2014 Review

January 1, 2015

2014 has been a busy year with lots going on. It’s my second year of working since university and it’s probably been the most progressive.

Job

I left McCann in September and joined Stein IAS, you can read more about that here.

Personal

I’ve put a fair amount of effort into learning more this year and I’ve enhanced my skillset. There’s still lots more to know but I’m relatively happy with the level I’m at. That said, I really want to improve my JS skills to a more advanced level next year. I’m reading and writing as many articles as possible and I’ve been especially eager to listen to – and learn from – many others in the industry.
I’m also really pleased that I’ve started to learn sign language, something I’ve been saying I wanted to do since university.

Webknit

Being a .net awards nominee in 2013 was a very tough feat to beat and I’ve not managed anything of a similar level as far as awards are concerned. My highlight of the year was probably the “Life in Numbers” project that I created. It was really good fun to work on and received a large amount of views in a short space of time, you can read more about it here. Another project that is worth a mention is the Teamgenerator project I worked on as this was a massive learning curve and really improved my PHP.

I’m planning a large side project in 2015 and it’s going to be very time-consuming. However it’s also going to be a great opportunity for me to put new skills into practice in addition to the fact that side projects are something I always enjoy. I will be making an announcement in the near future, In the meantime you can check out my latest Dribbble shots for a sneak preview.

Numbers

Last year’s numbers were always going to be incredibly tough to beat with all the exposure I obtained from the .net awards, however I’ve still achieved some good figures.

webknit.co.uk
Pageviews – 75k
Unique – 34k

shaneprendergast.co.uk
Pageviews – 60k
Unique – 15k

worthyofnote.co.uk
Pageviews – 70k
Unique – 16k

base.webknit.co.uk
Pageviews – 4.5k
Unique – 2.7k

capture.webknit.co.uk
Pageviews – 5k
Unique – 1k

teamgenerator.co.uk
Pageviews – 2.5k
Unique – 1.5k

lifeinnumbers.co.uk
Pageviews – 19k
Unique – 15k

Almost a quarter of a million hits this year. Thanks to everyone who checked out my stuff.

2014 aims

My aims for 2014 were:-

Improvement on JS. More than just basic jquery and swapping classes I need to be writing more complex, technical code.
At least three new open source projects. I’ve got the ideas now I need to find the time!
To improve my design skills, mainly in illustrator. Experiment with different designs and at least one Dribbble shot a month.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve totally smashed all these targets and achieved so much more too. The bullet points below are the answers to the above.

There’s still room for improvement on my JS but it’s certainly far better than it was in 2013.
I worked on no less than 5 side projects last year and they were all pretty good. I seem to be accumulating a longer list of stuff I want to work on and I’m really chuffed my enthusiasm for all things web seems to be forever increasing.
I’ve put lots of effort into my Dribbble this year. I upgraded to a pro account a few months back and some months I’ve posted several shots. You can check out my Dribbble here.

2015 Aims

2015 is a big year for me, I’m excited about this forthcoming year. I’m going to put more time into things that are important, and less time into those that don’t matter much.

Again to improve my JS, this time next year I want to be writing nice JS, possess a greater understanding of the language as a whole and improve the structure and performance of my code (including OOP). It’s difficult to monitor this without putting it into practice so there’s going to be a side project towards the end of next year which will be a good test!
I think SVG’s are going to play a big part in the future of the web and I’m using them lots at my new workplace. I need to improve my understanding of them and make great use of JS to push the boundaries of SVG.
I’m adding one non-work related aim into this years resolutions and that’s to get fitter and knock the boozing on the head a little. I aim to do at least 3 half and one full marathon in 2015.
My final aim is little vague but the most important, and that’s just to carry on doing what I’m doing. I’m really proud of my online presence, the knowledge I possess and the work which I produce but at the same time I realise how easy it would be to let things get slack and stagnate. That’s not going to happen in 2015.

Finally thanks to anyone who’s helped me in this past year, I’m indebted to many different people. Thanks to anyone who has followed me on twitter, gave some advice in a forum, gave feedback on a Dribbble shot, wrote a blog post or just made a website which gave me some inspiration.

All the best to everyone in 2015

Shane x

Stein IAS