Receiving feedback 🤓

Hello again and welcome to the sixth issue of Building The Aerial Arts Hub — Journal of a Newbie Developer! I’m Yaiza and here’s what’s been happening over the past two weeks.

What I’ve done

In the last issue, I was very excited to share the interactive prototype I designed for The Aerial Arts Hub. I have since sent it to a few friends and people in the aerial and pole community, asking for feedback, and some of that feedback has slowly been trickling in.

Here are some of the ideas and suggestions I’ve received so far:

• A friend suggested adding a section for classes, so aerial and pole students can search for classes to take in their area. My initial idea was to just let users search for studios since the platform won’t function as a booking system, but perhaps implementing both a studio search and a dedicated class search would be handy. My main worry is that classes are always changing so this section would require a fairly dynamic feed that’s ideally automated… perhaps a feature for a later version if enough users want it?

• Somebody pointed out that they couldn’t find the X icon to close the menu. While I think it wasn’t showing due to some strange Figma quirk, this bug did prompt me to move the X from the bottom right to the top left corner. I think locating the X is more intuitive now. 🫡

• My wife mentioned that the blue shade of the logo may be a bit too light and not contrasting enough for accessibility. I love the shade I picked but I do think it’s a good idea to adjust it a little.

• A friend who sent me pretty detailed feedback and lots of encouragement (thank you <3) suggested switching up the order of the categories on the home page, and moving “what’s on” (the events section) to the top. Given that events are generally time-sensitive and updated more frequently, I agree that it would be convenient to see them at a glance right at the top of the home page.

• That same friend also recommended adding an extra section to the home page to scroll horizontally through the rest of the resources, instead of only making them viewable from the menu, as they may get missed if someone is just scrolling through the home page. I like this idea!

The “X” to exit the mobile menu is now fixed in the top left corner!

I am so grateful for all the suggestions and the encouragement I’ve received. If you’re reading this newsletter and want to give me feedback after trying the prototype, you’re welcome to leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram. 🧡

What I’m working on

I am still in the process of reaching out to people and collecting more feedback. It’s honestly a bit of an awkward process; I feel like I’m attention-seeking and bothering people by making them look at my project, even if everyone who’s responded has been really sweet.

I’ve always heard that when you’re creating something, the best thing you can do is to tell everyone you know about it, so I guess that’s what I’m doing… even if it makes me a little annoying…

My next step will be to actually implement all the feedback and suggestions into the prototype so I can figure out what the final platform is going to look like!

What I’m learning

I finally finished the Codecademy JavaScript course! The last section was a little tough but it made me fairly comfortable working with objects, which has been really helpful for getting back into The Odin Project.

I am sooo close to finishing The Odin Project: Foundations!

I am now almost done with the Foundations course by The Odin Project, which is super exciting. All I have left to do is to build the calculator, which is the last project in this part of the course. Once that’s done, I get to jump into the full-stack path! 🤩

Aerial things

I wrapped up the 4-week static hoop course I took from Caitlin Mayhap and have been adapting and practising some of the things we learned in class since then.

The course was fun and it definitely pushed me a lot, which I don’t do as much in my own practice time, but I’ve been happy to get back to my self-paced independent training after four weeks of classes. I guess I’ll always love doing things my own way the most. 😁

I’ve also decided to finally practice my flares. I feel like being able to spin into a straddle invert would open up so many possibilities for my hoop routines. I’m going to work towards a flare to straddle on my own for a couple of weeks; if I then feel like I’m not getting anywhere, I may engage an online coach for some guidance.

I’m leaning towards Karin Odermatt because she has a great flare tutorial on her YouTube channel and I always enjoy her Instagram reels as well. If there’s another aerial coach you’d recommend for learning flares, let me know!

See you in two weeks! 🫶