The Home of Web Automation - A different take on a software blog
Tags: testing, design, showdev
Published: 2020-06-15 10:43:23



_About a month ago, I decided to take my passion and knowledge on web automation and testing and turn them into a blog. That came to be [The Home of Web Automation](https://www.thehomeofwebautomation.com/)_

## The Actual Need
In the last few years the scene of _Web Automation_ has received a surge of attention from the software industry, and that is not without reason.

- Reliability is a must for both new-found companies and large enterprises alike.
- Applications are more interactive and a fair amount of times _frontend heavy_, meaning that they are responsible for orchestrating lots of different actors.
- Manual repetitive tasks and testing is still proving to be a real pain when trying to move fast.

All of the above (_and tons more_) appear to be fair reasons to invest in the skills, technologies and methodologies that revolve around web automation. 

Additionally there seems to be a considerable gap in the technical skills that individuals require to succeed in these efforts, I aim to help as much as possible with that. For people that want more information on the topic, there is a [2020 survey around open-source web automation testing tools](https://www.tricentis.com/state-of-open-source-2020/) that is quite revealing.

Being in the shoes that most people reading this post have been, I can sympathize with the fact that this can be _just another topic to learn_. Understanding the information fatigue that the software industry has been bearing on its denizens, I will try my best to make the experience as __joyful as possible__. 

## The Different Take
From my experiences in the world of software and how rapidly it is progressing, all the frameworks, the libraries, the techniques, it can make one feel really __anxious__ and __fatigued__ about being required to consume and understand all of these intricacies. More articles to read, more podcasts to listen to, more conference talks that you would put in your _"todo"_ list.

_Is it important ?_ Heck yes it is. Your career, financials and dreams might depend on it. But in this race, can there be a relaxing spot where you can keep getting the relevant technical stuff ?

_Why not give it a try?_ That was what I felt like at least while building this website.

During the process of putting together the visual aspect, pallete, fonts, image sources and the like, I decided to take a different route than what would be expected on a software related site.

### A warm kind of pallete
<img alt="jet orange beige" src="https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/wgumu0xzpjb67m2etboi.png" /> 

### Playful, almost meaningless drawings
I cannot stress enough how much I love [Excalidraw](https://excalidraw.com/)💙 and how extensively I will be using it to create some meaningless drawings (_But also for the diagrams required_) for each post. As it sparks some joy for me, I hope it does the same to you!
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ijq2ve119uz9uxfivwno.png)

### Weird cursive fonts
Using [Caveat](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Caveat) from Google Fonts seemed to fit my target amazingly well.
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/8sk5kghuz2l542iyx63x.png)

### A try on software jokes
If at some point I prompt you to install [left-pad](https://www.npmjs.com/package/left-pad) or throw a joke at some website's UX decision, please understand it is benevolent 😁

The interface is composed of elements that their purpose is to make you more energetic and spark the feeling of happiness when you open a page, _even while not being the most readable_. Actually this became one of the top goals to be reflected on the user interface. 

## Closing
If you are into web automation, testing and all the ecosystem around those, you can follow for new content [@HomeOfWebAuto](https://twitter.com/HomeOfWebAuto). 
_I would be writting about how I built the blog in a later post_

Any feedback is appreciated, if you have any questions/request reach out to me and I hope you enjoy it!