Tag Archives: midterm

Developer Profile: NPR’s Wes Lindamood

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For the profile, I reached out to Wes Lindamood, who works as a senior interaction designer for National Public Radio. 

What made you decide to pursue a career in web development?

I graduated from college 17 years ago. Man, I’m getting old. Anyway, when I was in school, I had a strong interest in journalism, graphic design, and advertising. Unsure of how to combine my interests, I turned to an amazing advisor, Dr. Cassandra Reese. It was her wise counsel that guided me to the interactive multimedia program in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. I was immediately captivated by the potential to tell stories and build experiences with code. I’ve been working at the intersection of journalism and design ever since.

Wes worked for several other organizations before landing his current job at NPR in 2010. Before joining the NPR Visuals team, he worked as a platform and enterprise story designer for USA Today and as an art director for the American Chemical Society, where, among other things, he worked on the organization’s website and on producing its online newsmagazine.

What drew you to work as a web developer for NPR?

Quoting Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Michel Martin has said that NPR is “unbought and unbossed.” The phrase “unbought and unbossed” was Chisholm’s presidential campaign slogan, and when applied to NPR it means that the public, not shareholders, own us. Our mission is to create a more informed public, and make our work as widely available as possible. That mission not only influences our journalism, but the code that we write.

How has your time at NPR influenced your perspective on web development?

I’m fortunate to work on a team that believes in open-source software development, and freely sharing what we know. The code we write has been used nationally and internationally to tell stories of protest, war, and the fight for freedom. The ethos and work of the open-source software community has been hugely beneficial to me over the course of my career, and my appreciation of it has only grown in my time at NPR. I hope my contributions have helped make the community stronger.

Some of the digital projects Wes has worked on at NPR include:

  • Project Argo – a reporting collaboration between 12 NPR member stations hosted on an open-source platform Wes helped build;
  • Life After Death – a digital story exploring the aftereffects of Ebola in the village of Barkedu in northern Liberia;
  • the award-winning documentary Lost and Found, which looks at the life of photographer Charles W. Cushman;
  • and (my favorite) an episode of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, titled Making a T-Shirt, which takes an in-depth look at the creation of a single t-shirt. The Planet Money web documentary was a collaborative effort between the visuals team and the podcast’s staff. In an explanation of the project, Wes described the teamwork, stating, “Often in editorial settings, the design team is brought in after the story has been reported. I cannot emphasize enough how important it was to this project that the entire team was involved in this process from the beginning. Collective brainstorming sessions were crucial to forming a shared understanding of the story to be told. It allowed reporters to consider content that would lend itself well to a web-native experience while they were in the field, and allowed the design team to begin to consider the presentation of the story, even as we were working on other projects.”

Outside of NPR’s work, what is your favorite website or digital story project out there right now? 

I discovered Robin Sloan’s app, Fish: a tap essay, at a time in which I was reflecting a lot on the kind of work and storytelling I wanted to do online. In the essay, Sloan asks us to think about the difference between liking something on the internet and loving something on the internet. Sloan’s thoughts about stock and flow, and the need for durable stories that stand out from the constant stream of news has had a huge influence on me. I continue to think about how to apply the principle of stock and flow to my work and my life on a regular basis.

What advice do you have for someone like me who is just beginning to learn how to code?

I think there’s a false belief by folks that are just starting out that experienced programmers write all their own code by hand. This belief is reinforced by bad hiring practices, and it’s simply wrong. Experienced programmers look up code snippets on the internet all the time. Taking an existing piece of code, dissecting it, trying to understand why it was written the way it was, and then adapting that code for your own use is the best way to learn. Bonus points if you write about what you learned, and share that with the community to pay it forward. 

Like our class, Wes uses GitHub as a platform, and you can find samples of his code there, as well as work from the NPR Visuals team.

Q and A with Lauren Soni, Janelia Research Campus Web Developer

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Lauren Soni Fraino

Lauren Soni Fraino is a young web developer new on the scene after a career in science research. Her path to web development encompasses the movement toward powerful women, and her experiences with graduate school at Northwestern University, the National Academy of Sciences, and Janelia Research Campus have led her to encompass everything digital.

