My first "big" Project - My advice for beginners
Tags: webdev, beginners, react, javascript
Published: 2022-03-19 22:44:39

It all started when my mother opened her restaurant and I wanted to create her a nice-looking website. At this time around I read a lot about react and did some smaller projects, but not for "real" clients and not this demanding. Yet I was very confident to pull this project off - little did I know. 🥹

I started with visualizing and creating a structure for the project. In my opinion, this is a very important aspect that a lot of beginners oversee. They just start writing code without a design and/or concept. So here is my first advice: **If you are working on a project, visualize it, especially if it is for a client**. Most of the time the client doesn't know what he wants and visualizing helps the client to make better decisions and it helps you, as the developer, to structure your website. Does this mean I have to learn UI/UX Design? Yes and No! The basics are enough most of the time, at least for what I have experienced so far.

A little bit about the project and my skills when I started: 

- Library: React - experienced
- Dev-Plattform: Firebase - never used before
- Bundler: Webpack - never used before

Yeah...I don't have to mention that I ran into a lot of problems with webpack and firebase, just because I never used them before. So my advice would be:
**Before you use technology for a real-world project, create a small project for yourself and play around with these technologies!** In the end it saves a lot of time and frustration 😉. Also one of the best USPs (unique selling points) in the world is _time to market_, so waisting time can be a deal-breaker.

Time passed and everything was going as planned. Then my mom called me and asked "What about my website, is it done yet?!" I quickly briefed her and told her about my next steps. She was very happy and proud of how far I have already come 😊. But then I realized, that it is very important to inform the client regularly about the project. My advice is: **Set up a periodically meeting where you inform the client and get feedback!** 

Despite my affords to plan my project conscientiously, I still forgot something important. The client needs to be able to update content on their own. I quickly found React-Admin, just to find out, it doesn't work with firebase 🎉 - shit. Luckily I found [fireCMS](https://firecms.co/), it's a great and easy-to-use CMS for react-apps and I like it. Still, the problem threw me off by weeks. This problem refers to my first two pieces of advice and for me, it just points out how important a good and completed preparation is. The advice is: **Prepare your projects well, put effort into them, and write everything down that you need for this project!**

Now everything is working as expected, but I am not finished yet. Currently, I am working on optimization with webpack and I am doing some code refinement. Also, some text is missing, but that is my mother's job. 

It was quite the journey, but I learned so much, that I actually wrote everything I learned down. For me, it is a great way to recap and I can recommend it, not that I want to give a piece of advice here. 🙃

I am looking forward to my next Project 🚀

What was your biggest learning from a real-world project?