About

The short of it

I’m Jaclyn, a designer and front end developer based in Perth, Australia.

My journey in web development started when I was around 14 when I began self-teaching myself in art, design, and code. Since then I have freelanced, achieved a Bachelor of Arts and Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design, and profesionally worked as a digital designer and front-end developer for over eight years.

I currently freelance and am constantly trying to improve my skills and evolve my point of view. Minimalism, iridescence, sparkles, and 90’s notalgia are my aesthetic.

When I’m not designing or coding, you can probably find me getting to know God, reading His Word, drawing art, or baking! <3

Click here if you want to check out my portfolio.

*:・゚✧*:・゚✧

unicorntears.dev is my attempt at writing about web development from a designer’s point of view. I personally know quite a few people who have forayed into web development, but have gotten stuck because of the many jargon-filled online resources and courses you can find online. I strongly believe in a web that is accessible to as many people as possible, so I want to create a space that will hopefully help people like me, who was pretty lost and clueless when I first seriously started working within modern web development.


The more of it

This site was born from an in-joke I have at work. We have names for all of our boilerplate themes/tools and I thought unicorn tears seemed appropriate, because I find I am often learning professional web development skills at an exponential pace and realising there are better ways of doing things than what I was previously doing.

Being a self taught developer is often challenging, surprising, and satisfying. Understanding how to solve a problem often feels like one step closer to achieving something you didn’t think was possible before. It’s an indescribably satisfying feeling.

I’ve worn a lot of hats over the years, which has exposed me to different ways of thinking and informed me on how to solve problems in different ways. I discovered a love for simple, elegant, and readable code, and the ever-changing pursuit of the perfect workflow.

The most interesting part about my journey so far is learning how similar design is to development. They are both extremely creative disciplines that often involve abstract ways of solving problems, and to succeed requires not just problem solving skills, but patience, empathy, communication, and resiliency. The rapid change in technology over the years has made me appreciate simplicity, and I truly believe we often overcomplicate things for ourselves. Yes, I am definitely guilty of that a lot too.


Credits

  • Overpass for text
  • Space Mono for code
  • Hugo