Erin E. Hughes

NMIX 6010: Web Development

This class has been especially meaningful to me, and I am thankful it's how I started my master's journey. Over the last few years, I have attempted to learn to code through free online courses, but a lack of ways to explore and expand on the information once I completed the exercises, coupled with an increasingly narrow window of time in which to practice, have prevented me from getting very far with it. Now, I don't think there’s any way for me to go back — not that I want to. I’m hooked. I’m ready to build all the websites!

In a very short time, this class unlocked so much and gave me the push I needed, flinging me headfirst into WordPress, Bootstrap and JavaScript. It’s hard for me to believe we learned and produced so much in just about 20 days. I now know where to find resources and inspiration and what to look for when I get there, which was a real problem for me when I was doing the self-guided courses.

I am most looking forward to mastering Bootstrap, and I’m glad we were exposed to it early in the semester because it was like guardrails for me. I have a tendency to get way ahead of myself with ideas. Had we not had Bootstrap to lean on for some of the heavy lifting, I don’t know that I would not have gotten too frustrated or exhausted to push ahead. I have been reading about Sass and variables, and I think once I conquer that, I will be able to start putting some of the ideas I have into production. Because we set up our domains, I have a place to play around with things. I can keep practicing and not lose the skills I just acquired. Much of my progress has been incremental, but it has felt major to me because I know I am learning and improving each time, and lightbulbs are starting to go off.

I know I sound like a Bootstrap ad, but the excitement I have about learning more about it reminds me of when I first learned Adobe Illustrator, and my design skills took off. In fact, one of the things that stuck out to me about working with a framework is how it forces you to make better design decisions — such as streamlining your color palette — whether you realize it or not. I can get stuck on a color palette for days doing strictly design work. That was not an issue for me with this class. I feel like it's already made me a better web designer, thinking differently about the individual components that make up every website, and I believe the knowledge I gained will continue to pay off for me in my current role and in my goal of full-time creative direction.