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Stephen Gaines UX

Legacy UX & Website Modernization

I help organizations update aging websites and legacy software to better serve the people who use them.

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Modernizing Complex Digital Experiences

My work combines UX design and front-end development to improve usability, accessibility, and maintainability.

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Turning Digital Friction into Clear Paths Forward

I bring clearer structure, consistent design, and practical improvements to the workflows people depend on every day.

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Check out my featured case studies

Explore how I approach complex workflows, evolving websites, and the people who use them.

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Website Design & Modernization

Building, recovering, and improving websites to support changing business needs—from initial design to ongoing development and maintenance.

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Legacy UX & Application Modernization

Simplifying complex interfaces and operational workflows through clearer navigation, practical design systems, and front-end improvements.

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Thoughtful Design, Development, & Improvement

I’m Stephen Gaines, a UX designer and front-end developer with more than 11 years of experience improving websites and digital tools. I combine WordPress development and UX design to make websites, legacy ERPs, and web applications easier to use and maintain. My retail leadership background shapes how I work: listening closely, understanding people’s needs, and clarifying the next step. Whether recovering hacked websites or simplifying complex workflows, I bring practical solutions that support people and businesses over time.

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My Services

I help organizations create, improve, and maintain websites and digital tools. My services combine UX design and hands-on development, from building new websites and modernizing legacy applications to recovering broken sites and providing ongoing support. Every project starts with understanding your needs and finding a practical path forward.

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Website Modernization

Improve an existing site’s design, usability, mobile experience, and maintainability.

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Website Design & Development

Create a new website around the organization’s content, customers, and goals.

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Legacy UX

Simplify complex interfaces and workflows in ERPs and internal applications.

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Ongoing Support

Recover broken websites, troubleshoot problems, and provide ongoing maintenance.

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Website & UX Audits

Identify usability, content, navigation, and technical issues, with a prioritized plan for improvements.

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Website Migration

Move between platforms or hosting providers while preserving content and managing redirects.

Case Studies

These featured case studies show how I help businesses recover, rebuild, and strengthen their websites. From restoring a recovery center’s search visibility and rebuilding its pre-sales experience, to recovering a hacked law firm website and providing years of ongoing support, to rebuilding an e-cigarette importer’s WooCommerce store, each project brings together design, development, and practical problem-solving to support the people and business behind the website.

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Digital Recovery & Rebuild

A two year digital transformation spanning website design, search recovery, content strategy, and patient acquisition.

Across three generations of a behavioral-health website, I restored search visibility after a Google penalty, replaced high-risk SEO practices and low-quality content, and rebuilt the experience around credibility, accessibility, and prospective-patient needs.

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Designing a Smarter Way to Discover Cowboy Boots

Turning personal style into a structured, interactive boot discovery experience.

Bootbase is a self-directed UX and WordPress case study exploring how personal style can be translated into structured data. I designed and developed the private prototype as an editorial and research platform focused on Western footwear, style archetypes, and boot discovery.

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Law Firm Website Recovery, Development and Ongoing Support

From emergency website recovery to nearly nine years of ongoing digital support.

The engagement began when the firm’s WordPress website was hacked and taken offline. After recovering the website from a physical backup, I restored its online presence, established new hosting, and continued supporting the firm for nine years.

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Rebuilding a Fragmented WooCommerce Store

As Web Designer and SEO Specialist, I led the five-month recovery and rebuild of KMG Imports’ WordPress and WooCommerce store.

I rebuilt a fragmented e-commerce store into a clearer, faster, and more reliable shopping experience by reorganizing the product catalog, optimizing product content for search, simplifying checkout, resolving database issues, and protecting a legacy inventory integration.

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Behind the Design

Urban UX October 14, 2026

When Removing a Freeway Improved the Experience

San Francisco’s Embarcadero Freeway promised better connections but separated downtown from its waterfront. Its removal offers a lesson in urban UX: question inherited systems, understand who depends on them, and consider what people could gain when something familiar is taken away.

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Stephen Gaines Author
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Apple UX September 21, 2026

Apple’s UX Beyond the Screen

My years at Apple Retail taught me that UX extends beyond the screen. From a first demonstration to the moment someone feels confident using a product, every interaction shapes the experience.

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Design Systems September 16, 2026

What Saturday Night Live Can Teach Us About Design Systems

I fell in love with SNL in the fall of 1986, when it was beginning its transformation into the modern show we know today. As a teenager, I wasn’t thinking about production design, visual language, or systems. I just knew I loved the show. However, looking back, I realize I was learning to recognize patterns that extended far beyond television.

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Cowboy Boot UX August 31, 2026

UX Lessons from Cowboy Boots

Working part time on the sales floor has changed how I think about UX. Helping people choose boots has reinforced the value of listening, explaining choices clearly, and giving customers the confidence to decide for themselves.

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Stephen Gaines Author
Driver Distraction August 12, 2026

It’s Time for a Driver Distraction Rating

Modern vehicles are increasingly software-defined, yet automotive safety ratings continue to focus almost exclusively on crash survivability. This article argues that as critical driving functions migrate into touchscreen interfaces and increasingly complex software ecosystems, we should begin measuring another dimension of safety: driver distraction.

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