Hello, I’m Daniel Arcé.
I’m a senior front-end developer and design technologist based in Toronto. Most of my professional work has been in front-end development: building production interfaces, making them usable from the keyboard, and working out interaction decisions in code. At MSNBC, I held the Senior Design Technologist and Front-End Developer role; today I also design and build independent applications.
From prototype to production interface
A working prototype gives a team something to try. A selection leads to another view; that view may expose a choice that was easy to miss in a static screen. Trying the interaction helps us decide what to keep, what to change, and what the implementation needs to support.
I stay involved as those decisions reach production. My front-end work includes React and TypeScript, with keyboard interaction and focus management built into the behaviour of the interface.
At Catch (August 2024–February 2025), I built production React and TypeScript interfaces, including API and authentication integration and Cypress tests.
At PhotoShelter, I led a WCAG audit and front-end remediation, including custom keyboard behaviour across Polymer, Web Components, and Shadow DOM. I mentored four developers on accessible patterns. Working with the Chief Architect, I also built a workflow-automation prototype that exposed integration issues and informed Smart Galleries.
At MSNBC, I proposed and prototyped collapsible panels so viewers could browse coverage and read comments while the video continued playing. I helped deliver the resulting AngularJS interface with the internal team and vendors within a six-month launch window. At Apple, I implemented responsive launch pages from the marketing and design team’s specifications and automated campaign build and preview steps.
Building around photographs and film
For Texting Syria, photographer Liam Maloney supplied the photographs, text, and translations; I developed the experience end to end. The exhibition connected photographs with actual messages delivered to visitors’ phones through an SMS server.
My recent image applications extend that practice into search and description. Visual Search Workbench is a macOS app I designed, built, and released. Start with words or a picture, choose a promising image, then follow related photographs through a map and linked grid. Its bundled models process photographs on the Mac; my documented checks include an 8 GB Apple Silicon machine.
AltContext is still in development. It uses a photograph, a publisher’s named people roster, and page context to draft descriptions in WordPress. The editor reviews face suggestions and wording before applying the text. I build the React/TypeScript interface, WordPress PHP integration, and Python services. Evaluation with editors and blind readers remains to be done.
Keeping decisions available during development
AI-assisted development introduced another problem into my practice: decisions and review findings could be lost between coding sessions. I built WorkBay to preserve those records outside the conversation and retrieve them in a later session, including when I move to another supported coding tool. I use different agents for orchestration, implementation, and review so that work can be checked without inheriting the author’s conversation.
I also use UX maps to inventory interfaces and examine proposed changes. Those maps can be rendered as text screens and flows for people and AI tools to review. Heuristics Canon, a collection I maintain, supplies specific questions and references for the critique. I check the resulting changes in the running interface.
Get in touch
I’m interested in senior front-end development and design-technology roles, with production interface work at their centre. I’m based in Toronto and open to New York City.
Email me about a role or a project.
Portrait by Liam Maloney.