Alexander Oloo

Alexander Oloo

  • Human
  • Engineer
  • Designer

I solve business problems using design and code. I build APIs, craft user experiences, and mentor designers & devs. My toolbox consists of Coaching, Clojure, Javascript, Vue, Angular, CSS, Product Design, UX, and UI.

Alexander Oloo
Currently

I'm currently a Design Director at the Absa Design Office where I work with a bunch of awesome humans. My primary focus is the design, analysis, and optimization of apps on the web.

Previously

I had the privilege of lecturing at the University of Pretoria for 4 years, writing code at SAP for 3 years, and building NeedTyres.

And also

Oh yes...and I code a lot. Wanna chat? Hit me up on twitter.

Writing

Everything I've published here, newest first.

  1. Dear Manager - How to make time for 1-on-1s

    One-on-ones are the job, not an interruption to it. Here is how the time is actually found.

    people

  2. From Developer to Design Director: 40 books

    Forty books, and the road from frontend developer to design director.

    design

  3. Loading Google Credentials without .json

    Google's client wants a .json file. CI wants an environment variable. A small library to settle it.

    dev

  4. Fun with Clojure maps

    Merging, updating, walking: the map functions that do the work in most Clojure code.

    dev

  5. Clojure's thread-first macro: ->

    The arrow that turns nested calls inside out, and when it earns its place.

    dev

  6. Clojure shootout: keep vs filter

    keep and filter look interchangeable until you measure them. So I measured them.

    dev

  7. Gotcha! It's the trailing slash

    An hour lost to a trailing slash, written down so the next hour is somebody else's five minutes.

    dev

  8. Destructuring keys in clojure

    Pulling keys out of a map, over and over — and the one bit of syntax that ends it.

    dev

  9. My 5 favourite clojure libraries

    Five libraries I reach for in almost every Clojure project, and what each one saves me.

    dev

  10. Living Clojure

    The book that turned Clojure from intimidating into approachable, and what it does differently.

    dev

  11. 5 Tools for Getting Started with Clojure

    The five tools I'd put in front of anyone starting Clojure today.

    dev

  12. Advent of Parens

    A post a day about Clojure, from the 1st to the 24th of December, and why accessible writing matters to this community.

    dev

  13. Overtone: Music to keep my dynos awake

    Heroku sleeps a free dyno after thirty minutes. So I wrote music to keep it awake.

    dev

  14. Clojure Bits: Working with JSON

    Cheshire, and the four calls that cover working with JSON in Clojure almost all of the time.

    dev