Melissa Chow

I joined the WestJet booking flow team in April 2019. During my time here, I have assisted with the migration of the older front-end codebase to the current codebase which uses the VueJS framework. In addition to the migration, I also worked on several new features throughout the application.

My favourite project so far has been building the new Payment page with Vue. As the functionality exists in the previous code base, I did not have to start completely from scratch. However, this was an excellent chance to refactor and reorganize the code for simplicity and easier future maintenance. This was a challenging, yet very personally rewarding project. There were several interconnecting parts and it was like putting together a gigantic puzzle. I'm so excited for the new Payment page to go live in the spring or summer of 2020.

My role at WestJet so far included:

• developing several reusable base Vue components for use throughout the booking flow application and for sharing with the Manage Trips applications
• implementing accessibility features so all guests may self-sufficiently make their own bookings
• developing components and features on the Flight Selection, Guest Info, and Ancillary pages
• leading the development of the Payment page

I worked at the City from January 2018 to March 2019. My main task was to maintain the Pattern Library repository and its patterns. During my time in the role, I worked with the user experience team and developed over 15 new reusable patterns for the library.

The City of Calgary Pattern Library is a respository of developer resources and reusable patterns which are to be used to ensure a consistent look and feel across the City’s websites and applications.

As the repository maintainer, I also refactored all of the previously existing patterns with simpler and more maintainable HTML, Sass, and JavaScript. As a result of my refactoring efforts, the compiled CSS file size has been cut in half, even accounting for the new patterns and features added in the last year.

The bulk of the patterns are currently being utilized on calgary.ca along with a handful of web applications developed by the IT team. When I left my role, the City’s web team was preparing for the next phase of calgary.ca with a new content management platform. My refactoring efforts will greatly improve the code quality and maintenance of the City's future pattern implementations on the new system.

My role included:

• refactoring the code and archictecture for the overall site for easier maintenance
• refining the Git / Bitbucket build and deployment process to utilize the Git Feature Branch workflow
• building over 15 new patterns with HTML5, CSS3, Sass, and Javascript. Each pattern is built with considerations for accessibility, responsiveness, print, and future maintenance and modifications.
• refactoring all previously existing patterns to utilize simpler and cleaner HTML, CSS, Sass, and JavaScript resulting in more maintanable code
• Assisting with pattern implementations on calgary.ca

From May to September 2018, I worked with Mental Health First Aid Australia assisting with the front-end tasks relating to the redesign of their client-facing website.

The team desired an easy way to create beautiful and complex pages with reusable visual elements such as hero banners, parallax banners, column layouts, and tiles without having to handle any code. With Drupal as their CMS platform, I researched and experimented with the capabilities of the Paragraphs module to solve this problem. I created several reusable components along with plenty of configuration options for the team’s web editors to easily add onto their pages.

My role included:

• working with the in-house marketing team to transform their designs and mockups into responsive, working components with HTML5, CSS3, and Sass
• working with the in-house development team to integrate the components into the Drupal backend
• built out re-usable components using the Drupal Paragraphs module allowing for the components to be easily inserted on any page
• building each component from a mobile-first perspective
• building a custom Drupal Paragraphs importer to dynamically create pre-configured Paragraphs and pages to assist with the migration process from the staging to production environment.

I originally built the website for Mighty Mango restuarant over 10 years ago during my student days. Since then, I continued maintaining the site with occasional updates to the menu items and pricing. In December 2018, I gave the website a design and architectural overhaul.

The website consists of 4 pages and when I originally built the website, I decided to go with plain HTML as it seemed excessive to utilize PHP and create a database for such a small site. Maintaining the website was straight forward but it felt like some things could be streamlined better.

In December 2018, I decided to utilize the static site generator, Jekyll, as I liked how it can handle simple data, includes, and layout options while still outputting static pages. With Jekyll, I split up the site’s header and footer, made a base template layout, and structured the restaurant menu data with yml. Using the Liquid templating language, I can now parse the data and keep it separate from the HTML. By restructuring the site data using Jekyll, I foresee future maintenance to be much more streamlined and efficient.

