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Hi, I'm Shona.

Welcome to my tiny slice of the universe.

About Me

Before I discovered coding, I was a doctor in the field of Anaesthesia, working in the UK. I started learning to code so that I could build an app for my workplace (more on that below). It was a challenge learning and building it on my own, but also quite joyous. I couldn't ignore this newfound interest and so enrolled myself in Le Wagon's Web Dev Bootcamp to develop my skills.

I've had a wonderful career in medicine, where I've learned to work in teams to solve complex problems, keep calm under pressure, and how to be a kind human 👾. But in this short life I'd like to keep learning and evolving, and so I'm pursuing this new path in development - a unique combination of creativity and logic that I love.

My Skills

I honed the main skills listed below at bootcamp. Apart from this, I've done online courses such as The Web Developer Bootcamp (Colt Steele, Udemy) and Learn React (Bob Zirroll, Scrimba), and I'm currently taking Modern React with Redux.

HTML5
CSS3
Bootstrap
Javascript ES6
Express
Ruby
Ruby on Rails
PostgreSQL
Git

Projects

SoundState

SoundState is a smart playlist generator that allows a user to filter their Spotify favourites according to their mood. Its most unique feature is that it integrates the OpenAI API to generate an image based on the mood/songs of each playlist, in order to make sharing and discovering music more visual and fun. I led our 4 person team in building this during the last 2 weeks of bootcamp.

TECH

Ruby on Rails
PostgreSQL
Spotify API
OpenAI API
Sass
Heroku

DEMO

soundstate.live

Why This Project?

Music is one of the things I enjoy the most. I found myself wishing I had more control over my Spotify library, so I pitched this idea as the final project.

I also believed this would be a great opportunity to learn how to integrate multiple APIs, become more proficient at reading documentation, and develop my front-end skills.

Learning Points

Check out the Github README for more details.

As team leader, I got to develop both management as well as technical skills. Some of the learning highlights from this project:

Implenting Progressive Web App features
Clean and maintainable code: components, partials, service objects
Pair programming: sound database schema with validations to ensure data integrity and consistency

MVC architecture
Applying RESTful principles
Integrating Spotify and OpenAI APIs
Working with OAuth

Coordinating the team in figma prototyping, collaboration via Github, deployment through Heroku, image hosting on Cloudinary
Project management & Agile methodologies - Kanban workflow, daily stand-up meetings
We had to be flexible and adaptable when we realised some API limitations. For example, using embedded iframes instead of the web SDK.

No Matter How Small

No Matter How Small is a medical app for paediatric anaesthetists working in Belfast. It automates drug dose calculations and makes it easy to access relevant guidelines and protocols on the go.

TECH

Vanilla JS
Express JS
Node JS
Bootstrap
Northflank

DEMO

paedsinduction.com

Why This Project?

As a sleep deprived parent returning to work in paediatric anaesthesia, I was worried about making a drug error. It seemed like a much better idea to automate calculations than rely on mental sums. So I built this app, also integrating national guidelines and hospital protocols into a single platform for quick reference, making onboarding for junior anaesthetists more seamless.

On a personal level, this project is close to my heart because it is what sparked my interest in coding. The cherry on top was when the app got adopted at work - I experienced first hand what a great skill this is to have.

Learning Points

Some learning highlights:

Vanilla JS: working with objects, arrays, loops and iteration, DOM manipulation
Responsive web design (it was really important for this to be good on mobile devices to be used on the go)
Routing in Express JS
Rendering PDFs in iframes
HTML tables
Working with partials to keep code maintainable

Colour & Stick

Inspired by my toddler, who loves colouring books and stickers. Colour the animals and then stick them wherever you want on the page.

TECH

React JS
Material UI
react-draggable

DEMO

Here

Why This Project?

Just for fun really! Something different to the usual to-do list app.

Learning Points

Some learning highlights:

React JS: working with components, useState, props
Using Material UI and custom styles
Using react-draggable library
Working with SVGs

Ch-Eye-Nese

Ch-Eye-Nese is a fun and simple audiovisual guide to help eye doctors communicate with their patients in Chinese. It translates the most common phrases used in an ophthalmology clinic.

TECH

HTML/CSS
JS

DEMO

weepotty.github.io/chinese

Why This Project?

I built this for foreign doctors working in Singapore (my home country) who might find it difficult to converse with elderly Chinese patients in clinic. Clicking on each image in mobile / hovering on desktop overlays the phonetic pronunciation of each phrase and plays an audio clip as well.

Learning Points

CSS grid and overlays
Using the audio tag in HTML and playing audio files with JS

I am much cooler on my socialsnot really

Say hi there or email me at mojavealoe@gmail.com 🙃