Work > Testimonials
Not to brag (maybe just a little), but I get stuff done on-time and on-budget. The following is what clients and coworkers have said about my work…
A long time ago, I made a decision to work only with people smarter than me, and Nathan aptly fulfilled that role. Both in and out of the web design world, Nathan succeeds. His ability to solve problems is a great asset that was put to use more often than I could count. His knowledge of front-end coding makes designing along side him easy. Having someone as smart and talented as Nathan next to you makes you look good and design better. Knowing what Nathan is possible of makes planning adventurous projects fun and less scary.
Nathan is one of those rare individuals entirely comfortable conceiving, describing, and certainly working with a 360 degree view of any interactive project. He intuitively grasps the relevant factors and has the skills to then implement them, be they visual, behavioral, or functional. He has been a willing tutor and a valuable mentor in my ongoing scripting and CMS education. Few of my professional friends have his combination of broad skill, patience, and humor.
Nathan is like a sponge. He knows so much, yet he yearns to learn more. My frequent conversations with him have taught me that. He is a gifted individual with a great taste for design. Ambitious but level headed, he is dedicated to supporting causes that matter to him.
I had the privilege of working on a product incubation team with Nathan. Naturally, there were many open ended problems to solve. Most inspiring was how he embraced this ambiguity as opportunity.
He's a thoughtful and talented engineer with a great depth of knowledge in front-end development and design. Not satisfied with simply finding a solution that works, Nathan pursued and found ingenious solutions to bring the team's vision to life.
It was a joy to collaborate with him and he'd consistently find that extra element to take the product or feature up another notch. He's generous with his knowledge and I personally learned a lot from him.
Beyond being a great colleague, his wit and humor make working together a lot of fun!
I worked with Nathan on projects integrating our AI tool (Bonsai) into work he was doing. I can say without reservation he is an incredible professional in that he knows his tools, patterns, practices, etc. extremely solid, as well as he is a strategic thinker balanced with being appropriately humble in understanding other approaches.
He is one of the people I seek out to work on projects with.
Any time I receive a compliment for the Stonebriar site, I have to give Nathan a big portion of the credit, because he always encouraged me to not let those code monkey voices in my head hinder my artistic instincts. He constantly told me, "Just design it how you want to design it, and I'll worry about how to make it work."
Nathan is fantastic to work with. He creates quality solutions quickly. He comes to the table with many of the problems inherent in today's designs already worked out. So, you spend more time developing a great solution instead of arguing about details. I will continue working with him.
I have had the pleasure of working with Nathan for over a year now. I was so excited to be able to get him on the team because of his extensive knowledge of front-end web development. Despite my very high expectations Nathan has still exceeded them. He is fast, conscientious, fun and very enjoyable to work with. He has a great feel for what is required and can work well with partially specified or loosely understood requirements and still make forward progress. He is willing to learn and adjust and does not get to hung up on what has been done but stays focused on what is best for the user. I would never hesitate to work with Nathan.
Nathan deftly transformed [the Geniant blog] into markup while navigating the endless requests and changes that Jared and I threw at him as the idea evolved. Working with a team like that makes everything seem so easy and painless.
I had the pleasure of working with Nathan during his time at InVision. While I didn't work directly with his engineering team, we did work together through our Diversity and Inclusion programs. He always expresses his views in a way that is informative, compassionate, and focused on improving awareness. He makes people feel at ease, even when having really tough conversations. I really enjoyed working with him, and would be happy to have the opportunity to do so again.
Thank you very much for your kindness and generosity. You are taking Life Light Ministries to a different level. You have spoken for those who can do speak for themselves. You are making a difference.
Nathan is a very bright, creative individual that is an absolute joy to work with. During our time working together, I saw him quickly find his way around very complicated codebases multiple times. Every time, as he moved along he untangled the previous chaos and left behind a path of organized, sensible changes that made the code easier to understand and modify. A proactive individual and great at teamwork, Nathan was always willing to jump in and help me debug a complicated problem, and would always provide actionable, comprehensive feedback on our team's PRs. Absolutely recommend him.
As with any Nathan Smith endeavor, this kit is very well thought out and executed. He has considered many details and implemented them thoroughly. If you are looking to cut down development time while sketching, wireframing, or coding hi-fi prototypes, his work on 960.gs is sure to be a great starting point.
I have collaborated with Nathan on several projects and each time he has amazed me with his efficiency, effectiveness and knowledge of web design techniques.
Nathan is a double threat, equally talented as a designer and developer. He's the author of awesome widely used tools like 960.gs, Formalize, and Adapt.js. To top things off, he's extremely easygoing and an absolute pleasure to work with.
While at HP Cloud Services, Nathan managed significant parts of the look and feel for the organization, spearheaded best practices in our front-end development, and balanced the competing demands of multiple internal projects — all without breaking a sweat.
Nathan is 0% ego, 100% results. If you ever have the opportunity to hire him, snap him up quick while you have the chance!
Nathan Smith is an important figure in the history of web development. His 960 Grid System is one of the seminal open source CSS projects and was the de facto grid system of its day.
When Nathan joined my team, he was already an established "rockstar". He would never use that term though, because his personality is nothing like that. He's humble, kind, and compassionate. He's a teacher at heart and always has time to help others. Oh, and he's funny too! In the four years I worked with him, Nathan was a pillar of our engineering practice.
I hope to work with Nathan again in the future. He leads by example, is a master of his craft, and never stops learning.
Nathan has done a couple of freelance jobs for me. I can say without reservation that his work is simply amazing. His design and code are impeccable. He even delivers when he says he will. I'd hire him full time in a second if he let me!
Nathan is one of the most genuine people I've met and is extremely accomplished at his ability to adhere to and educate others on web standards. Also, his comprehension of CSS and XHTML is something to be admired. He is a natural leader in the web design community and someone with whom it is a joy to associate.
Usually, when you sit down to write a description for what you want in your next hire, you end up with a collection of traits you're sure you'll never find in a single person: talented yet humble; a leader and a team player; someone who takes action, but is patient. Then there are those traits that are sadly rare all by themselves: ethical, transparent, thorough, hard-working. I'm pleased to say that in the time I got to work with Nathan, I found him to be a person who possessed this rare and almost paradoxical set of characteristics. If you are looking for someone who will not only help build your product and your business, but also infuse your work culture with good, you need not search any further.
Nathan is a great asset to the UXD team due to his versatility across information architecture, front-end development, and visual design. This breadth of skills greatly increases our ability to staff projects and increase overall group utilization. He is always very personable and eager to help with a smile. His peers enjoy his interaction and appreciate his knowledge, skills and feedback. He is a great ambassador of the UXD group.