Web Designer Spotlight: Hui Jing Chen
She’s doing a Masterclass on CSS Grid, Flexbox, writing modes, and more at Form Function & Class 9 on 8–18–18!
Hui Jing Chen, is originally from Penang, Malaysia, and currently based in Singapore, where she co-organizes Talk.CSS. She’s also flying from one country to another speaking at conferences this past year.
How did you get started?
I used to play basketball full-time and all the players and coaches stayed together at the Malaysia Basketball Association hostel. At the time, I was the ‘IT guy’ and helped out with setting up Internet and wifi, fixing PCs, typing documents etc. My coach had the idea that because I was good with computers, I could do websites too and asked if I could do something about the association website. I had time on my hands so I said I’d give it a shot, and 9 years later, here we are. :)
Can you describe the first website you ever built?
It was the Malaysia Basketball Association website. It had not been updated in a while and my coach gave me free reign over the redesign. I knew nuts about web development at this time but had an intimate relationship with Google. So the first website was a mesh of copied HTML code from other websites, some hand-written stuff, and slapped together with Adobe Dreamweaver, which generated the resultant HTML files.
What are your favorite tools of the trade?
Hands-down is Browsersync. I can’t imagine developing anything on the web without it.
My text-editor of choice is Sublime Text, and I always use a monospace font, usually installed not system. Currently I’m using League Mono, but that may change in future.
I do enjoy using a mechanical keyboard, specifically those which are extra clicky, like Cherry MX Blue or equivalent.
What’s your favorite color (hex, rgb, hsl), emoji, typeface? What’s your favorite HTML/CSS/JS feature or trick?
I like green but not down to a specific hex code :p Maybe green shades in the area of lime (#00ff00, rgba(0, 255, 0, 1)?
I have a few emojis I use very often: 🤷♀️, 💃, 🙆♀️, 🤨, 🤗, 🤓�, 😬.
Asking me to choose a typeface is like asking me to choose a favourite child, haha. Right now I’m fond of humanist typefaces, both serif and sans-serif are fine, but I do look out for any quirky features in individual letters.
Favourite CSS property: writing-mode, followed by (in no particular order), feature queries, CSS shapes, CSS grid, pseudo-elements, backgrounds and borders (this list is getting ridiculous, i will stop now)
What are you watching / reading / listening to these days?
Just finished the novellas by JY Yang, Red Threads of Fortune and Black Tides of Heaven, they fall under the ‘Silkpunk’ genre, which I find really cool.
My musical tastes are eclectic and cover a lot of genres, really depends on my mood. Noir-style Jazz is always timeless, all your typical pop music (both English and Mandarin), also Latin music because the beat is awesome
Shows currently airing, Once Upon a Time, Silicon Valley, going to start S2 of Jessica Jones.
What’s a cool thing that we should check out in your city?
Currently I’m based out of Singapore, so Art Science Museum is always a favourite of mine.
I have a favourite Chapatti place in Little India called Azmi Restaurant, address is: 166 Serangoon Rd, Singapore 218050
Check out more Designer Spotlight features from our Blog, and catch Hui Jing Chen at her Masterclass, Grid is the New Black on August 18, 2018!
