Sometimes it is not easy to think about what I have accomplished in a month, this is one of them because, for example, in January I was able to check off a lot of things from my list and I was proud of it, while this month it seems that I didn’t do much. Of course, that’s not true, but the feeling is that there are few things written on my list. Actually, this month I did one significant and challenging thing. I started my new job. Is it a small thing? No, of course.

Starting a new job can be a discouraging experience, so it's great that I accomplished that this month! It's important to give yourself credit for big milestones like this, even if it feels like you haven't accomplished as much as you did in previous months. Remember to take things one step at a time and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they may seem.

I spent most of my time focusing on the new job, meeting new colleagues, learning the application and figuring out what to do next. I started to study and review JavaScript tests and React tests. I found it to be a very interesting topic, developers are often not used to using them and indeed, think it is a waste of time. Perhaps more time is needed in the beginning to understand how tests work and how to implement them properly to save time in the future. Often developing a test forces you to think deeply before writing, to be clear about what you want and what the application should do. I know this isn’t an easy thing to do but I think it should be considered a standard to follow in web application development.

Another thing I did this month was to add animations to a website. Animations on a website are beautiful, but as with many things, there are always drawbacks to using these things. It’s very important to design them very well so as not to give a bad user experience. Animations are used when you want to make a unique site or you want to guide the users through a step-by-step scheme of actions or bring your site to the next level.

The main benefits of using the best website animations are enhancing the company's reputation, engaging audiences, and creating a vibrant user experience for discerning users. Of course, there is always a catch. Using unnecessary or unreasonable animation effects can cause serious UX/UI problems and drive users away from the pages of your website. For example, data overload, causes the user to be unable to read and study the information provided. Freezing, some animations overload and increase the weight of the page. And the most important aspect is unreasonable use: you shouldn’t use animation on websites only for beauty and an attractive look when this is unreasonable. Therefore, animation on the pages of the site turns out to be useful in different cases, but its use should be determined by objective reasons, and not by a simple desire to add several moving design elements to the website or make it attractive. I want to end this topic with a question, what is the impact that animations have on the environment? I want to digress for a moment on another topic, do you know that also the websites that we create have an impact on the environment? If you are interested in this topic I suggest looking at this website Envirotechnical there's a lot of interesting information and resources for a sustainable web.

This month I continued to study English with Lingoda which is a very useful course. I also started to read a book in English, the first book in the Harry Potter saga, I have already read it in Italian but I like it very much and I thought it would be easier to start with something known. Reading a book in a language that is not your own is difficult. Although I have read many articles, posts, and technical books in English, it is not the same as reading a book. The vocabulary, specific terminology of the topic, and dialogues are all different, which presents a challenge. It gives me a chance to improve my vocabulary, learn idioms and also study grammar. I find it a very useful method even though sometimes it is hard not to give up.

The last thing about this month I wanted to share with you is that I finished reading a very interesting and unique book series called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". It's a classic science fiction composed of 5 books, with the first book being the most famous. If you have not read it, I recommend that you do so because it is a very interesting and special book. Although it was written a long time ago, I found many issues in the book still relevant today. I particularly enjoyed the humorous descriptions and criticisms of certain issues. The stories can be intricate at times, so it's best to read all the books together to understand the connections between them. If you feel like sharing your reading you can follow me on Goodreads

I think it’s enough for this post, I hope you enjoyed it, see ya! 😎