This interview and my interactions with Lauren make me appreciate web development and web developers more. It is crazy how much work goes into the successful development of a website and one that focuses not only on aesthetics, but also on the user experience. My conversations with Lauren, as a result of this midterm project, additionally, gave me hope for my future in coding and web development. She was able to express her trials with learning how to code and looking at websites in a different manner. One of the things that stayed with me after this interview was that being a “coder” does not happen overnight. It is a long journey of continuously refining your skills. But there is hope–she helped instill that hope in me. Not to mention, she admitted that she, too, scours the internet for code guidelines and examples. So, we are not alone!

The following is a Q&A interview with Lauren Soni Fraino about her experiences entering the world of web development and her experiences working in a digital world.

[Note: the interview below has been adapted for length and clarity]

You’ve had an interesting journey to becoming a web content specialist and web developer. How did you decide to move from science research to web development?

I started off as a biologist, and quickly realized that I was better fit for asking and answering questions quickly within my reach. While working at the National Academy of Science, I realized this newfound aspiration of mine, and began working closely with my team’s web designer and web developer. I had the knowledge and insight of what content would appeal to prospective users, but I wanted to build and design experiences that would meet the user’s needs. This realization is what led me to my current career path—designing and developing digital experiences for those interested in expanding upon their knowledge of basic research within the life sciences.

What advice do you have for new web developers looking to learn the ins and outs of coding in different languages? What’s your favorite language to code in?

As a designer, I thoroughly enjoy working within CSS. I enjoy being able to have content laid out in front of me, and the opportunity to creatively display that content in an engaging way. Often times, this means adding page specific—or even site-wide specific—content in front of me where I can apply styling that will engage a user’s attention and captivate them based upon how I have styled specific content. As a designer/developer, I strongly suggest continuous practice of a specific language, without becoming discouraged by immediate results, to ensure self-satisfaction throughout a project’s duration.

Where do you see the web development and user experience industry in five years? What about your own career?

I anticipate web developers and user experience professional working more and more closely together.  Nowadays, the two practices are disjointed, but in an ideal setting these types of professionals would work closely together. It is the responsibility of the user experience professional to gather and collect specific research to inform the user of a specific digital product, and for the web developer to produce this product. Without this harmonious approach, the two practices would have little contact with each other, and would result in unnecessary spending and product research.

To date, what has been the most interesting web and/or digital project that you’ve had the opportunity to work on?

The most interesting digital project I have worked on has been designing and developing a solution to help meet the needs of exposing our research institute’s advanced imaging center. Throughout this project I served as a designer, and lead digital project manager, to create a solution to pair those interested in working with Janelia Research Campus with a specific imaging tool, such as an advanced imaging microscope. This Buzzfeed-like quiz allowed us to create an engaging experience to pair users with the ideal imaging platform to meet their research needs.

What types of projects do you hope to work on in the future?

In the future, I hope to be a part of a project that focuses upon the user’s initials needs, and designing and developing a project with the user in mind. Often times, various political landscapes and organizational needs will cloud a project’s future. My ideal project would focus on a user-oriented product that would solve for a user’s needs with room for that solution to evolve as the user’s needs evolve in time.

What’s your most visited site? Do you ever get content and development ideas from it?

My most visited website it thenextweb.com. Because this website shares best practices as it relates to web design and development, I often get inspiration from this website to help shape the design and development of specific projects I am working on.

If you could be any superhero with any superpower, what would it be and why?

If I could be any superhero with any superpower, I would be Wonder Woman with her ability to use her Lasso of Truth to help inform my decision-making processes. If I had this ability, I would use [interviewees] to better inform my design-decision-making. It is a valuable practice to test assumptions on users before having developers devote time to producing a specific solution. If I were able to persuade users to provider their honest opinions of a particular product during initial user testing, I would be able to work more closely with the development team to produce a product that was more in-line with the needs of our users.

