About

From support work to software

Background

I have a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Victoria University of Wellington. I've worked in mental health and disability support for over three years and still do, alongside finishing the New Zealand Diploma in Software Development (Level 6) at Yoobee Colleges, specialising in cloud computing.

Approach

Support work taught me to design around the person at the other end. It also showed me how much better the software in that sector could be. Support plans were static documents that were awkward to navigate, and only the worker used them. Notes were written at the end of a shift, unpaid, with no clear format. Since then I've been building the skills to fix problems like these: the diploma, an edX Python course, Claude Code courses, and a lot of personal projects across different languages and stacks. ShiftNote and Nīkau come straight from those gaps. The one I'm working towards is a living support plan: something clients are part of, where they can see their plan and progress and get updates.

How I work

In practice, I use Claude Code to help me learn new concepts and to explain why my code isn't working, so my knowledge grows as I build. When it generates code, I review, adapt and test it myself before it goes in. I've written my own skills, hooks and commands for it, and changes go through pull requests I review.

Projects

Selected work

Rhythm for the Soul

A therapeutic drumming facilitator and world musician needed a site that felt atmospheric and distinctive. Full design and build in Astro and Tailwind CSS v4, with service pages spanning schools, rest homes, disability programmes, and live events, each with its own page so the language and call to action speak directly to that audience.

Astro Tailwind CSS
View live site Case study
Rhythm for the Soul website homepage showing atmospheric dark design with drumming imagery and links to school, rest home, and event services

Client project

FOCUS

A student task manager deployed on Azure

No longer hosted.

A server-rendered task manager built with Flask and PostgreSQL, deployed to Azure on free-tier services. The case study is about the deployment decisions, not the app.

Flask PostgreSQL Azure Figma
Case study View code
FOCUS All Tasks page listing four tasks with Low, High and Medium priority badges, dates from 11 to 25 September, and one task marked Completed

Diploma coursework

ELDR

An accessible marketplace for older New Zealanders

Prototype, not hosted.

A marketplace prototype built with Jove Tondo, where listings are checked for suitability and one switch makes the whole interface larger and higher contrast. I built product browsing, the wishlist and the accessibility mode.

Next.js TypeScript Flask PostgreSQL
Case study View code
ELDR home page with a navy header and Accessibility switch, a Shop by what you need heading, a search bar, four category tiles (Mobility, Vision, Hearing, Daily living) and the top of the product cards for a walking device, hearing aid and bottle opener

Diploma coursework

Tourism Management System

Visitor management for a heritage park

Team project, still live.

A visitor management system for a heritage park, with separate views for each type of user. Built in a team of three with Jove Tondo. I led the backend in C# and PostgreSQL, designing the data model and the API the frontend was built on.

C# PostgreSQL Azure
View live site
Onewhero Bay visitor management dashboard showing park booking interface and stakeholder admin views

Diploma coursework

Currently building

Nīkau

In build, September to November 2026.

Finding community activities for a disability support client depends on what each worker already knows. Nīkau suggests activities from a checked catalogue and explains each one in plain language, as a lead for the worker to follow up.

React FastAPI Supabase Gemini Flash-Lite Vercel Figma
Read the proposal

Diploma coursework

  • ShiftNote On-device AI for restructuring support worker case notes without sending sensitive data to the cloud.

    In development

    Kotlin Jetpack Compose ML Kit

“He completely redesigned my website and has been an absolute pleasure to work with from start to finish. Every idea or change I came up with was implemented quickly and easily, his attention to detail is superb. Nothing was ever a problem, and he genuinely cared about getting everything spot on. The new site looks professional, easy to navigate, inviting and it feels like me!”

Chewy Wilson Rhythm for the Soul

Skills

Development

  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • React & Next.js
  • Python (Flask, FastAPI)
  • Kotlin
  • C#
  • REST APIs

Cloud & teamwork

  • Azure
  • AWS
  • Supabase, Vercel & Neon
  • SQL & PostgreSQL
  • Docker
  • CI/CD (GitHub Actions)
  • Git & GitHub (PRs, code review)
  • Scrum in Jira

Users & design

  • Disability support
  • Mental health
  • Community & youth services
  • Psychology (BA)
  • Accessibility (WCAG AA)
  • Figma
  • Wireframing & prototyping

AI

  • Claude Code
  • Custom skills, hooks & commands
  • AI-assisted code review
  • LLM APIs (Gemini)
  • On-device ML (ML Kit)

Contact

Let's talk

Currently available for freelance projects. Seeking a graduate or junior developer role from December 2026.

Wellington-based, open to hybrid, remote, or relocation. NZ citizen with Australian work rights.

View CV
GitHub LinkedIn Wellington, New Zealand