Hi,
I was wondering if you have to learn some things elsewhere than on FCC to be able to complete the front end projects?
I just completed the HTML,CSS and jQuery sectiion. But in the basic front end projects , you have to do some things you haven’t seen in the previous sections.
The basics of HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery and Javascript are covered in the curriculum, but there is more to learn.
The point of the projects is to get you figuring out what you know, and what you need to look up elsewhere.
Break your projects down into simple tasks and research the tools you need. If you get stuck, you can always seek specific help here on the forum.
Something I’ve found helpful it to keep a list of the reference sites I’ve found to be most helpful. For example W3Schools and the Mozilla Developer Network sites.
Another technique that’s useful is to create a small specification or design document before starting on a challenge or project. I use MS OneNote, but you could use Evernote, MS Word, or even a plain old text file. My notes contain the following major sections - Project Objectives, Design Notes - User Interface, & Design Notes - User Stories. In Project Objectives I note verbatim the user stories from FCC and then add my commentary on what general approach I intend to follow as well as potential problems and pitfalls. In the User Interface section I address my plan for organizing the UI and finally, in the User Stories section I define the algorithm and interaction between the UI and the main logic.
You can think of the User Interface section as defining the ‘View’ part of the specification, as in MVC. The User Stories section defines the ‘Model’ and ‘Controller’ components and activities. Note that this is a conceptual application of MVC and not based on a particular framework. I also include hand drawn wireframes and sketches and not just descriptions of how I intend to solve a particular problem.
Finally, “one size doesn’t necessarily fit all”. This is a bit of overkill in some cases and although it’s worked well for me this doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. The value of this methodology for me is that it forces me to think about the program before I write a single line of code. One of the great features of the FCC curriculum is that it gives us the latitude to explore on our own and as part of this we need to also find the design techniques and methodologies that work best for us.
Good Luck!