Developer Profile: Dave–Consultant and Freelance Web Developer

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Dave is a consultant and freelance web developer who does both front-end design for applications that provide analytics and marketing landing page design. Due to the sensitive and confidential nature of his government contract work, he has asked that I refer to him by his first name only. Dave is currently employed at a small consultancy in Virginia, and in his spare time, he does freelance web design for several small companies based in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., area.

Prior to earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Dave taught himself basic HTML when he was in middle school, and later took a few programming classes as a high school student. I connected with Dave through a colleague, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about his experiences and career as a website and applications developer. 

How did you become interested in web development, and how did you get started in the field?

I was always interested in software development as a creative outlet. I originally got into engineering because I wanted to develop video games, but became discouraged from pursuing that as a career before completing my education. While in college, there was a lot of [negative] publicity about people in that industry being overworked and underpaid. My brother is also an engineer, and he recommended that I interview with the large government contractor where he was employed. They gave me a fine offer, and I accepted it and did many years of uninspired work.

When the iPhone was released, I again became interested in software as a creative outlet. The proliferation of the iPhone seemed to have led the government to take an interest in better designed, better looking software. This led to me joining a smaller government contracting company and working on projects that involved a lot of web design, which was the closest I could get to doing app development while retaining career stability and my standard of living.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? What about your least favorite project? Can you explain what made these projects your favorite/least favorite?

My favorite project was a single-page web app for a government client. It was a very complicated application, but I worked on a small two-person team with someone for whom I have a lot of respect. We accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. I found a lot of joy in this project because of the sense of accomplishment that came from designing and implementing a full-fledged product with such a small group and over a short amount of time. It taught me a lot about how important good chemistry is when working on teams, and how truly beneficial it can be to have assistance from others when working. It also taught me that nothing is insurmountable when you are in the right situation.

My least favorite project was a large government project that involved maintaining a poorly designed contracting/procurement application. It was not enjoyable because there was no expectation or desire for quality and efficiency, but rather, we were expected to follow a flawed process full of red tape.

What is your preferred programming language, and why?

I have been enjoying working in JavaScript with the AngularJS framework, because of the speed in which you can create a well-functioning, highly-visual output. Familiarity with CSS has also led me to be able to develop something aesthetically pleasing with relatively little effort.

What are your favorite customizations or features to add to your sites or applications?

I like sweating the details. For example, making sure that a site functions under all resolutions, like the smaller iPhone SE, which web developers frequently omit and as a result cause undesired scrolling issues. I also like to make sure high-density screen resolutions are properly supported, so that images aren’t blurry and upscaled. These are the kinds of small details that exhibit that care went into development.

What are the best and worst things about web development?

The best thing is when you make a minor CSS tweak and it makes the entire design click into place. Something like a font weight, or border, which turns a decent design into an excellent design. The worst thing is the sheer volume of web frameworks and buzzwords in the industry. I have no interest in always using the newest, trendiest technology, and web development is fraught with that.

Can you share any helpful (free) resources or tools for debugging a piece of code?

I’m typically able to complete all work using Stack Overflow for consultation, and the Google Chrome Development Tools to debug code and layout issues.

What sites do you have bookmarked to refer to when coding a site or developing an application? You mentioned Stack Overflow–why is that a go-to site for you?

I always start with a Google search, and then favor any results from Stack Overflow. I find Stack Overflow to be the most useful because it is self-correcting. There are several different ways to solve any programming issue, and their ratings system is an easy way to evaluate the answers that present each method. It’s also helpful to have comments embedded from users right next to the answers, which will warn you about possible pitfalls in using that approach. The one exception to my “Stack Overflow first” rule is when I have a more generic question that has a lot of components to it–something like “how to get started doing [x]”–in which case posts from independent blogs tend to be more useful because they’ll provide detailed walk-throughs with plenty of lists and screenshots to assist.

In your opinion, what qualities make a successful web developer, and why?

