Ashish Pitrodafield notes
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Field guide Plate 03

Frontend

Vue and Next.js front ends, built by the person who also writes the API they talk to. That removes the most expensive meeting in web development — the one where the frontend and the backend disagree about whose problem the bug is.

— interfaces, wired to their own backend

I

Where it’s found

who this is for

You have a design

and need it built properly — responsive, accessible, and fast on the phone your customers actually use rather than the laptop it was designed on.

You are going headless

with Wagtail or Django behind and Vue or Next in front. I have built both halves of that arrangement, which mostly means knowing which half a given problem belongs to.

It works but feels slow

and the fix is rarely the framework. It is usually images, fonts, a bundle nobody has looked at in two years, and requests that could have happened in parallel.

II

Field marks

what the work actually is

  1. Vue applications

    Components that compose, state kept where it belongs, and routing that survives someone pressing the back button. Vue 3 and the composition API.

  2. Next.js sites

    Server rendering where it earns its keep and static where it does not. The rendering choice is a performance and SEO decision, not a default.

  3. Wiring to the backend

    The API and the interface designed together, so the frontend is not compensating in JavaScript for a response shape nobody wants to change.

  4. Performance

    Real measurements on real devices. Images sized and modern-formatted, fonts that do not block, and a bundle that is looked at rather than assumed.

  5. Interface behaviour

    Motion that carries meaning rather than decorating — and that stops entirely when someone has asked their system for reduced motion. The bird on this page is the demonstration.

III

Behaviour

how it runs

  1. 01Read first

    The design, the content, and what the thing is actually for. Interfaces fail on content, not components.

  2. 02Scope

    A written plan, with the rendering and state decisions named up front.

  3. 03Build in the open

    Deployed previews from the first week, on a real URL you can open on a phone.

  4. 04Hand over

    Documented, and built with your conventions rather than mine.

IV

What it costs

what decides the price

The honest driver is how settled the design is. A finished design system builds quickly; a design that is still being decided while it is being built costs considerably more, and it is worth knowing which one you have before anyone quotes.

Defined work is quoted fixed. Open-ended work starts with a short paid review that produces a plan and a fixed number for the rest.

V

Questions

the ones I get asked

Vue or React?
Whichever your team can maintain. If you have no team and no preference, I will suggest the one that fits the project — and if you already have React people, the answer is React, not the framework I would enjoy more.
Do you design as well?
I build, and I have opinions about type and spacing that show up in the result. I am not a substitute for a designer on brand work, and I will say so rather than take the fee.
Can you make our existing site faster?
Usually, and it is one of the more satisfying jobs because the before and after are numbers rather than opinions. It starts with measuring, which sometimes ends with me telling you the problem is on the server.

Send a note

Tell me what you have, what is wrong, and what it should do instead. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right fit.

Write to me or read the other plates