Code in progress!
Hello, Yaiza here! Welcome to another issue of Building The Aerial Arts Hub — Journal of a Newbie Developer. It’s been a while since my last proper update so there’s a lot I’m excited to share.
What I’ve done
My most exciting update is that I finally started writing the code for The Aerial Arts Hub! Before this, it was all just a Figma prototype, without any actual code. I was a bit scared to dive into coding because this is such a big project, but I eventually figured I just had to start somewhere. It’s been going surprisingly well!
HTML and CSS are now in place for all the pages, and the JavaScript code is beginning to take shape. I’m having lots of fun making it all come together!
Here’s a video of the mobile site so far. It looks pretty similar to the design prototype I previously created in Figma, which makes me really happy. 🥳
And below is the desktop view!
Even though it’s still very much a work in progress, I’ve lived the site already as it helps me find issues with how it loads and displays across devices. If you want to explore it yourself, you can find it at theaerialartshub.com! I would love any feedback if you do.
On a separate note, I hit 2,000 studios on the map of aerial and pole studios around the world! 🤩 The map continues to be well-received; it’s reached 12K views as of now, which is kind of wild. I’ve had some lovely conversations with aerialists and pole dancers who are excited about it, which motivates me to keep adding to it. The current total on the map is now 2,122 studios—here’s to hitting 3K? 👀
If you know of any aerial and/or pole studios that are missing from the map, particularly in countries or areas that are still empty (lots of countries in Africa, for example), feel free to reply to this email, leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram! I also have a fancy little email address set up now that you can reach out to: yaiza@theaerialartshub.com. 😎
What I’m working on
I’m pretty happy with the design overall, so my next step is to make some adjustments for accessibility. On the to-do list is checking the site for colour blindness (I heard this Chrome extension should be handy) and improving the usability when using screen readers.
I also have an issue with how Safari displays the lovely blue underline that shows on Chrome when hovering over certain elements. On Safari, it shows as a double underline for some reason, with the standard black line taking the spotlight. I’ve looked into a few different solutions but nothing has worked so far—annoying.
Other changes I have in mind: I want to add in a couple more filter options that I didn’t think of before, add social media and contact icons to the footer, change the layout of the “what’s on” page to the scroll-card layout used on the home page (I think it would work better for events), and add in a couple more small things here and there.
Once this is all taken care of, it will be time to dive into some of the more complex functionality—starting with setting up the database that will house all the studios, events, brands, etc. 😱
What I’m learning
I am super close to finishing the first portion of the JavaScript course in the full-stack path of The Odin Project. This section involves lots of object-oriented programming. I’ve found it quite dry but I know these are important concepts to refine so I am powering through.
The next project in the curriculum is coding a to-do list programme, which I am actually looking forward to a little. Of course, nothing comes close to how much I enjoy working on The Aerial Arts Hub… 😄
Aerial things
I mentioned a few issues ago that I was going to take some aerial classes while staying with my family on Lanzarote (where I also got married in December!). I ended up unlocking some fun hoop skills in those classes, including a full millwheel and a drop from hocks to stomach.
I’m still training hip holds and elbow hangs in every session (I think they’re getting better 🤞), but I have also been thinking of spending a bit more time focusing on my spins to build up that spin tolerance. I can confidently do quite a few different hoop mounts at this point but once I add in a spin, most of them seem to fail me, so I definitely need some practice spinning into different shapes. 🌪
On a separate note, it was my two-year hoop anniversary the other day, and I uploaded a little hoop routine to celebrate. You can watch it here if you’re keen—it’s nothing mindblowing but I’m really proud of how far I’ve come with my aerial skills since I started. 🥳
Thanks for reading along and see you in the next issue!