Work – Dave Shea

My career so far, full portfolio available on request.

A few years after beginning to work on the web I created the CSS Zen Garden, an industry-defining site that changed how web development was done. Since then I’ve worked on hundreds of sites and apps on contract and in-house, racking up over 25 years of experience to look back on.

I’m currently thinking about where I want to go next. In the meantime, here’s where I’ve been.

Shopify

Mobile design team lead

2019–2026

After years of working with mid-sized companies, I joined Shopify to learn how to work at scale. During my tenure I headed up the design team responsible for Shopify’s flagship app, partnering with product and engineering directors to create and align our roadmap with company leadership. I led the app’s design evolution through major iterations, and continuously grew the team through recruiting and mentorship.

Shopify’s app design evolution over the years

Bench Accounting

Design lead

2017–2019

I could easily relate to Bench’s mission of taking the pain of bookkeeping off the hands of small business owners following years of running one my own. My team’s mandate was helping scale operations by researching workflows and processes directly with our 200+ person financial services team, identifying ways of increasing day to day efficiency, and building the software and automated process needed to scale our ability to serve a rapidly-growing client base.

Client-facing transaction categorization
Internal bookkeeper-facing client tracker

Mobify Inc.

Product design team lead

2012–2016

Having advised Mobify’s founders from the company’s early days, I eventually decided to wind down my agency and join their in-house team. As part of the company’s leadership I created workflow tools that let clients manage their mobile websites, marketing materials to build the company’s brand presence, and later developed design-led process to help close sales. Mobify was acquired by Salesforce in 2020.

Platform style guide
Internal CSS framework documentation
Mobile commerce patterns guidance
App discovery process artifact

Bright Creative

Owner

2004–2012

Launching the CSS Zen Garden led to increasing inbound work inquiries, so I created Bright Creative as an agency I ran for a decade to deliver creative design & web development services across hundreds of projects for organizations of all sizes. Over time I was more frequently plugging into my client’s product and engineering teams as more of a collaborator than a contractor, which later led me to go in-house to have more direct influence and ownership of the products I worked on.

Fog Creek Software, 2004
ActiveState icons, 2006
Rosenfeld Media printed material, 2007
Joyent tradeshow booth, 2010
spacelist.ca, 2012
VCBW logo, 2012

CSS Zen Garden

Creator

2003

I built the CSS Zen Garden to try moving the needle on a chicken and egg problem: low CSS support by browsers meant it was hard to use, and developers were hesitant to adopt it. The site quickly became an industry touchpoint, receiving thousands of design submissions over the years and being referenced in countless publications and curricula since. The site was translated into 22 languages, and spawned a book that was translated into a dozen languages itself.

For more on this work, see Wikipedia and the older write-up on this site.

The original default design
The 10 year anniversary modernized design
Companion book spread
Companion book translations

Earlier

Designer, various

1998–2003

We all start somewhere. The earliest years of my career were defined by working with agencies and internet services through the dot-com boom, and then the quiet years following the crash. Sure, I learned how to build websites, but I also picked up valuable skills through working with clients and a wider team that informed my later moves. It was near the end of this period that I took the frustration I was feeling from being forced to work with outdated tables and font tags and channeled it into developing the CSS Zen Garden.