A New Learning Frontier

Since I started learning to code, my primary focus has been trying to figure out this whole JavaScript thing. I've still got a long way to go with the language, but I've learned a ton over the past year and some change. In the meantime, I've also picked up skills in other areas, like CSS and some of the tools and technologies surrounding the world of JavaScript, like TypeScript and React. My focus has been almost solely on the front end, and this is where I enjoy being. I've dabbled on the back end, but only really with NodeJS. I went into some GraphQL for a little while, but I don't think much of it stuck and I've likely forgotten all but the basics by now. As far as backends go, I don't really have anything to compare NodeJS to, but I don't love it. I would like to give Ruby on Rails a try, but it's not exactly applicable to my daily work. I think it could be a good skill to pick up and put on the resumé, but for now, I'm having a hard time justifying. When I am studying, I'm trying to focus my efforts on topics that are going to help me in my current job. If I pick up a new skill in the meantime, then this is definitely a plus.

Whenever we create anything at work, I'm not really involved in the design process. My cohort works on the mockups in Framer and I take those and convert them into working code with React or React Native. This works well for me because I just don't feel like I have much of an eye for design. I haven't been immersed in this world long enough to be able to pick out a beautiful design from a lineup. I would like to change this, but it doesn't seem as simple as taking a course and gaining the knowledge. There is a certain artistic aspect to the whole process that can't be learned from a tutorial. I think after a lot of practice and gaining that eye for good design, these skills can be cultivated. I don't necessarily want to be an expert designer, but I do want to be able to create beautiful websites, from start to finish. There is an awesome site called Dribbble that showcases different designs from the community. I have spent several hours in the last week just combing through these designs. Whenever I see one that catches my eye, I try to figure out why I like it. Because of this, I'm starting to get a better understanding of what makes a website look beautiful. I think this art form is always changing too; what would have been considered beautiful in 2010 probably doesn't stand up to the test of time today. Thus, what's considered beautiful today will likely become something undesirable in the future.

Whenever I'm checking out designs on Dribbble, I have my blog site in mind. Right now, I'm focusing my attention when I'm at home to improving the design of this site. Originally, I used Material UI to come up with the design. At the time, I thought it looked great, but now after my eye for design has become a little more refined, it's almost cringeworthy. I thought I was going to keep a lot of aspects that I had in the style originally, but after messing around with it last night, I realized it's going to look completely different when I get done with it. For example, I had a navigation bar with a drawer that opened up on the side. I decided to lose the background color of the navigation bar and move the elements from the drawer onto the navigation bar. I also changed the background of the whole site to a very light gradient. On the home page, I have a picture of my daughter and I with a small blurb about me and my journey, kind of an introduction to the blog. As much as I love this picture of her, I'm thinking about taking it out and putting in a modern illustration instead. I've dropped all but one container from this page, and I may drop that as well, letting it have a little more room to breathe. I still have a long way to go before this site is all done, but I think it's going to end up looking way better.

Until tomorrow!