My First 6 Months

Hey Friends, 

**Disclaimer: I wrote this blog a few months back right around my 6 month mark and even though we’re a bit removed from that time at this point the rules still apply. Back to the story now.

What can I say? In short, it’s been six months. Back in May I took on my first account as a Senior Experience Designer and it’s been a journey of learning ever since. I had officially made the jump from architectural design to experience design and to be honest I was unsure of what to expect. Well I take that back. I did expect to be confused and lost in the sauce with everything. However, here’s the rundown of my first 6 months in retrospect. 

Here are the top things I’ve learned.

1. You can do it. Even if it means you’re doing it uncomfortably the entire time you still can do it and I can attest to this. I’ve been uncomfortable this ENTIRE time. I’ve never felt secure in what I was doing at any point but I produced each and every time.

2. Being a consultant really means you’re a person lending your expertise but that boils down to someone giving their best judgment on things. You and they are still human. I say this because I came into this expecting to be perfect, but what I heard in meetings were subject matter experts providing their best educated opinions and testing it out to see if it worked out.

3. The difference between agile and waterfall. Now I’ll admit I’m still learning the difference between this in real time but I get the big picture of the difference haha. As told to me by my performance partner in architectural speak so I could really see it… the mindset of waterfall is much like architecture. You put all this work into documentation that results in a building and you address things that might be wrong after it’s done being built. The agile mindset is like starting on the kitchen of a house and choosing between moving on to the bathroom or fine tuning the kitchen a bit more because you want to get specific about the appliances. You have options and you’re always updating things in a cyclical way instead of one and done. 

4. Tech jargon. Now coming into this I felt like my first couple of months were filled with acronyms and phrasing I’d never heard before. I mean I literally started a running list of acronyms to ask my team about after our meetings. Here are some of them to name a few: discovery, inception, retro, delivery, spike. Fun fact, I still get hit with acronyms today. This hasn’t changed haha. 

5. I’m learned how to conduct research and I got to see the importance of it. Now I’m a designer in heart and mind, but the project I was on lent itself to very little of that. Instead, I had research and I really had to dive into it. I now know about creating research plans, conversation guides, how to moderate an interview, conduct research synthesis, and the like.

6. Bonus learn: It is always ok to ask questions. I credit my comfortability in this uncomfortable area to architecture and my favorite boss (hey OG!). Every unanswered question in architecture resulted in some part of the building being built incorrectly and that would always result in a change order. That meant money had to be spent to correct it. I hated being at the source of that mistake so to avoid that… you learned to ask questions. I’d rather know the answer than let my team go in blind on something I could’ve asked about. This is no different in tech. I also have yet to kick off a series of questioning that didn’t result in someone else asking a question of their own. So in short…always ask the question.

7. Finally, a fact I've observed…My coworkers are amazing and seeing other black people in tech is phenomenal.

That’s all I have for now, but I’m hanging in there. More to come soon.

Best Dreamers,

Kiera

How to Code: My Resources

Alright Saints, I’m back!

Now if you’ve chosen to go on this journey of coding alongside me then here are a few things I’ve come to find out. You can go about learning how to code in several ways. One way  you can go about doing this is to go to school for it. Of course that’ll cost you, but if you can swing it then why not? Signing up for a coding boot camp is another way to get the ball rolling. Be aware that there are a ton of boot camps out there so be sure to do your research. What’s cool about some of the boot camps though is that they enable you to enroll without paying upfront. You don’t pay until you’ve secured a job. Now if that is something that sounds more your speed I’ll do my best to keep you guys updated with recommended boot camps from people I trust. I refuse to send you guys off so I’ll have more on this later. Finally, the last way one can learn how to code is by teaching yourself.  So in conclusion, know that you have options. While each method is great, I encourage you to pursue whatever method works best for both you and your wallet.

Now as for me, I am currently one of those people that have champagne taste on beer money….at least this is how we phrase it at home. For this reason, the self taught method and I are going to get along just fine. While this may be the harder and extremely self-disciplined route (let us pray now for discipline), there are a lot of platforms that want to respect our wallets and budgets out here so we’re in luck!

And because I’m attempting this close to very free route, I want to encourage you guys to follow along and learn with me. Possessing the ability to code is such a dope skill that reaps nothing but reward so come along for the ride!

I’m including the  list of resources Iʼve begun using to make this happen. Feel free to drop some sites you’ve found useful as well. I plan on making a living list available here soon.

Happy Coding!

KT

THE LIST:

• Medium.com aka The Muse Medium

  • A goldmine of inspiration for any and everything you ever needed to read in an article. I use this site to stay in tune with new trends and happenings pertaining to front end development and architecture (yea I’m still attached). For example, the article Iʼve clung to when searching how to start this journey I found on medium. Feel free to read the article. Itʼs dope!

• FreeCodecamp.com aka The Prelims

  • This website is amazing and absolutely free! I said free! This is a free resource geared towards beginners. It has a host of modules about 300 hours worth a piece dedicated to teaching you the beginnings on how to code. Iʼve been making my way through them and my my do we have a ways to go. Check it out!

• TheOdinProject.com aka A Reader’s Paradise

  • I’m actually starting to favor this site. It teaches you material but forces you to read about different aspects of code. I literally have a list of sites to reference due to them. They’re also 100% free!!!

And last but not least.....

