December 2019 - KAT CODES

The year of 2019 is coming to an end so it’s time for a little recap!

Every December I am making two lists, a list of what I did good this year, and a resolutions for a next year. Thanks to being way to organised, I was able to look back on my last years lists, and can happily say that I managed to fulfil most of my resolutions for 2019. Yay for me!

The biggest highlight of this year though, was being accepted to university and literally thriving in the first semester!

Other great things that happened in 2019:

I attended my first hackathon
learned Python
said “yes” to new opportunities ( it’s a big one for an introvert like me :D)
bought a full-frame camera and did a lot of new photoshoots, some of which were on my photo “bucket-list” (see lavender field, sunflower field, bluebells photoshoot, my first business headshots or this beautiful maternity session….)

…and a few more achievements which are a bit more personal so I will keep them for myself.

Going into resolutions for 2020, I would like to:

attend another hackathon or two,
still ace at uni and learn new things (maybe another programming language?),
read at least a book a month,
travel a little
and
keep on posting here about my dev journey

Do you take time to look back and see how many great things actually happened in the last 365 days, or do u make resolutions for the next year? Let me know in the comments!

*Featured Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

This post will be all about the books I’ve read in November. The university’s library is one of my favourite places on campus, and I wish I could stretch the day just a teeny time bit more to fit some time to read even more books 😀

Having two assignments due soon, all of my reads are about UX, research and prototyping, but I’m not a huge fiction fan anyway 😛

UX Research by Brad Nunnally & David Farkas

Book about research from the beginning to the end. To be honest, I hardly could stay awake while reading it. It may be great for some, but I did not find it useful for my needs.
Interdisciplinary Interaction Design- A Visual Guide by James Pannafino

Great position that explains most, if not all, design terms. The author uses easy to understand language and visual examples. I also love the layout of the pages, with terminology, discipline where the term originates from, short description and visual representation. Overally, great book to read, keep and come back to whenever needed.
The elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett

Whatever you need to know about user experience and user-centred design, you will probably find it in this book. Totally recommend for any web dev/ designer.
Prototyping for Designers by Kathryn McElroy

A second book on this list published by O’Reilly and I really like the layout of their books. This publication contains valuable knowledge about research and prototyping your ideas, whether they’re digital or physical. I learned a lot reading it and this knowledge became valuable during my first hackathon (which you can read about here).
User’s Journey by Donna Lichaw

This book is exactly what you think it is about- user’s journey. Nice, little book to help reader understand how customer’s ( or user’s) think and how to create better products/services.

and last but not least…
Responsive design: Patterns & Principles by Ethan Marcotte

Great position to help you understand responsive design and how to properly create modern websites. It focuses on navigation systems, resizing and adapting images and managing ads for more device-independent layouts.

Did you read any books in the past month? Tell me about it/them in the comments! Any recommendations are also welcome!

Featured image by Thought Catalog on Unsplash