It helps to be a perfectionist. There are a lot of different operating systems, browsers, and devices to support, and you need to always be diligent in making sure that code changes did not introduce regressions. Working with JavaScript is problematic because it is not as easy to detect code errors as it is in a compiled language like C++ or Java. JavaScript is easy to write but tends to be overly accommodating for code errors.

Do you have any advice you’d be willing to share with beginner developers?

Don’t fall for the startup/overwork culture. If a company offers you three free meals, it’s because they expect you to be available at work all day. All jobs have occasional crunch times, but you’ll never be truly rewarded for pushing yourself too hard and spending time away from your family unless you have ownership stake in the company.

What are your interests outside of web development, and do they overlap with your work?

I am interested in music, cars, creating cocktails, and architecture/home improvement. These are very different from my profession, but there is an overlap in terms of my overall drive to create the best possible product and find the best examples of a craft.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself, your work, and the field?

Our field is in very high demand. Make sure you do something you like and surround yourself with colleagues you respect.

Midterm: Emmanuel Kenabantu, SharePoint engineer

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For my midterm I interviewed Emmanuel Kenabantu, a SharePoint engineer at OSIBeyond, LLC, an IT consulting firm that primarily works with non-profit organizations. He works remotely as a SharePoint consultant on various development projects for their clients. It is a web-based, collaborative platform that integrates well with Microsoft Office. It is a relatively new technology that is sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and usage varies substantially between organizations.

Q: Describe your project and the guidelines given to create it. 

A: Our assigned project was to design a SharePoint web application to allow external and internal users the ability to review and electronically sign documents. The client was using SharePoint 2010 to run their intranet site and wanted to leverage and design an extranet site to allowed them to collaborate with other partners on various projects. The entire review and approval process would be automated and tracked for auditing purposes. The instructions for the development of the platform are bulleted below:

  • The customer should be able to fill out a form and submit it.
  • A workflow would be triggered and notifications would be sent to a reviewer.
  • Once the reviewer verifies and approves the data in the form, an email notification would be sent to their partners (external users).
  • The external users would review the details in the form and provide a consensus.
  • One designated external user would submit the consensus.
  • The system will notify the clients about the consensus and generate a PDF document of the form.
  • The system would automatically start the electronic signature collection process.
  • Once the document is signed by both the clients and partners, it is archived and permissions are set to read-only.

Q: What approach did you take the design the application? What languages did you use?

A: We designed the asp.net (an open-source server side web application framework), and some of the functionalities of the program were written with the programming language C Sharp (C#), a server-side language. We also used Javascript and jQuery to build the functionality behind the form.

Q: How long did the project take to complete overall?

A: Since we are working with a small team, the project only had 2 members – the project manager was in charge of interacting with the customers using the program as well as gathering requirements, and I was the application architecture manager in charge of design, coding and testing the final form.

Q: What were some of the greatest challenges you faced in creating the program and working with other team members to craft the final product?

A: The greatest challenge has been designing a system that supported different types of browsers, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc. This challenge was due to the fact that we could not control which browser external users would be using to access, and interact with, our system as well as figuring out ways to work around the SharePoint browser limitations. We had to test our final form against all potential browsers and make sure that all browser-specific issues were resolved before presenting our final product to the clients that would be using it.

Q: What were some lessons or takeaways you learned in the creation of this project?
A: One of the greatest lessons we learned was to always take into account user behaviors. It is important to do several runs of testing with our customers that will be using the system, rather than just testing with our internal sources. Learning this throughout the process helped us design a more user-friendly interface with features that increased usability and accessibility for our clients and users of the program.

 

Q: How does this project contribute to both your overall career and to your industry as a whole?

A: As a SharePoint engineer, I am consistently looking for ways to better the experience of my clients and users of the interface by making things more efficient and user-friendly. My job is to identify customer needs from a technological design standpoint, and use my knowledge of coding and web design to meet their needs. In designing this project in particular (and other similar SharePoint forms like it), I can eliminate repeating steps by simply designing a program that takes all of the guesswork out of repeating form submissions and working on projects collaboratively. This kind of problem solving and shared work is especially good for the non-profits we work with because it helps business run more smoothly and efficiently, and housing a variety of forms and projects together in one place allows users to access them remotely, even on their mobile or tablet devices. This content management system (CMS) is a great way for non-profits to manage their documents with a program that provides functionality that greatly outweighs its cost.

