Sep 4, 2015

I may have come to this program with some prior knowledge of the topics we’re studying, but it’s amazing how quickly I’m burning through what I know. Every day I learn something I didn’t know before.

Introduction

My name is Alex. I’m a student at The Iron Yard in Austin, Texas. I’m in my second week of classes, and it’s been a whirlwind of computers and code. I’ve embarked on a twelve-week journey during which I’ll be trained and prepped for a career in UI design, and I thought it might be a good idea to record and share some of my thoughts throughout the process.

Background

I’ll start by offering a bit of background to explain my perspective coming into this program. I am a graphic designer. I am also a college dropout. But despite my lack of a degree, I have still pursued a career in design. I have learned a lot about the design process from books, the web, and designers who have been gracious enough to take me under their wings. My experience includes production, prepress, graphic design, illustration, and web work.

Over the years I’ve earned a few modest achievements, but haven’t had any big breaks. After years of inconsistent freelance work, I decided to go back to school. I took some classes at a community college, applied and was admitted to a four-year university. But a couple months before starting, I started having doubts. I wasn’t excited about the extra classes I would have to take, or the fact I would have to wait four years to start my career. During my time of waffling, a friend suggested I look into The Iron Yard. I had never heard of it, but it only took a few minutes on their website to decide this is what I wanted to do. I filled out the application and started the process to become an Iron Yard student.

The Beginning

We’ve already covered a lot in the first couple weeks of our UI design education. We’ve covered HTML and CSS, learned about the structure of websites and how they’re built, cleaned up our code with Sass, and even jumped head first into grid systems and responsive design. These are all topics I’ve studied on my own, but I have really enjoyed learning about them in a more formal way. Sure, there’s a wealth of information to be found on the internet if you want to teach yourself, and I love that about web design. It’s how I’ve picked up the vast majority of what I know about coding. But there’s just something about learning from an instructor who can help you one-on-one. It has been validating to find that I’ve gotten some things right, on my own, from someone who actually knows what they’re doing. And it’s been equally gratifying to learn how to correct some of my less-than-best practices (so long, !important, I won’t be using you anymore).

In Summary

I may have come to this program with some prior knowledge of the topics we’re studying, but it’s amazing how quickly I’m burning through what I know. Every day I learn something I didn’t know before. Even with the things I knew, I’m learning how to do them better and more efficiently. My goal for the next eleven weeks is to soak up every bit of information I can. I believe like so many things in life, I will only get out of this experience what I put into it. So I am determined to be a sponge and give it my all.

I’m looking forward to all the things I have yet to learn.