One of the things that I have struggled with in my self/community-taught coding journey is often where to start when it comes to building projects. I am well aware of the incredible benefits that building projects have in making one an adept software developer. It is for this reason that I love the Frontend Mentor challenges. The challenges provide starter files which include the designs, icons, images and whatever else is required for the project. After building the project, you then upload it to the website which unlocks the ability to see other people's solutions. A few challenges in, I am realizing there's never such a thing as too simple a project. You have to pay attention to the small details, and this has improved my coding skills.

With this in mind, part of the reason for blogging is to share what has often been a challenge when I am working on a personal project - where to start? With no background in design, how does one move from idea to code? A friend in tech shared Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger. The authors posit that it is possible to build amazing designs without necessarily learning design, at least not in-depthly. I thought this was a great solution to my dilemma, and so I'll be sharing my reflections from this book, as well as how I am incorporating this into building in public.

The Idea

I love journalling - I feel like it provides me with an outlet for my thoughts. As someone who has lived with depression and suicide ideation, writing down what I felt when I was struggling supported my coping skills. In those days, it felt like my thoughts were a train careening off the track. Journalling provided a semblance of order for these colliding thoughts.

When I thought about building in public and shared it with someone I look up to in the tech space, it was only natural that the idea of a journalling website came up. For this project, however, I narrowed it down to chronicling my coding journey. My pen-and-paper journal remains the home for my thoughts and emotions :-)

Below I get to outline the steps that I follow over the next few days, and hopefully learn and get some feedback too.

1. Project scope

I first defined my project scope. A user should be able to:

• Add a dated journal entry.

• Include an image to describe their day in one photo (optional)

• View existing journal entries.

• Search journal entries

1. Design Approach

   I will be using the resources from Adam & Steve's Refactoring UI book to guide my approach as I envision the website's layout and user interface. The idea here is to keep it simple and build on that.

2. Building with:

   - ReactJS and Tailwind CSS

3. Static UI

   I intend to start with a static UI before I can get around to adding the dynamic functionality.

4. Implement the journal entry creation

   Create a form or interface for users to input and save their journal entries. This would also provide the option of adding an image to go with the journal entry. I will then implement the logic to handle saving the entries - using local storage initially and then a backend API.

5. Display the journal entries

   Build a feature to display saved journal entries and images (if any) in a user-friendly format. Use React components to render each entry.

6. Implement searching

   Add functionality to search for journal entries so that users can filter and categorize their entries.

7. Optimize and Deploy

   Optimize my code for performance, accessibility, and SEO before deploying to Netlify.

8. Continuous Learning and Improvement

   Reflect on this project, identify areas for improvement, and seek feedback from peers and the developer community. Keep learning and iterating on my skills and projects.

I am challenging myself to build this in public because I am aware of how much imposter syndrome I struggle with sometimes. I am also excited to see how chronicling this experience is going to go. I'd love for you to leave some feedback, whether that's your experience building in public, dealing with imposter syndrome or just a word of encouragement :-)

PS: While searching for posts on #buildinpublic, I came across this post by Adarsh Dubey that mentioned buildspace, a platform that allows you to build an idea - anything provided it is not illegal - in just 6 weeks and found it fascinating. this may interest anyone who's looking for ways to build in public.

Cover Image: Photo by Pixabay