We are welcoming Hannah Clarke to talk about "An Uncomfortable Place" at FFConf 2025.

We want to thank Hannah for taking the time to answer our questions so we can all get to know her a little bit more before 14th November.

About Hannah and their talk

• Title: An Uncomfortable Place
• About the talk: How do you build Design System component packages to keep everyone happy regardless of framework? It's not easy (and let's be honest, React die-hards will only be happy with pure React), but we're getting there using web components and Stencil.
• Hannah's origin story: Spent my teenage years learning HTML and CSS for my MySpace profile (my falling stars were next level). Never considered web development when I went to study politics, then glaciology (obviously…), followed by a career running social inclusion projects. But these days I'm a UI Engineer. Full circle.

The warm up questions

If your MySpace profile was still live today, what song would auto-play when someone visited?

If I was still keeping it updated then the new Deftones track for sure. If it was the same page left unaltered from when I was 16 then probably something like Bright Eyes - Lover I Don't Have to Love </3 (or something shamefully emo...)

What's your favourite tiny or delightful UI detail you've tucked inside of a project? (and if not, a project you were particularly proud of and why did it make you feel that way)

One of the last projects I worked on in my first developer role added a "quick repurchase" feature. It was canned after two weeks in production (a couple days of A-B testing didn't produce the right results...) but I'll always be so proud of how our team produced some of the most accessible, well-tested, user-focused work I've ever been lucky enough to contribute to.

Give us a fun fact about glaciology

In general glaciers move slowly, but they can surge forward at incredible speeds. The fastest ever recorded averaged ~112m per day over a 3 month period. So if you say something is moving at a "glacial pace" then that could actually mean super fast.

About the work and the talk

What’s the biggest misconception developers have about web components today?

That they're somehow inferior to framework built components. Or won't work in their specific framework eco-system.

How has your glaciology or social inclusion background shaped the way you approach design systems?

I feel like there should be a metaphor about slowly carving a path in here, but I'll leave alone... Working in social inclusion definitely gave me a head-start in thinking about accessibility in applications and is something I'm always conscious of when building our components. I think working in a design system team fills the need I have to provide something that helps others in some way, or at least makes things easier - which was definitely something I loved about working in social inclusion.

For someone wanting to dip their toes into web components, where should they start?

It's worth getting your head around Custom Elements if you're not already familiar with them, and then I would definitely check out the Daily Developer Tips from Chris Ferdinandi - they're usually web component related and you can sign up to get them in your inbox every day. I've learnt some really cool stuff through his articles.

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Find out more about Hannah online at: LinkedIn

Join us in November to see Hannah's talk: 2025.ffconf.org