Last week passed me by in a bit of a blur. It was a week of responsive web design and advanced CSS and having styled my webpage, I got everyone I know to test it out for me, because why not?!
So what did week 3 look like?
Applied Visual Design and Responsive Web Design
For me this is where things started to really pick up, it was not just the basic content and style but considering users and devices as part of my work. I really enjoy the theory behind this. As a customer service professional, this consideration really speaks to me soul. I love thinking about what the user wants from a website or application, how the layout and style can affect their experience and capitalising on that to get the outcome I want. The basic elements and principles of visual design are laid out here.
I’m a visual kinaesthetic learner, so I made my webpage responsive by experimenting with it many times. Here is a blog post which really helped me to get my head around responsive design. I would change my code, hit refresh and see what happened. I also planned out my webpage layout in advance so I could plot my flex containers, but what I didn’t do and will do next time is think about the way my flex items will be classed so my code is neater. Here’s a great visual resource for flex box.
The thing I really struggled with when learning advanced CSS is the sheer volume of ways you can approach these challenges; everyone has a different method and trick up their sleeve. With so much content to absorb I really had to take a moment to step away and forge my own way of doing it and because I felt I had so much to learn, taking this time out felt like a poor use of my time. Reader, hint, it was not and I learned my lesson.
Another exciting thing about getting a bit more stuck into web design was exploring the DOM a little more. DOM stands for Document Object Model, and is a structure plan in your browser showing your code like a family tree, with nodes as parents and children. I learned how to “inspect” a webpage in Chrome with Chrome Developer Tools, and this gives you the power to navigate the code, temporarily edit and see the relationships in your code.
Feeding back…
One of the best things about Manchester Codes (as a coding school and a business) is that they try to incorporate feedback in an agile way. I can’t reflect on how other coding bootcamps do this of course, but it really makes me feel like a valued student. I already feel like I have learned an extreme amount, so it was lovely to get an opportunity to have a 1:1 with a tutor last week. This was a great chance to chat about progress and how I was feeling, which came in really helpful later on in the week (more on that later!)
World Mental Health Day
On Saturday 10th October 2020, the world came together to highlight the topic of Mental Health. Since working from home and being in some form of lockdown since March this year, I have intermittently experienced peaks of anxiety about my personal life and what I want to do. At the beginning of 2020 I enrolled in some counselling after spending the latter half of 2019 being very unwell, with the primary focus of having more of a positive mindset. I wanted to share some techniques I have been practising to help my mental health since then.
Firstly journaling. Now, my journal is an absolute mess (my Dad judges my handwriting anyway & I blame my Literature degree) but it is full of scribbles, drawings, long prose, single words, stickers – you name it. I was not about to keep an Instagram worthy journal; my brain is a bit of a scatty mess sometimes and my journal reflects that. I tend to journal about at least three things which I am thankful for or have made me happy, I also jot down any lyrics or quotes I have encountered that day which really struck accord with me and I list things I want to put good energy into (environmental change, our government, our NHS etc) all the big things!
Another thing I do is to call and connect with people. I spend most days by myself and many of my friends are in different time zones, this makes it difficult but not impossible to socialise. I truly believe a problem shared is a problem halved, even if you just work it out by verbalising (like rubberducking!).I also enjoy watching films simultaneously with groups of friends, it’s almost as good as seeing them in person!
Thirdly, and ironically for a blog about coding, get away from screens and change your environment. As I said last week, I was spending a ridiculous number of hours at my workstation. I needed to break that cycle, spend more time in other spots of the house and do other things. This is really hard to do with a full-time job and an intensive bootcamp which brings me on to...
Finally, ask for help. I hold my hands up here and say last week I had a huge moment of imposter syndrome and needed to sit down with my tutor for about 45 minutes and melt down on our Zoom call. I had no idea what I was doing, what I should be doing or what was even in front of my face. I needed to be reminded that this is a journey, a marathon and not a race. I’ve been intensely learning to code for 3 weeks, of course I don’t know it all yet. My message here is to be kind to yourself.
If you need to talk to someone about mental health, please reach out to places like Mind Charity who have lots of wonderful resources available.
Here’s to week 4 of bootcamp!
My Key Take Aways
Try not to compare - someone might have nailed it on the first go, you might nail the next topic. Everyone is different, thinks differently and learns differently. Isn’t that wonderful? I've really loved the creativity which has come out of my cohort in this module and I don’t think I am very creative at all.
More haste, less speed - a little bit difficult in a bootcamp scenario granted but I’ve found being careful about what I’m doing and how, rather than racing to get to the finish line has been far more beneficial. Read, plan, check, test. Make sure you can explain what you are doing.
Keep enjoying - I really felt like I could hate code by the end of last week. So I shut everything down, took a break and then made some pull requests for Hacktoberfest. I was over the moon. I also played around with some little projects in CodePen , just for fun.