Simplifying complex interfaces and operational workflows through clearer navigation, practical design systems, and front-end improvements.
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Building, recovering, and improving websites to support changing business needs—from initial design to ongoing development and maintenance.
Learn MoreI’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 my approach: listen closely, understand people’s needs, and clarify the next step. Whether recovering hacked websites or simplifying complex workflows, I bring practical solutions that support people and businesses over time.
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.
Improve an existing site’s design, usability, mobile experience, and maintainability.
Create a new website around the organization’s content, customers, and goals.
Simplify complex interfaces and workflows in ERPs and internal applications.
Recover broken websites, troubleshoot problems, and provide ongoing maintenance.
Identify usability, content, navigation, and technical issues, with a prioritized plan for improvements.
Move between platforms or hosting providers while preserving content and managing redirects.
These featured case studies show how I help businesses recover, rebuild, and strengthen their websites. From restoring recovery center’s search visibility and rebuilding its patient experience, to recovering a hacked law firm website and providing years of ongoing support, to rebuilding an electronic cigerette importer's WooCommerce store, each project brings together design, development, and practical problem-solving to support the people and business behind the website.
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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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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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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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.
View case studyMy 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.
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.
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.
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.