My role included:

• building the website with HTML5, CSS3, Sass, Jekyll, and Liquid
• redesigning the interface with an aim for a modern and elegant look
• ensuring the site is fully responsive as over 60% of visitors come to the site via their mobile devices

Restaurant Business is an online news resource for the restaurant industry. I have had the pleasure of working on this project for over 5 months as the main front-end developer.

This website is home to tens of thousands of articles slideshows, and custom pages, based on the Drupal CMS. With redesigned mockups provided by the design team, I transformed them into HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Twig. The template layouts were created to be extendable, modular, and re-usable.

My role included:

• developing the HTML and Twig structure
• creating a modular and responsive CSS stylesheet using LESS
• writing Twig code to render dynamic data on the front-end
• writing numerous JavaScript functions to achieve a refined user interface and experience including sticky navs, infinite scroll, and custom sticky elements
• building easy-to-use macros for the client’s content management team to allow them to create and customize advanced page layouts, with no coding knowledge necessary
• testing the UI and UX on mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms

Technomic is a consulting agency for the food service industry.

For this project, I was a co-developer and helped transform the design mockups into HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Twig.

I gathered over 40 pages of website content, images, and design specifications received from our client — from numerous emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, and zip files — and simplified the specs into a single document to serve as a blueprint for the website. This document gave both our team and our client a clear understanding of what each page would look like and what content it would contain.

My role included:

• optimizing the layout rendering for all device screen sizes
• building out the multi-tiered navigation structure in CSS and Javascript and ensuring it works flawlessly on all devices
• quality control testing across numerous browsers and devices
• writing documentation for the client’s development team detailing how they can maintain the website content in the Drupal framework

Candor Connect was a dating website.

I was the lead front-end developer, designed the initial mockups, and transformed them into HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Twig.

My role included:

• consulting with the clients on their requirements and specifications during the initial design sessions
• designing all aspects of the user interaction flows including the registration and questionnaire processes
• developing the HTML and Twig structure
• creating a modular and responsive CSS stylesheet using LESS
• designed a set of icons for use throughout the website
• building a settings portal allowing users to update their profile and preferences
• building an administration panel allowing for the client to moderate their users

Just Beer is a website and app for beer lovers.

I was the lead front-end developer for this project and transformed the design mockups into HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Twig. During the development process, I refined several aspects of the design for a simpler and easier-to-use experience.

Using my experiences from a previous project, I developed a modular HTML structure using the Twig templating language. The structure is flexible and extendable allowing for faster development and reduced duplication of code.

My role included:

• developing the HTML and Twig structure
• creating a modular and responsive CSS stylesheet using LESS
• using the Symfony PHP framework and integrating with the back-end to retrieve and render data for the front-end
• implementing social media sharing tags and generating JSON-LD for better SEO performance
• building the UI for the Beer Deals feature which showcases the best deals on beer around town
• building the UI for the Inventory Manager feature which allows a restaurant or retailer to manage their inventory to display on the site

Just Wine is a website and app for wine enthusiasts.

I was a co-developer for this project and helped transform the design mockups into HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Twig.

There were many design and development challenges we worked on to overcome, as this was many of the team members’ first times in creating and developing a large and complex website. An example includes managing the numerous views or skins for several different types of content. Through this project, I began diving into the Twig templating language and how it could be used to create a modular HTML structure.

My role included:

• developing the HTML structure and CSS stylesheet and optimizing for all device screen sizes
• using the Symfony PHP framework and integrating with the back-end to retrieve and render data for the front-end
• implementing social media sharing tags and generating JSON-LD for better SEO
• writing data to the back-end to create and update data records

Just Wine is a website and app for wine enthusiasts.

This was a temporary placeholder website created to gather interest in featuring local businesses on the Just Wine platform.

This was the first responsive website I created. I was very excited to learn about CSS media queries and how to use them to create optimized experiences for all screen sizes.

My role included:

• creating the initial designs and transforming them into HTML, CSS and Javascript
• optimizing the layout to be responsive