My first Free Code Camp project

I started learning Front End with Free Code Camp. I tried other learning resources before that, but their challenge-oriented style suited me well.

The first challenges were very straightforward, basic HTML and CSS code snippets. Then the first project came.

First project: Build a tribute page fulfilling these two user stories:

• User Story: I can view a tribute page with an image and text.
• User Story: I can click on a link that will take me to an external website with further information on the topic.

Cool, I also learned what “user stories” meant! ;)

It took me a few hours to get going with CSS and Bootstrap. To be honest I wanted to finish the challenge quickly to go to the next one and didn’t have much patience to learn step by step. After some frustrations it didn’t look great but it was done. One month later, I had already done a freelance project and had more experience, which I used to update the page and make it look better. Here it is:

See the Pen Free Code Camp Project #1 by Felipe Freitag Vargas (@felipefreitag) on CodePen.

What I learned:

• In the beginning, there are so many variables that it’s easy to want to throw everything away and give up. When I accepted it wouldn’t look good the first time, and focused on fulfilling the user stories, I managed to get it over with and move on.
• When I came back to it later, it took a few minutes to make great improvements, because I wasn’t worried about going to the next project and had learned more about the tools. It’s easier to work separating the phases: first get it done, then come back and make it good.
• I should have made a copy of the first version to have it for show… Next time I’ll do it.

Written by Felipe Freitag who lives and works in Porto Alegre, coding and drawing. Follow on twitter