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Jack Ridley

Software Developer // Audio Programmer

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About Me

My joy as a Designer comes from designing for the user; using technical complexity to present user experiences that feel intuitive and expressive.

I love the challenge of designing for the unpredictable user, aiming to design tools that enable creation well beyond what I may have imagined.

My career began in the theatre, studying performance art and working as a Sound Designer and Composer for live stage productions. Here my greatest enjoyment came from designing procedural sound systems that could respond dynamically in real-time to performers and audiences.

I was able to explore the technical possibilities of these procedural systems in more depth during the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Sound Design, where software such as Max/MSP, Unity, Unreal Engine, and Wwise allowed me to create ever more complex interactions. I began using C++ to develop audio plugins in the JUCE framework. This was revelatory, as I found programming was surprisingly creative and engaged with all the technical and creative challenges that make work exciting for me.

Since completing my studies, I have jumped headfirst into the world of Software as a Full Stack Developer with Accolite in Glasgow, rounding out my initial experiences of programming with the wide world of Application Architecture and Development. I have especially enjoyed being indoctrinated into the world of team Agile Development, designing Graphical User Interfaces, and learning to love the painful art of automated testing.

Experience

Accolite Digital

Software Engineer

At Accolite, I received training in Java, Spring Boot, Typescript, Angular, HTML, CSS, Agile, and Git.

As an Accolite consultant, I work full-time within an Agile team at Morgan Stanley, working on internal web applications built with Java and Typescript as a full stack developer.

Within this role I have found particular joy in UI design, designing many new features all the way from the wireframing to implementation. I am involved in multiple internal UX/UI Community groups and guilds, and run meetings myself for a small cross-team group that meet to share UI knowledge and offer help to those with less experience.

Within my own team, I've introduced Figma as a wireframing tool, which has significantly improved our design process. I've also worked a lot on consolidating our existing UI to acheive consistency across what had become a sprawling application in both code implementation and design style.

I am proud to be known as a thorough Code Reviewer, and enjoy the way this brings a team together to discuss best practices.

Freelance

Sound Designer, Composer

As a freelance Sound Designer I have created sound and music for performance artist Stacy Makishi including her performances Malama Maki, Proud Marys, and The Church of Latter Day Sinners.

I have also worked as Sound Designer for the Theatre Companies Cardboard Citizens and Just Add Milk on productions such as Digging Deep, and Who Cares.

In podcasting and audiobooks, I worked as the audio producer on the award winning audiobook Brilliant White Peaks, and the podcast PyDataMCR which focuses on open-source data tooling and doubled as a way to indulge my tech interests.

Projects

Tools

Education

University of Edinburgh

September 2020 - August 2022

1st MSc Sound Design

Focused on the technical side of audio design. Designed interactive audio experiences, and used C++ to design audio plugins. My dissertation project: Designing Physical Sound Interactions.

Queen Mary University of London

September 2015 - June 2018

2:1 BA Drama

Focused on performance art and experimental forms of theatre. This route led me into experimental sound art, and designing procedural sound systems for the stage.

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