Howard Chiam
Learning. Languages. Other stuff.
I'm a Front-End web developer and language nerd with interests in things like:
- education,
- web accessibility, and
- machine learning.
I've been making games for fun and for research. For example, I built a couple simple video games for stroke survivors.
Projects
VisBug - a GoogleChromeLabs project
Info
Why:
Enable designers to edit any webpage live, in any state. An experimental Chrome extension project led by Adam Argyle.
What I did:
I contributed over 8 PRs (Pull Requests), including one PR to update the colour swatches for accessibility and enable copying to clipboard.
Code Tutor - a Google Assistant app
Info
Why:
Let's help people who can't use their hands to learn to code by talking to the Google voice assistant. (Listed in Google Assistant web directory in 2022. Conversational Actions were sunset in 2023.)
How:
Previous work/iterations - I experimented with using api.ai (now named Dialogflow),
→ then Mac VoiceOver and a web interface,
→ then voice programming languages,
→ then a mini JARVIS in the browser,
→ then a couple Google Assistant apps.
The html-template-generator project
Info
Why:
Generate code for forms without typing any code!
This is an experimental tool to help reduce repetitive copy-pasting, alongside bookmarklets, to increase productivity at work.
How:
This visual UI generates an HTML form as you choose input templates, edit, export - all in the browser. No install required.
I had fun rediscovering and implementing the FLIP animation technique (before the recent advances in CSS).
And yes, I've been experimenting with prompting LLMs like ChatGPT to generate code too.
A streamlined slides app
Info
Why:
Easily edit, share, and present slides. https://simple-slides.surge.sh
How:
Built for and tested by a senior with low digital literacy confidence. This slides app ended up being a stepping stone for them to switch to Google Slides.
The main code was written from scratch in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
I used Firebase Firestore. I set up automated testing with GitHub, Travis CI, Cypress, bash scripts, husky, es-check, lighthouse, and more.
2D Note generator with vanilla JS
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Why:
Potential: power 2D apps that people can use together, regardless of vision capabilities?
How:
Created my own npm package 2dnote, among other npm packages I've created.
Continuous Learning
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Google Career Certificate for UX (User Experience) Design. Currently in progress: completed course 4 of 7.
Wireframes and protoype.
Info
Live prompting demo to generate pun-based mnemonics to help you remember words, as
a supplement to learning a language. Or try my custom GPT: Pun Linguist.
Or try my bookmarklet version of Pun Linguist if you want to use a bookmarklet in just a few clicks.
Other LLM stuff:
Advanced Prompt Engineering course cert from Learn Prompting.
AI Safety course cert from Learn Prompting.
A local-use LLM VSCode extension based on a Fireship Beyond video. Actually getting it to work on my machine wasn't as simple as copying the code.
A demo token counter for different LLMs for my colleagues' consideration.
Info
Example GitHub repo I forked to practice fixing a project (screen size responsiveness and CSS variables). Live CSS demo
You can see examples of my own work on my CodePen
Info
Click inside the following demo and then try using just your
keyboard to use the <select> dropdown (hit tab or tab+shift to navigate, and hit enter to select).
Live demo: a stylable select dropdown. Combines things learned from Deque's Web Accessibility Specialist exam prep course and also from Joshua W Comeau's CSS for JavaScript Developers course.
Book
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Just a fun summer DIY side-project, to do active learning by sharing a fun way to learn Chinese. Remember how to say Chinese words with fun stories! And tons of puns (helpful ones).
Links
