JavaScript➕Coffee🚀Over the last week or so, I've been lucky enough to start working with senior web developer, @vfwood, on a dummy CMS project. I am having a great time and learning so much!
Over the past week I have created a homepage with links to twitter, created a login page with a form, and linked them together with a nav bar. It doesn't sound like much for just over a weeks' work, but I've also been using git in the CLI for the first time and learning -
The life cycle:
- Pick up ticket
- New branch from master
- Complete ticket
- Create PR
- Push to branch
- Wait for review
For me, the longest time is between 2. and 3., not only because I am learning as I go (seriously, I Google everything), but also because I just don't know what things are supposed to look like...?
Now, I know that generally developer !== UI designer, but I feel like I should at least have some idea of if something looks good or not???
It's tricky - I know website UI that I like - generally minimalist, not cluttered, soft colours etc., but when I try and recreate that look - there is just so much white space, which is baaad 🐑.
So.... at what point does a developer need to put on a designer hat?
Where do I get one of these hats? 🕵🏻
For example, yesterday I spent a long time writing about 30+ <div>s in order to move the elements seperately, when in fact all I needed was an overarching <div class= "container"> to bring everything together. Things like that will come in time of course, and time won't be wasted trying to manually move elements with classes....
But when do I start knowing that things look good? Like that nothing should touch the sides and forms should only be as long as the header, but also not too long
Previously, I've worked in industries such as education, transport and finance, where generally you need to get things right first time 👏🏻
Is it just a case of drafting until I get it right?
Has someone written a rule book?
Do I need to spend a load of time learning about UI and UX?
Do most people just know what looks good when they are developing a web page?
