Inside Redbox: meet Marko Tunukovic Redbox's senior front-end developer

Tell us a bit about yourself and your role?

I’ve been with Redbox for 1.5 years.  I’m fortunate enough to work and live in sunny Osijek, considered the economic and cultural centre of Eastern Croatia.   I’m a front-end developer working on JavaScript responsible for the visual elements of a website – everything that a user sees or touches from the content and layout to how they interact with the site.  My role is to bring websites to life.  I’m supported by a brilliant team of back-end developers who are responsible for integrating the work that I do.

I’ve been a front-end Magento developer for many years - on the agency-side, having worked with Inchoo and LAB prior to Redbox.  LAB closed its doors in Croatia and that is when the opportunity to work at Redbox came about.

How did you get into web development?

It started at high school, I developed a blog or “phase book” and played around with HTML.  And when I went to college, I learnt about PHP and that was the start of my career in web development.

I’m also a photographer and have done weddings and other big events.  I soon realised that you can’t be at your best juggling two careers so I decided to focus on web development and have never looked back.

Technology is always changing and advancing at a rapid pace, and the same is true in the developer world.  No two days are the same.  It’s important to keep up with the latest tech advances and Redbox gives you the opportunity to hone and broaden your skills to ensure we remain on the cutting-edge of software development.

What are some of the technologies that excite you most?

PWAs represent a big advancement in the evolution of the mobile web and is being considered by a number of our clients.  It’s essentially mobile apps, running through a web browser but with the look and feel of a traditional app.  It brings many advantages such as faster page-load speeds, offline browsing and an all-round better user experience.  From a developer point of view, PWAs are more economical, faster to build and update.  You can create one version of the app and it displays seamlessly and identically on all devices.

Magento recently released PWA Studio, a suite of tools for building online stores with app-like experiences.  These innovations are driving the market and we’ll see this technology really play out in the next two years.

Tell us about some of the projects you have worked on?

Saudi’s biggest pharmacy retail chain, Nahdi, has been a great project to be involved in.  I was part of a dedicated, global team of front and back-end developers working tirelessly to make sure the site was up and running ahead of the launch.

There was a lot of customisation at the front and back end from a visual, performance and speed point of view.  A key requirement was to ensure that pages loaded quickly, especially on mobile given the prominence of mobile in that region.

It was a hugely successful project, one that has been recognised and awarded by Magento and Adobe.

What are some of the challenges of your role?

One of the challenges is to keep on top of new developments and technologies.  I’ve spent many years working with Magento and it’s important to step outside of your comfort zone and learn new skills.

Optimising sites is always a challenge, without compromising the quality and speed of the site.

Our aim is to make the sites intuitive and editable for the customer without impacting functionality, speed and the overall user experience.  This often means educating them on what they can and can’t upload– large files or images will inevitably slow a site down.

And the future?

Redbox is a great company.  I’ve got the flexibility of being able to be work from Croatia, as well as the opportunity to grow and learn new skills.  It’s exciting times for the business, especially with Adobe’s acquisition of Magento, and I expect there will be many new developments to come.

Life is unpredictable, who knows what is around the corner.  For now, I’m in a happy place and take each day as it comes.

If you had your time again, what would you do?

This is a tricky one but honestly, I’m happy with what I have.  I played the guitar when I was younger - something I really enjoyed.   Perhaps I should have invested more time in music.

Were you given any advice that has stuck with you?

Be yourself and do what makes you happy.  Simple.