About Den

I’m a frontend-focused architect, and author with over 25 years of experience building thoughtful, high-impact user interfaces and systems for some of the world’s most recognized brands. I specialize in frontend performance, accessibility, and developer experience, blending code quality with product intuition.

I’ve led architecture for user-facing applications at Volvo Cars, delivered frontend systems for Nike and MINI at AKQA, and contributed to new developer assessment at Riot Games. Most recently, I launched ByteShrink, an AI-powered tool for identifying bloat in apps via package.json file analysis, and am actively building ShrinkRay, a performance tooling suite for analyzing and improving output bundle size and frontend bottlenecks.

As well as my Journal, I also write books. My titles Pro JavaScript Development and Pro JavaScript RIA Techniques are published by Apress and used in university curricula around the world. They’ve been cited in academic papers, held in libraries from Harvard to St Andrews, and translated into multiple languages.

I care deeply about building fast, accessible, and resilient experiences, and about the engineering cultures that make them possible. My work brings together performance, inclusivity, and pragmatic developer experience to support products that scale with care.

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Product Work & Projects

• Volvo Cars
  Led frontend architecture for customer-facing ecommerce tools like the Configurator and Offer Selector, supporting vehicle personalization and purchase across global markets. Collaborated with product, design, and backend teams to deliver fast, reliable experiences using React, TypeScript, and Next.js.

• AKQA – International Head of Web Development
  Led global web development across client projects, internal standards, and team practices. Drove technical strategy and delivery for major brands including Nike, MINI, and more. Founded and ran TECH.insight, a global dev meetup series bridging engineering and design.

• MINI Global Site Relaunch (AKQA)
  Delivered modern UI components and AEM integration for MINI’s global brand site, working closely with creative and product teams to balance design fidelity with performance.

• Nike (AKQA)
  Built frontend UI systems for Nike’s web campaigns, SDKs, and content interfaces, integrating responsive components with backend APIs to deliver consistent, high-performance experiences.

• ByteShrink / ShrinkRay
  Creator of ByteShrink and ShrinkRay, two AI-assisted performance analysis and debugging tools for modern frontend architectures.

• Riot Games
  Contributed to code quality practices for developer hiring.

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Judging & Industry Contributions

• Judge for the 2025 WebAward Competition by the Web Marketing Association.
• Former International Head of Web Development at AKQA
• Invited speaker and advisor on frontend performance and tooling
• Creator of community resources and internal standards for cross-functional web teams
• Individual member of the OpenJS Foundation, supporting open-source JavaScript initiatives and standards

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Contact

For collaboration, judging, writing, or speaking inquiries, get in touch or connect via LinkedIn.