Keelan
Vella
Product Developer building fluid web experiences with Node.js, React, and AWS.
Full-stack engineering, product strategy, and UX design. Based in Malta.
Currently Studying or Researching
45
Shinedown
5.3+
Years Experience
11
Project Launches
UX
Design Certified
Featured Projects
A collection of things I've built with passion.
Velafa CMS
Solo-built API-first multi-tenant headless CMS. Hono API, Next.js admin, TypeScript SDK, and Cursor MCP. MVP with whitelisted signups.
Our Special Day
Wedding planning app that began as a family tool and is expanding into a venue and catering marketplace. Currently shared friend by friend.
SocketBooks
Solo passion project for Malta mechanics. Invoice and client management in alpha, with a longer-term service-history vision.
Latest Thoughts
Reflections
The Vibe Shift: An Unrecognisable Industry
Since The Long Hike, the work has moved from producing code toward directing AI inside a clear architecture. This post covers that change through payroll, finance, and products built for specific people, plus the security checks that still sit with the engineer.
UX Design
Why Perceived Speed Matters More Than Benchmarks
Raw benchmark scores mean nothing if an app feels sluggish. Discover how skeleton screens, optimistic UI, delayed loaders, and mechanical empathy transform user perception of speed.
AI & Future
Why DX is the Only Filter for Impending Code Overload
AI has drastically reduced the Construction Cost of software, but it has actually increased the Decision Cost, the cognitive tax of verifying, auditing, and integrating non-deterministic, often "hallucinated" output. DX is no longer a "nice-to-have" luxury.