 

Q&A with Tiffanie Johnson

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Tiffanie Johnson is a developer who made a late career change after working for a defense contractor. She is currently working for Forum One, a 21 year-old digital company that helps organizations build and extend their reach through innovative web design and development.

Tell me a little about yourself.

I was born in D.C., but my father is in the Marines so we moved around a lot. I consider San Diego, California to be my home town. I miss it, especially on days like this when it’s humid, hot, and sticky.

Were you working in web development when you were out there?

No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t really interested in web development at school. I went for Physics and Math. I got my Associates in Electrical Engineering and I got my Bachelor’s in Mathematics. So I’m not a classically trained computer scientist, like a lot of my colleagues are. My senior year of college, I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to graduate school or if I wanted to teach. Neither of those really sounded appealing to me, and that’s kind of what you do if you have a degree in STEM. I was like, I better teach myself a skill. And so I started watching tutorials on YouTube about web development and I sort of taught myself. Through my school I was able to obtain an internship with a defense contractor. That’s where I got a lot of experience from. Things just kind of snowballed after that.
The job I have now, is the first one that is web development focused.

Where are you working now?

I’m at Forum One.

How long have you been at Forum One and what has your experience there been like?

I’ve been at Forum for a little over a year and my experience there has been mostly positive. So even though I’m not doing defense contracting anymore — you have to get the contract to get the work and that’s something to do — in the private sector it’s a lot like that. We have to win contracts. There are down times. When you’re busy, you think about all the things you could do if you had a little more time. And then when the slowdown hits and you get all that time, it’s so boring.

What is it about web development that you really love?

I think the fact that I’m able to touch so many people with the work that I do. When I worked in defense contracting, if I was building an application, 20 people would see it. With the work that I do, billions of people see it every day. So we build the new Smithsonian African American History Museum’s website, the Red Cross’s site, and Peace Corp. So I’m not only building these websites, but I’m also helping to spread goodness.

What are some of the things that frustrate you about this field?

Being new to web development is difficult because there’s so much technology out there. And that’s fun and it’s exciting, but it can also trap you. You start researching. For example, for JavaScript there are gazillions of frameworks out there and you start researching them and it’s like, which one do you use? Why were these created in the first place? What problem are they trying to solve? What are their pitfalls? Why might you not want to use them? Stuff like that is frustrating to me because the answers are not always clear. It isn’t alway clear which solution is best. That could be because I’m fairly new. As far as web development is concerned, I have about a year and half of experience. I’m sure that I’ll get better at it, but technology’s changing very quickly.

So if you come into web development with an open mind, know that what you learned today might be obsolete in three months. That has to be okay with you. Otherwise you’ll get pretty discouraged.

In your profile on Forum One, it says that you are working toward becoming a Subject Matter Expert. What is this position and why do you want to be one?

I want to teach people how to use it and I don’t want to have to ask anyone for help. So if I’m the expert in that field, then all the JavaScript decisions would come through me. I want to be an expert at it because I want to know more than the person next to me who’s doing the same job. JavaScript is the language of the internet really. I think that’s the perfect language to do it in.

What projects are you working on now?

Have you been introduced to StackExchange? It’s a forum where you can ask other developers questions if you’re having problems? So I’m building a copy of that. Not to really put it out there, but for myself to play with.

Any advice for anyone who is just starting?

Yeah, code every day. Code something, even if it’s a “Hello World”, or something like that. Read an article everyday. Because it’s very easy to forget why you made a decision. Always comment your code, for you and for the person after you. Realize that everybody that’s coded before you has felt the way you felt so don’t give up. This is just the process of becoming a developer. And it’s fun too! It’s a very powerful feeling to control a computer and that’s what you do.

