Web development is a long-lost friend of mine. I wanted to reflect on my journey, where I am today, and where I plan to go.

I started learning basic HTML and CSS way back in the late 90s when Netscape and IE were basically your only options. I had a lot of fun learning and eventually applying the skills I learned to help other people and businesses build their online presences.

As my career evolved however, I grew into more of a back-end developer thanks to Rails and its opinionated goodness. And then Python at Discogs. And then I made my way into management. This path took me further away from where I started originally which was ok at the time, but it took me while to realize how much I missed transposing designs into interactive web pages.

I’ve been less and less interested in reading about technical leadership and management and more interested in the modern day landscape of web design. Resources like HTML & CSS Is Hard and the Responsive Web Design Bootcamp have given me a boost in becoming familiar with modern web design. I’m amazed at how much has changed and how much easier some things are these days. But, I’m also overwhelmed by all the new technology and front-end related tools that are required; it’s not nearly as simple as creating a few HTML pages anymore.

To help with bringing myself back up to speed, I have been volunteering a few hours a week on helping a CEO bring her vision to life. What’s great about this opportunity is that there was a blank slate for the front-end, so I worked with my wife, who is a UX Designer by trade, to collaborate with the CEO and design the initial prototypes. Since I was working so closely with a UX Designer, I was able to iterate quickly and show the CEO proof-of-concepts in a short amount of time. It was this project that validated how much I missed web development especially when paried with a talented designer.

With this project, I have been able to learn a lot about React, webpack, and some of the newer-to-me parts of CSS like flexbox. I have had a blast doing so and I can’t wait to eventually land somewhere building intuitive and fresh interfaces.

You can see the work I’ve done by visiting Vino Voyage