Why JavaScript?
I am a Senior Digital Designer with more than 10 years of experience, starting in a small agency then discovering the very exciting scene of contracting in London, ultimately ending up in a tech-savvy heavy-weight telecom, and running a small StartUp along the way.
Code wise a Digital Designer role requires some HTML and CSS knowledge in order to be able to design for various devices, knowing all the little technical do’s and dont’s which you will learn while working closely with developers. But there’s no guidelines on how much CSS or HTML you actually have to know…
Some Designers are able to create fully responsive HTML templates using frameworks like Bootstrap, some use CSS in a more creative way, experimenting with drawing shapes and characters. Some work professionally as Deigners/Front End Developers (Full Stack Designers) something the industry refers to as a “unicorn”. This is rather highly controversial topic (highly emotional for some) which I am not going to write about here in more detail, in essence though some people in the industry argue that you cannot be a good designer and a good developer at the same time, instead you get a mediocre mix of both…
The “unicorn” label neatly summarizes a pervasive meme in our industry: designers who excel at many skills are so rare that they might as well be mythical. The argument goes that designers must pick between being great at one thing or mediocre at many things.
This could be rather discouraging for someone who wants to embark on this challenging yet very rewarding journey of learning basic programming:
‘Will that decrease my chances of furthering my career and make me less desireable for future employers?’
‘Will I stop exploring new design trends and become an out-of-date-designer?’
‘I might forget how to use Photoshop…’
I don’t think you will have to worry about the third much though, unless you are trying to learn programming and design at the same time in which case this could prove a mammoth of a task.
As soon as I started learning JavaScript I have realised that it is an extremely creative process and sky is the limit in terms of what you can create or use the code for…
From ‘teaching’ your Alexa new skills, to creating abstract art pieces, developing complex web aplications or mobile apps using frameworks like Ionic, React, Angular or even creating games, the spectrum of possibilities is endless and ever so growing.
All in all, JavaScript has exploded in popularity and is now a very useful skill to learn. It is the language of web browsers and as a Digital Designer this is your main playground, learning the language of web browser enables you to see its full potential and its limitations.
JavaScript is the most-tagged language at GitHub. There are over 3100 GitHub projects with over 500 stars. However, many tools also have a high churn rate, so keeping up with all the new things may be slightly exhausting. And this is why learning JavaScript in 2016 is a rollercoaster ride.
Where do I start?
My knowledge of JavaScript thus far was minimal and limited. I was able to edit and tweak somebody’s code to adjust specific components to my desired spec without fully understanding how the programme actually works.
So I have decided to learn JavaScript from scratch:
var a = 1;
I strated from declaring variable ‘a’ and assigning value of ‘1’ to it. This was my first line of code in JavaScript that (I can declare proudly) I understood fully. Now all I had to do is learn what to do with it…
Learning JavaScript is like learning a new foreign language, if you fail to learn basic grammar properly people will find it difficult understanding you and most importantly you will find it difficult to express yourself fully.
There is a never ending list of websites, youtube tutorials and online courses where you can start learning and it is really difficult to choose one. After an extensive research and tips from some of the JS developers I knew, I have decided to give freeCodeCamp.com a go.
This is a great website where you get to learn basiscs by completing tasks and running your own code to see how it works (or does not…). But the most exciting part of freeCodeCamp is its huge community of like minded people with beginners and experienced coders that are always very keen to help. They also organise free meet-ups and hackathons in London (or in your city) where you have the chance to get to meet allot of great people and start building your network which will become a crucial part of your learning process.
So this is great for starting learning JavaScript but if you want to learn programming processes and understand JavaScript deeper I strongly suggest reaching for ‘Eloquent JavaScript’ by Martin Haverbeke. This is a great starting point for anyone wanting to learn the basics of modern programming.
Just keep on coding
The beginning is really challenging. This is the time when you will end up having more questions than answers and ocassionally lose faith in understanding anything. But JavaScript becomes easier with time and once you start writing your own code it will start making more sense, the key is to keep on coding, failing and succeeding.