Web Development Midterm – Coder Profile, Sarah Howe

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For this assignment, I spoke with one of the lead web developers at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber), Sarah Howe. Sarah has a wealth of knowledge, not only as relates to web development, but also how the tech industry is growing, changing, and constantly redefining the skills necessary to be successful. Given that Sarah and I spoke for over an hour, I cannot fit the full extent of our conversation into 800 words, so I will discuss a few of the highlights.

First, I was intrigued to discover that Sarah fell into the web development world post-college and taught herself to code using Codecademy. In college, Sarah studied history with minors in art history, Asian studies, and classical studies. She then moved to D.C. to work as an event coordinator, first for the Korean Economic Institute, and then at the Chamber.

While working on events at the Chamber, Sarah had her first introduction to the coding world when she decided to create digital event pamphlets as opposed to print pamphlets to minimize paper waste. She quickly realized she enjoyed the work associated with digital tools – streamlining efforts, developing creative solutions, and covering diverse topic areas, to name a few. She realized that her future was not in events, and began to look for web production jobs within the Chamber.

A few months later, she switched teams and began working on content for Chamber websites, which continues to be her job today. Sarah oversees the web development team, making sure all of the “trains run on time” and working with other developers to create content for numerous branches within the Chamber.

I found Sarah’s career trajectory interesting given the complexities of web development. I thought a career in web development or coding would be similar to a career in finance as relates to the necessary training – if you do not major in the field in college and get a strong background, you’ll be too far behind once you graduate to break into the industry. I brought this up with Sarah and she explained that the difference with coding, as opposed to finance, is that the tech world is constantly changing, growing, and adapting in ways that make it both difficult to keep up with, but also easy to break into.

Sarah told me about an employee who was recently let go from the Chamber because his job became obsolete due to the changing tech environment. He had studied coding in college and worked as a server admin who hand-coded all of the Chamber websites (for reference, the Chamber has numerous incorporated affiliates, such as the Institute for Legal Reform and the Global Intellectual Property Center; each one of these organization has their own individual website. There are also branches within the Chamber, such as the Center for Education and Workforce or the Intellectual Property Center, which have pages on the larger Chamber site, so there are numerous complex sites to maintain). His job was to make sure all the sites were running efficiently by updating the cache, fixing minor bugs, etc. This work, according to Sarah, is now becoming unessential as websites are developing “smart code” that can handle this type of maintenance internally.

For example, in the past the individual who was laid off would set up rules for each page – for example updating the text on a page, telling the site to purge the cache as the old content is no longer up to date, and then telling the system to take a new snapshot of the page for the cache. Now, however, websites with “smart code” will automatically detect when the text on a page is updated and then execute step two and three automatically without needing an individual to update the code. Sarah pointed out that there is still obviously the ability for a person to code these rules by hand, or update the code if the site misses a step, but the technological improvements make a full time position unnecessary.

I asked Sarah what she thought this “smart code” meant for the future of coding, would it cut out jobs or create more? She felt that these improvements would cut out jobs for those who were unable to grow or adapt, but for those that were willing to continually learn and strengthen their skills, there would always be jobs available in the tech industry. She raised that the code is only as smart as the coder that created it and there would always be a need for coders to create the next level of “smart code.” I thought this was both a motivational insight, as well as a slightly daunting realization. To be an effective coder or web designer requires constant learning and change, as something that is cutting edge now will likely be obsolete in a few years.

I jokingly mentioned this to Sarah, and she agreed it can be daunting, but said that she thought taking our course, web development for media, is exactly the right first step to get into the coding world, as the basics won’t change. She analogized it to cooking – there are always going to be new ways to cook, and if you love cooking you enjoy learning new recipes, preparation tactics, etc. But minimally, even if you’re not a 5-star chef, you should have a basic understanding or the cooking process, the pieces that go into making a meal, and then, even if you don’t use all of your background knowledge, you have an understanding and appreciation for what went into the dish.

