In which I make my plans for my site features a little more concrete… but not much else
Hey strangers and friends!
Here’s my weekly breakdown for what’s gone down most recently in my web dev journey — covered briefly because it doesn’t give me any joy to reflect on this particular work week.
What’s that? You feel sympathetic, yet you don’t know what I’m talking about and would like to? Well, for context, here are the previous posts in this spectacular blog series:
- Let’s Build a Web App! A blog series by someone starting their web dev journey
- Let’s Build a Web App! Week 2 out of 30
- Let’s Build a Web App! Week 3 out of 30
- Let’s Build a Web App! Lo-fi Edition / Week 4 out of 30
- Let’s Build a Web App! Week 5 out of 30
- Let’s Build a Web App! Week 6 out of 30
- Let’s Build a Web App! Week 7 out of 30
What did I set out to do?
The goal I listed for this week was “finish mapping out the architecture for moshi-moji; take a first stab at setting up my Django backend/api to figure out my Django-related questions.”
Since I actually gave setting up my Django/GraphQL backend a try a few weeks ago, I already had that part covered.
For the “architecture mapping” component, I gave myself these items:
- have wireframes for UI done with pseudocode
- have routes for data platform mapped out (now that I’m not using a REST api framework and am instead using GraphQL, the equivalent would be my schemas and queries for the GraphQL endpoint)
- have models for data mapped out
Other than that, the usual outreach to mentors.
What did I end up getting done?
To be honest, not a great deal. I inquired about network architecture to a mentor, and then I made wireframes for one out of a couple main views for the site.
What went well / What was difficult / What I would do differently next time
What went well:
I was nervous about how the wireframing would go, but when I did get some wireframing done, I was glad to find the task useful. Mapping out UI lets me have a concrete plan of what my website will look like, what models to add, and what components to build. While wireframing, I was forced to be thoughtful about what sort of UI elements make sense and what would be hard to develop. I got rid of some bad ideas and definitely felt that it was a good move to get the “thinking” for the UI out of the way before I start coding everything with React.
What was difficult:
On the other hand, the way I’m approaching the wireframing (to settle on a detailed and specific vision of how everything will look and work from a user’s point of view) does mean that it’s a time sink and I have to invest a lot of time in it to reap its benefits.
I became aware that I lack wisdom about UX/UI and that might mean I make a lot of mistakes in choosing what UI elements to build.
The bigger issue this week was my continued trend of not getting as many hours in as I should. There were a couple complications (interpersonal matters that came up, some social commitments, issues with sleep) but I really don’t have an excuse. Hopefully I’ll only go up from here because I feel motivated to see a change in terms of hours put in.
What I would do differently next time:
Continue to limit social engagements (so not really a change, but maybe implement this a bit more), exercise in hopes that this might help with my sleep issues, and get up early even if I’m tired.
One cool thing I learned about:
While reading about the principles that the Docker communities subscribe to, I came across the ’12 factor’ methodology for web app development put forth by Heroku.
Misc links for your browsing pleasure:
- My twitter: https://twitter.com/ronachng
- My Github repo for kusamochi: https://github.com/ronachong/kusamochi/commits/master
- My Github repo for moshi-moji:
https://github.com/ronachong/moshi-moji - My Paper doc for brainstorming/planning my web projects:
https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/different-ideas-mnesHVM2GY2Fwb05iN2fW - My Paper doc for logging my Google queries (obsessive, I know):
https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/resource-log-rOGTRd8hygvwJ4NCGglpm