• Lynda.com aka The Site You May Want to Really Pay For

  • This website is tutorial based and offers information on everything from how to code to how to utilize SEO to how to take up photography to finance. While is it subscription based at $30 a month it has paid for itself time and time again.

Again, these are what Iʼm beginning my journey with. Iʼd love to hear more about what sites you all have tried and what boot camps. Please comment below and subscribe to stay updated on my journey!

What is a Front End Developer?

In short coding is an umbrella term for A LOT. It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed at the sheer amount of things you can accomplish with it. This is NOT to discourage you at all; it’s just to encourage you to declare a specialty. It’s like the difference of saying “I’m hungry” versus “I want to eat Mediterranean food”. One statement is the reason you’ll probably settle for some basic food you don’t want to eat over something you’d be happy to spend your money on. Coding is that! Narrowing things down will save you.

Thankfully, I’ve been able to narrow down the path of coding I want to tackle and that is front end development with a slight segway into user interface design.

Well what is front end development though? Right. Let’s talk about it. Maybe we’ll take on user interface or UI design some other time.

Now before I list my idea of what front end development is please know that I am still learning and this definition is sure to evolve as I increase my knowledge around this topic. However, here goes nothing!

A front end developer is the person responsible for breathing life into everything you see and engage with on screen. For example, they are the reason you can see everything from the color selections on the website to the type of font you see on screen. Theyʼre responsible for making sure that those sites can display correctly whether they be on your phone, tablet, or computer. They’re also the people tasked with creating responsible design that can be accessible to everyone including those with disabilities. They are the magicians that tell your browser where to store information once you press the submit button after you input your contact or credit card info on the site. They do all of that and so much more.

So basically, they tell your website or app how to look, how to behave and work well within its given parameters, and how to receive and pass out information making it easier for the consumer experience overall. At least... thatʼs what Iʼve come to understand thus far.

Now I donʼt want to make it seem like front end developers are solely responsible for the magic that is creating a fully functioning digital experience because they are not. Front end developers work closely alongside both UX/UI designers and back-end developers to bring you this kind of enjoyable experience. So teamwork is definitely a thing here. They do, however, have what is known as a full stack developer and that person is capable of delivering on all of these fronts single handedly. As for me and mines though front end development works for me for now.  

To conclude, I hope this makes some sort of sense. I do plan on updating you all as I expand my knowledge base. My hope is that Iʼll be able to inspire someone else who wants to become a coding boss from scratch like me. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about UX/UI design or back end development I will include several links in later posts that I feel explain this clearly (shout out to Medium). And by all means for those in the industry jump in the comment section and help enlighten myself and other viewers.

Until the next update.
Happy Coding Dreamers!

Oh yea, in my next post I plan on dropping the links I’ve been utilizing to teach myself how to code. You don’t want to miss it so stay tuned!

True Life: This is Beginner Coding

Coding.

That word in itself has a certain connotation that comes along with it. Some of us hear coding and automatically dissociate ourselves with the term. It is reserved for the likes of those we deem as super smart or nerds. Some of us consider code and automatically think of people who work in dark rooms with one singular light on who enjoy little to no company from others. Okay….that one might have been a little dramatic but the point is that we’ve given the gift of coding to a lot of other people besides ourselves. Strangely, we still manage to think this even though the likes of Myspace and Tag had us coding everything early on. You want an exclusive background? Here’s the custom code for it. You want this or that? Here is the custom code for it.

I believe what made the difference for us then versus now was the platform being used and the way it was presented to us. It gave us the ability to showcase our personalities in the background so we did it. It then gave us instant results so we engaged with it often. Finally it was presented in such a way where anyone could do it. So in today’s time this is a feeling I want to recreate for myself because coding is something I’ve wanted to learn for quite some time. I also believe that coding is for anyone who wants to learn it.

I believe one should always be expanding your skill set and I feel this a great way to do so. Still near the realm of design, I’ve come to admire how such a powerful and invisible language can support such an expansive framework. For example, there is code that was written to allow you to do everything from see your mouse move across the screen, to scroll down to see more content, to open up a new window in your browser, and so much more. Result wise, I like how you can talk to someone, get their feedback, and write for them exactly what it is they want to see coded on their website or app. I’ve read this falls into the areas of user design and front end development. I’ll have more on what those are in a later blog post, but my current goal is to share my journey with you guys and just get started.

Now if you’re looking for the one stop shop place to learn what and how to code, I promise NOT to be that. Rest assured. I don’t plan on being the spokesperson of all things code either. I do, however, hope through documenting my journey in developing this new skill that you guys will be inspired to learn right along with me. Even if that’s just to make yourself more familiar with the subject. I can’t wait to see where my newly developed skills take me and I hope you all will be here along for the ride.

Always happy to learn. Always happy to share.

KT

My Goals for 2019

Happy New Year Dreamers!

I hope that 2019 brings you nothing but prosperity and the accomplishment of your goals.

I shall keep this post short and sweet because I’m excited to drop these goals and crush them! They are as follows:

1. Bring God A LOT closer than before.

2. Acquire the skills to become a front end developer.

3. Work out at least 3 times a week.

4. Take more photographs.

5. Redefine and lean in to my lane.

6. Travel to and explore two new places I’ve never been to.

7. Show up more for my friends.

8. Collaborate w/three brands this year.

9. Grow KTLLive’s viewership and content.

10. Upgrade on my level of self care.

Feel free to let me know what some of your goals are in the comment section.

KTLLive