I really liked this analogy and I think it applies perfectly to what we have been doing in class. Although it has been a painful growing process, we have spent the past month trying to understand the intricate details involved in web development so we have a basic understanding of the process. Even if we are not going to use each minutiae coding detail in every website or blog we create, knowing the pieces that go into the larger system is important.

Greg Collins, Former CIO of EarthLink

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The developer that I interviewed was Greg Collins, previous Chief Information Officer at EarthLink. He developed an interest in coding during high school, began his career in web development and later switched into more of an app developer role for EarthLink. As an app developer, Greg’s main focus as a freelancer now is to create easy to use, goal-oriented apps for his clients.

(Q): How did you initially get into coding? Were you taught by a class/teacher or did you self-teach?

(A): Growing up in suburban Tennessee, there was not real push for kids to learn coding growing up. However, my sophomore year of high school, a new teacher came in with a web development background. He created a coding club at our school, and I went once just to check it out with no real intention of becoming part of the club. I was instantly drawn to the idea that you can create your own website through writing a new language in a certain way. Needless to say, I quickly became a very active member of the club.

We initially began with BASIC and FORTAN, throughout my sophomore and junior year. My senior year we were introduced to HTML, CSS, and Javascript. After high school I focused on self-teaching through online courses and after college was formally trained by my employer.

(Q): What was the hardest coding language for you to learn?

(A): At first, it all seems very different and foreign. With that said, I think that the hardest language for me to learn and self-teach myself was Machine Language. I also think that it was the most interesting to learn since it is really writing commands directly into the CPU.

(Q): What project are you most proud of?

(A): The coding project that I am most proud of probably has to be my first own version of BASIC in machine language. It was the most difficult project I had been a part of at that time. It took me weeks to finish and I was very proud of my efforts and happy when the coding finally worked. It was extremely interesting to me to write a higher level language in the most base language there was.

(Q): What is your favorite site online today?

(A): This changes a lot, but as a technologist I spend a fair amount of time looking at various technologies and therefore enjoy TechRepublic lately. With technology constantly changing and improving, it is very important to stay current with the newest trends either in coding, or just technology as a whole. New types of technologies can change the way a developer writes their code, for instance, with increased usage in mobile phones, we have to make sure our code is cross functional and optimized throughout different platforms. I try and stay as current as possible through techrepublic.com and other online tech publications. 

(Q): What has shaped your work?

(A): In the beginning of my career I was always interested in looking at the coding behind websites that drive a lot of visitors. For instance websites like the Washington Post, Amazon, ESPN, among others. I wanted to see which websites had the best layout and processes and tried to replicate that for my clients in order to create a user-friendly page that would drive traffic like those of such large capacity.

As my role has changed into app development, I am inspired by apps that create simplified actions. Some apps try and have too many options, but I am motivated and drawn to those that narrow down their functions to a few, very basic actions. Users don’t want to be spending time searching for through an app to find what they need or want. The best apps are those that have extremely simplified clear and concise functions.

I spend many hours with my clients to evaluate their core functions in order to create a simplistic app that has functions that are so simplified, a fourth grader could figure out how to navigate it.

(Q): What advice would you give to coding beginners?

(A): The advice that I would give beginning coders would be to dip your feet in all types of coding languages and truly find out what really interests you. When I first began coding, there were hardly any tutorials online, and about half of the languages and functions there are today. Luckily, as technology has grown, so has the need for IT, tech, and coding specialists. With that has come the increase in learning opportunities. There are online tutorials and coding program websites for just about any type of coding someone would want to learn. But I would just recommend truly finding the language that implements the functions you are trying to create. Play around with a few of them, I bet you would be surprised at what might interest you.

(Q): What are some best practices you can share regarding web and app development?

(A): When it comes to best practices for both web development and app development, I would recommend keeping your code clean and keeping up on new development in languages and techniques. If you fail to do so, your website or app may end up with problems like slow loading, bugs, and others. You want to ensure that your website or app is as up to date as possible and ultimately optimized for visitors.