Profiles

I joined IT field in 2014. I got to know about WordPress when I was taking my basic Web Design training from a local institute. My instructor trained me in basics of WordPress: how to create posts, pages, custom home page, finding themes etc. The ease and convenience of using WordPress attracted me towards it. Everything started making sense in a short span of time. The instructor also told me that it was one of the most popular CMSs in the whole world. It was growing fast. It was supported by a huge community.

I was not happy with what I could do with the basics I learned. I wanted to do more; to bend it however I wished. For this to happen, I came to realize that a solid understanding of PHP was a must. This understanding shifted my focus towards PHP.

I learned PHP, the functional programming part first. Based on my PHP understanding, learning and extending WordPress started making sense. I learned it for a few months and started creating a WordPress theme—I named it “Pious”—that I wanted to sell. I created that theme by hook & crook. I thought it was not a big deal to create a theme and sell it. Like most people, I thought I could make money fast. I sent it to ThemeForest. Finally, yes, it got rejected. They mentioned no reason. I was upset. Slowly I realized that tips & tricks won’t get me anywhere; I needed deep learning. Real things take time.

I, then, not only learned PHP in depth but used it as a base to learn and practice everything about Software Development. I devoted myself to read books & watch video courses, written and created by experts. I learned advanced concepts such as OOPs, Design by Contract, Design Patterns, SOLID Principles etc. that empowered me to build large, maintainable, scalable, flexible, clean, and secure software.

I applied concepts I learned in real-world projects—websites and products. Most of my projects were built for and with WordPress. The ease with which WordPress can be extended to whatever I desired made me choose WordPress over any other platform. I built a custom WordPress Theme that backs most of my websites. The theme was built upon a solid understanding of advanced software concepts. It’s growing for the last 8 years. It makes my clients’ websites keep running smoothly years on end. The theme also helped me in winning the hearts of my clients by creating everything as per their choice—all because of the utilities I built right into the theme.

During this journey, I handled all JavaScript tasks with jQuery that I learned—like most people—before JavaScript.

After three to four years into this field, a term Single Page Applications caught my attention. It fascinated me—they don’t need a reload, everything on one page. It was eye-opening. I threw myself fully into it and learned JavaScript, and then JavaScript frameworks: React, Angular, and Vue.js. I built many large Single Page Apps in these frameworks. I felt great.

As my understanding deepened, I discovered that building maintainable, flexible, scalable, clean, and secure software is extremely valuable from developers’ point of view, but is of no significance from users’ point of view. How the outside world will interact with our software is not a part of Software Development. It comes under Design.

I approached Design with a similar attitude and devoted myself fully to it. I read many books and watched many courses. Design is not only about aesthetics; it’s about doing all the thinking and bearing all the pain—while creating a product or a website—so our users don’t have to—while using it. I learned how to design things that are not only visually appealing but are sensible, convenient, and least painful to their users.