I’ve been asked a few times how I got into coding, so I thought I’d share the story. This post is a collection of the small, sometimes messy, projects I built while learning. After struggling through countless frontend courses that didn’t quite stick, things slowly started to make sense when I dove into building my ideas.
My journey began in 2020, with bursts of energy and effort sprinkled throughout the years. It’s only now that I feel proficient enough to prototype and commit meaningful code. The journey was long, and honestly, it wasn’t until I started using ChatGPT and Copilot that things really started to click. Having a reliable companion to pair with 24/7 made a huge difference.
Along the way, many colleagues offered their support and guidance, for which I am extremely grateful. It was their help, combined with the ability to learn by building, that truly brought everything together for me. These are all the projects I can share publicly, as there are many other prototypes and projects I worked on at work that I can’t share. But the sentiment is same, just start building.
Coin Flip
Can't decide something? Let math.random decide.
One evening, my partner and I couldn't decide if we wanted Indian or Mexican food. There are plenty of coin flip apps around, but it felt like a good opportunity to learn validation. I took what I learned and applied it to my simple coffee guides.
Simple Coffee Guides
A collection of guides that'll get you some smooth, well-balanced coffee to kick back with.
I wanted to create a simple website to do simplify making coffee in the morning. No ratios, just enter your cup size and number of servings and get the kettle on. Inspired by Bread for the Busy, Dan Eden also gave some feedback about wanting to customise the cup size. Which forced me to do some maths with code, rather than the hard coded values I started with.
Time Blocker
A super simple way to plan your day without overwhelming your calendar.
I have always thought a lot about productivity, and am a big advocate for time blocking. In this project, I learned how to use local storage to save data in the browser.
A little tool that helps you benchmark a design against Dieter Rams’ ten principles of good design.