Yaphi Berhanu

Front-End Web Engineer with a splash of full-stack

About

Hi, I'm Yaphi. (Pronunciation guide: It rhymes with "taffy.")

I'm a front-end web engineer at Rosetta Stone, and a published JavaScript author for outlets that include SitePoint and CSS-Tricks. In my spare time, I run Simple Steps Code to teach people about web development.

My primary skills are JavaScript, CSS3, and HTML5, and I've worked with Node.js, React, Gulp, LESS, Express, Socket.io, jQuery, MongoDB, SQL, Firebase, Puppeteer.js, Jenkins, SVN, Git, and other tech.
(I've also used Java, PHP, BASIC, and C, but that was a long time ago and I remember none of those.)

Besides coding, I enjoy soccer, video games, barbell squats, psychology, hiking, and puns. I'm a huge Zelda fan, so talk to me about that and we're automatically friends.

Work Samples

Revamped Rosetta Stone's web presence

Tech used:
JavaScript, Node.js, Gulp, CSS, HTML
Highlights:
  • Loading speed improvements of 2X to 3X from before
  • Introduced common-modules architecture to speed up development and make maintenance easier
  • Animation performance boosts (to approx 60fps)
  • Implemented responsiveness and accessibility across whole web presence

Built core client-side application logic for product purchasing UI

Description:
This application logic powers Rosetta Stone's storefront pages. It pulls product data from an API and displays the correct info. Then it updates pricing, cart links, UI, etc. as needed when the user changes their product preferences.
Tech used:
Vanilla JavaScript, CSS, HTML
Highlights:
  • React-inspired component architecture with unidirectional data-flow
  • Written in vanilla JS; lightweight, fast, and portable
  • Organized, testable, maintainable code

Built Internal Applications and Utilities

Tech used:
JavaScript, React, Bash, Node.js, Gulp, Puppeteer.js, CSS, HTML
Highlights:
  • Built React dashboard to make product API data accessible to non-developers (convenient, exportable, filterable)
  • Wrote dev utilities such as an html-to-js converter, an image compression tool, a business data generator, a global scope protector, a bulk image downloader, an automated cart testing script, and more.
  • Added at least a full extra person's worth of productivity.

Built GDPR Data Privacy Compliance Systems, Saving $23 Million in Potential Fines

Tech used:
JavaScript, Adobe DTM, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, OneTrust, Responsys, Magento
Highlights:
  • Built cookie blocking system as well as email consent management system
  • Wrote custom integrations between my systems and Adobe DTM, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Responsys, OneTrust, Third-party pixel vendors, and Magento.

Code Samples

Pure CSS MacBook

Description:
I built this fully-repsonsive pure CSS MacBook using gradients, pseudo-elements, fluid dimensions, border radii, transformations, and transparency. I spent a lot of time staring at a photo of a MacBook to get everything right.

Quickipedia - Instant Wikipedia Summaries

See the Pen Quickipedia - Instant Wikipedia Summaries by Yaphi (@yaphi1) on CodePen.

Description:
When you type in the text box, you'll see your query's top five summaries from Wikipedia's API. To boost performance, I used a cache object in order to minimize the number of API calls and perform repeated lookups in O(1) time.

Yaphi-Chat - Chat App Built with Socket.io

Description:
This real-time chat app works on any device. Try it out in multiple tabs and multiple devices. Tech stack: Node.js, Express, Socket.io.

React Pizza - Online Store UI Built with React

Description:
This was built with React. Highlights include a real-time filtering product search, organized state management, and animated UI transitions. Feel free to try it out!

More Samples?

For more code samples, feel free to check out my CodePen.

Relevant Experience

Front-End Web Engineer - Rosetta Stone (Jun​ ​2014​ ​- ​Present)

Web​ ​Development​ ​Author​ ​-​ ​Various​ Outlets​​ ​(Aug​ ​2015​ ​-​ ​Present)

Founder​ ​-​ ​Simple​ ​Steps​ ​Code​​ ​(Jan ​2015​ ​-​ ​Present)

Front-End​ ​Web​ ​Developer​ ​-​ ​Idea​ ​House​​ ​(Mar 2012​ ​-​ ​Jun 2014)

Freelance Web Developer - Various Clients​​ ​(2011​ ​-​ ​2012)

Web Developer - System Parking Corporation (Oct 2009 - Mar 2012)

Other Experience

For other experience, see LinkedIn.

Selected Articles

SitePoint

CSS-Tricks

WebdesignerDepot

Indie Hackers

Recommendations

James Hibbard - JavaScript Editor at SitePoint

Yaphi wrote a number of technical articles for me whilst I was responsible for editing SitePoint's JavaScript channel. The quality of his writing was always first rate and he consistently demonstrated a deep and thorough grasp of the subjects he covered. Yaphi always met deadlines, was flexible, responded well to feedback and was always polite and courteous. It was a pleasure working with Yaphi and I would jump at the chance to do it again.

Bruce Franchi - Web Engineer at Rosetta Stone

Working with Yaphi throughout the years was very pleasant. Good personality and highly skilled. Probably the best coder I've worked with - you knew exactly what each piece of his code was doing, not just because of the extensive documentation, but also because of his clear code clarity. He wrote clean and modular code that made it a breeze to reuse. He also wrote internal apps that saved the other devs plenty of time (like an html to js stringify'er, an svg icons library, and many others). Highly intelligent and always the go-to person for difficult problems.

Sam Ratcliffe - Lead Web Engineer at Stash

Working with Yaphi was an absolute pleasure. It was extremely motivating to know you were working with someone with the ingenuity and expertise of Yaphi's caliber. He is a dedicated and passionate engineer whose problem-solving skills were invaluable to us [at Rosetta Stone] time and time again. I am certain he would be a valuable asset to any team.

Contact

You can reach me by email at my first name, as written in the headline, followed by the integer that's greater than 0 and less than 2 at gmail.

You can also find me on CodePen or LinkedIn.