay focused on my family and homesteading values.

Want more?

I invite you to check out my LinkedIn profile or view my portfolio page.

If you have any questions, I welcome you to contact me via my Google form or your preferred social network.

Recently added design process page.

Recently added certificates page.