How SheCodes knowledge has proved to be beneficial in Addinaโs work as a designer.
๐โโ๏ธ Before SheCodes
Addina is a phenomenal SheCodes student who has used her coding knowledge to improve her work as a designer. Sheโs from Indonesia but is currently living in Italy. ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐น She enjoys hiking and baking in her free time when sheโs not busy exercising her creativity in design projects. Addina studied engineering and design in university and has been working in design since then. In her work as a designer, she produces illustrations and graphics for books, digital stickers and animations, social media templates and content, websites, and applications.ย
Her interest in coding has been developing since she was in junior high. Recently, she realized that some coding knowledge could make her a more powerful and multi-skilled designer. ๐ช๐ฉโ๐ป๐จ
โIt might sound so old school, but back with Friendster in junior high school, I believe we could add some effects with HTML templates. However, in my bachelor, I honestly never thought that I would go back to those days with crazy HTML. But then, I had my master degree in design, felt too comfortable with the design stuff, until one of my clients in early 2020 asked me if I could help to build (or at least understand) their upcoming website. Unfortunately, at that time I had no knowledge and confidence to say yes, hence, I lost a potential project to work on. So I believed that I must understand the basics of coding in order to offer more value as a designer.โ
๐ฉโ๐ป Her SheCodes Experience
Addina began searching for an online coding course to help her improve her design capabilities and possibly explore other career options. In conducting her research, she stumbled across SheCodes and found that it was the right platform for her to learn how to code. And we're so glad!!ย
Her favorite part of SheCodes was building her amazing weather app in Vanilla JavaScript. โ๏ธShe is happy that she could incorporate her own color and personal design touch to create a product that is unique and her own.
โI'm proud of my weather app. In HTML and JS context, I never thought that I could do something like that! So grateful that I can learn and execute what I had in mind into a real product from scratch and literally a blank page.โ
She also really enjoyed the community and learning how to code with other women. She's gotten the chance to connect with many other students and enjoys following their journeys on Instagram and LinkedIn.
โOther than the course itself, SheCodes also has a strong and positive community. Even after I completed my workshop, I still received some messages from other women. It did (and still does) feel amazing because I received some comforting and supporting messages from other SheCodes students, we were checking each other's projects and giving compliments to each other. Their messages strengthen me and I believe that we are not alone in this journey.โ
Addina also purchased her own domain name for her responsive project ๐ https://www.addinaf.me/ย
๐ How SheCodes has Helped to Change Her Life
Learning how to code has drastically improved Addinaโs skill set, workflow, and understanding of making her designs become a reality. She can now code her own designs and better work with developers. Sheโs also able to offer more services, take on a wider variety of design work, and increase the amount of projects she takes on. ๐
Addina has altered her workflow so she considers the code and development part of her design. She has even started providing developers with the code and a general idea on how to build it rather than only designing and providing the prototype. ๐ฉโ๐ป
Addina has altered her workflow so she considers the code and development part of her design. She has even started providing developers with the code and a general idea on how to build it rather than only designing and providing the prototype. ๐ฉโ๐ป
โIf I got a project offer to build a website page or an app, I can consider myself to design in how it might be helpful for the developer. This way, I can offer more services to my clients. I've been doing some website design proposals too recently and have more confidence in doing it because I can pitch to the potential clients that I can also code/build the design that I proposed for them. Itโs really interesting to design a website when you know how to build it."
โLooking back, I had some work to design website pages and I feel embarrassed how I worked on it without considering how to build it. Now I have more confidence in this kind of project. Lesson learned and I believe I will be better next time!โ
Addina is still focusing on her freelance work as an illustrator and designer, but she is considering changing careers to work in tech as a professional coder in the future. She got an interview for developing a web project shortly after completing SheCodes Basics.ย
โI got an interview for a web project and I showed them the page that I built, even though I didn't get the project, I believe that the knowledge and the experience that I have now will be able to bring me forward. Even if I don't change my career, I regret nothing, it has an added value to me as a designer and gives me more confidence to do what I'm currently doing.โ
The SheCodes Responsive workshop has also given Addina many more ideas to expand her design repertoire and freelance work.ย
โThe responsive workshop really suits me with my background as a designer. It gives me more ideas and possibilities. I can offer more services such as wireframe design, mockup, and building websites, and I can also sell website templates (with the code included) on platforms where a designer can sell their templates. I can also make my own website and illustration sources as a way to introduce my work to potential clients. There are definitely a lot of possibilities which come to mind after the responsive workshop.โ
Addina has her own personal portfolio website (https://www.addinaf.com/). She was excited by the fact that she can now have more freedom to customize her site thanks to her SheCodes knowledge.ย
โWith SheCodes I can build my own site with a cheaper price and more freedom and possibilities.โ
Addina has also recently gotten an offer to be a full-time web design consultant! The job is fully remote so she still has plenty of time to do her own illustration work on the side. She says that SheCodes is to thank for this amazing opportunity. ๐คฉ
"Thank you SheCodes for opening up the idea and the opportunity for me! My design skills + UX/UI background + coding knowledge = web designer."
Addina has also recently gotten an offer to be a full-time web design consultant! The job is fully remote so she still has plenty of time to do her own illustration work on the side. She says that SheCodes is to thank for this amazing opportunity. ๐คฉ
"Thank you SheCodes for opening up the idea and the opportunity for me! My design skills + UX/UI background + coding knowledge = web designer."
In her coding future, Addina would like to develop some other personal websites in her spare time. We can't wait to see her projects to come ๐
P.S. Addina has also completed some amazing design work for SheCodes ๐คฉย
๐ฉโ๐ผ Advice to Future SheCodes Student
Addina suggests that newcomers should join the free coding class with SheCodes and then progress step by step in their coding journeys. She also recommends asking for as much help as is needed along the way!ย
โIf you want to join SheCodes, I suggest to join the free lesson first, and then if you have some doubts, you can enroll in the 3 weeks workshop first, as this is my method to see whether I'm suitable with it or not. Don't be shy to ask and interact through their Slack group chat. In fact, I received a lot of insights and help through their Slack group!โ
Addina's SheCodes Basics Testimonial
โThank you for the SheCodes team for the organized lesson and the assistance! I enjoyed each lesson and the challenge, looking forward to implementing what I learned more in-depth. I recommend the course for the women out there who wants to learn to code.โ
Addina's SheCodes Plus Testimonial
โIt was a challenging journey! The course is very well-structured and the challenges help me to understand better the intention of each lesson. The slack group team helped me a lot to solve my problems and doubts, really appreciate all the help from the team during the course :)โ
Addina's SheCodes Responsive Testimonial
โI love this workshop and I would say this is my favorite so far! I would recommend this course for SheCodes Plus alumni because the course is practical and useful. It gives me much more confidence to offer more to my skill set as a designer.โ
