Before Affari
Before my time at Affari, I had no real world experience of coding. I had started learning the basics of HTML, using a free online course, but I had not applied my limited knowledge or shared my ideas with anyone. At this stage, I had no clue about the capabilities of coding and no aspirations to pursue front end development. So what changed?
As an intern in the design team I began shadowing the work of our UI/UX Designer, Jack, pretty early on. As the coder of the team, most of the web based responsibilities fell on to his shoulders, meaning I was immersed in a world of code by default.
The Catalyst
I remember the conversation that really kick started my journey in to learning code, during which Jack said “Everything we interact with is coded”. It was a bit of a penny drop moment. I realised how little I understood about how the websites, applications and devices I interact with everyday actually work and how much I had to learn.
Since then, I have been focused on building my knowledge and practical application of HTML and CSS, however my coding development has been fairly organic. As interest and skills have grown, an increased amount of front-end development work has trickled down the client pipeline, forcing myself, and Jack, to explore new approaches, learn new frameworks and most importantly apply this knowledge to real briefs.
On reflection, using code in live projects has been one of the most important factors, as there is no room for error. The kinks need to be well and truly ironed out before the project is handed over. Learning whatever is required to complete the job at hand has worked a treat until very recently, when it became clear that we needed an actual plan to take it to the next level. Welcome Dev2.
Why code?
Coming from a traditional graphic design education, coding and front-end development were never really on my radar. However, there are a number of parallels between the design process and coding.
Just as with design, coding is essentially just problem-based learning. We are presented with an issue and we solve it using the appropriate frameworks. The benefit of coding however, is that if you’ve made a mistake and there is an error in your code, it simply won’t run and the solution won’t work as intended. This may not sound like a benefit, but it allows you to more easily figure out where you’ve gone wrong.
Even more so than design, development cannot be treated purely as an aesthetic process. Functionality is king and the needs of the user must be considered at all stages. Through learning to code, I feel like I’ve gained a far greater understanding and appreciation for user experience design.
There is also a very real sense of creating something with code. Watching your creation appear on screen as you tap out a series of letters and symbols is pretty satisfying and I think it’s that aspect that gets you hooked.
