Lessons From My Covid-19 Tracker Journey
Tags: news, todayilearned, productivity, codenewbie
Published: 2020-08-03 05:22:30

On April 8, 2020, I officially unveiled [COVID-19 Tracker](https://covid19-stat.netlify.app/) in this article: [COVID-19 TRACKER - My Contribution So Far!](https://dev.to/ebereplenty/covid-19-tracker-my-contribution-so-far-48ph). If you have paid continuous visits to the website, then you will have noticed how it has been improved upon over time.

Today, I want to share the journey - how it all started down to where we are at the moment - and lessons I have learnt or been reminded of during this project.🤗

Now Let's go for a ride

![Driving Car](https://media.giphy.com/media/uAQm7xzHC0OB2VnSz4/giphy.gif)

## The Journey
### March 25, 2020 - March 26, 2020
On this day, at about 9pm WAT, I stumbled on some COVID-19 APIs that provided updates constantly (every 15 minutes) and so I thought to myself:


> *Someone has to consume these APIs and make the data user-friendly.*


Right away I setup a [react](https://reactjs.org/) project, thought of a minimal design *(ugly but presentable)*, consumed and presented the ``global statistics`` from [coronatracker](https://api.coronatracker.com/).

By the following dawn, I announced the website on Twitter

{% twitter 1243093777914486785 %}

### March 26, 2020 - March 27, 2020
After announcing the website, i decided to add individual ``countries' statistics`` to the website. I added this feature later that night

By the following dawn, I announced the ``countries`` feature on the website on Twitter

{% twitter 1243485393758060544 %}

### March 27, 2020 - March 30, 2020
I then decided to add a new feature. This shows the most ``trending news`` on COVID-19. Due to a few bugs, it took me a couple of days but I finally announced this feature here:

{% twitter 1244419057354498048 %}

### March 30, 2020 - April 2, 2020
It came time for the final feature - ``SEARCH``. This also took me a couple of days due to bugs but I was able to announce the feature here:

{% twitter 1245503101748076544 %}

### April 2, 2020 - May 4, 2020
I decided to work with my friend ([Kingsley](https://twitter.com/kingsleyiheonye) *(A Designer)*) to work on the user interface (UI) design thereby producing better user experience (UX). I was able to announce my progress here:

{% twitter 1257211757484965888 %}

## The Lessons
![Learn Somthing new image](https://media.giphy.com/media/ZoAa7lsmym6UE/giphy.gif)

1. **Ideas** will come if you pay attention to your environment

2. **The ideas you have may not come together at once** but as you **progress**. Like in my case, I thought of a new feature after adding one and I thought of improving the design later on.

3. **Bugs are inevitable.** Like my case, it wasn't my first time handling such project, but I had bugs at some point of the project.

4. **Peer programming** and **team work** produces better result than trying to be master of all. For example, working with my designer friend made the app more appealing.
Checkout this [article](https://dev.to/ebereplenty/covid-19-tracker-my-contribution-so-far-48ph) and compare the screen shots with the feel of the new UI.

5. **Hard-work is necessary**. Building and scaling software is not easy but in the end, it is worth every work.

6. *There is always something new to learn* in every software adventure. No matter how small, it makes you better than you were.

7. *Unveil your applications as soon as it reaches MVP (Minimum Viable Product).* 
Even your favorite applications are not perfect or complete and this explains why there are always updates for you to download.
If you keep waiting until it is perfect, then you will never release it.

8. Stop waiting to gather every knowledge before you start building. Just begin with what you have and learn as you build. 

9. *Only learn something if it is necessary for the project you are working on.* Stop wasting your time trying to learn everything about a tool when you might just need 5% of it for a project.

10. **Don't just turn down an idea in your head because you think someone else has done it already.** 
Think of what they are not doing right and fix it. ``MySpace`` was there before ``Facebook``, ``Skype`` was there before ``Zoom``, ``Yahoomail`` was there before ``GMail`` and so on.

## Links
- [The Website](https://covid19-stat.netlify.app/)

- [The GitHub Repo](https://github.com/EBEREGIT/covid-19)

## Conclusion
I hope you picked a lesson or two from my story. Please share for others to benefit.😊

The journey isn't over - not for my COVID-19 Tracker nor for any other software on earth - but these applications are shipped once they are useful and improvements will be made as time goes on.

I am hoping to unveil a new application soon that will be helpful especially to newbies. Keep an eye on me.

I know you love how the website looks at the moment even though it is still a work in progress, do contract me for you next project. I am proficient in React and Nodejs