DEV Community: Natasha Lane

The Developer’s Guide to Stock Market Investing

Natasha Lane — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 11:45:35 +0000

If you are a software developer or programmer, you are in the ideal position to explore the stock market for investment opportunities. For starters, you are probably earning a very good income, which means you are most likely setting some money on the side. Also, you may be looking into additional income sources, and buying stocks is always a smart idea.

While all of that is true, it’s also true that you’re in the programming industry and not in finance, so you naturally don’t know a lot about stocks and the stock market. That’s why we’ve put together this short guide to help you get started and avoid some of the most common pitfalls of investing. Keep on reading for more information.

1. Fill Up Your Emergency Fund First

This refers to the money you’ve set aside, which can sustain you in case of an emergency, such as losing your job and not being able to find one right away. Of course, being a developer means that you don’t have to worry about job scarcity, but as the last couple of years have taught us, you never know what’s coming around the corner. So, our advice would be to set up a fund containing enough money to tie you over for 3-6 months. Only then should you start looking at investment opportunities.

2. Learn About Index Tracker Funds

A good starting point if you’re a developer interested in stocks are index tracker funds. Some of the most common ones are Nasdaq and S&P 500. They are able to track the value of stocks using a computer. This is also a cheaper way to invest because these indices won’t charge you as much as fund managers do. Another reason why you should start with index tracker funds is that your investments are spread across multiple, sometimes even hundreds of companies, which makes it very unlikely that your entire investment will tank.

3. Monitor Your Investment Portfolio Wisely

The biggest mistake investors make is to look at their investments every hour or even every day. Even if you have invested in high yield dividend stocks, make it a habit to check on them on a monthly, quarterly, or even annual basis. That way, you won’t turn your stock market investment into something more stressful or complicated than it needs to be. You can even take it a step further and set up important notifications regarding your stocks, as well as automated transfers, which brings us to our next point.

4. Use Your Coding Skills

You can make use of your programming skills in order to manage your investments better. For instance, you can write a script that tracks the prices of the stocks you’ve invested in. You can do the same in order to track price fluctuations in the housing market, in case you’re looking to cash in on your investments and purchase some real estate. There is plenty of info online, as well as books and ebooks that go really in-depth on how you can use your coding skills in the field of finance and stock market investing.

5. Keep an Eye on New Technologies and Developments

Once you’ve invested, it’s not enough to just keep an eye on your investments. You also need to stay up to date with all the latest news and technologies that are being introduced. For instance, thanks to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies have made it easier for everyone to invest and transfer money to their accounts fairly quickly. As a developer, you are probably not lacking in curiosity, so you might do this step without even thinking about it.

Final Word

Investing in stocks in 2022 as a developer can be relatively easy. But in order to avoid some of the most common mistakes others have made, go through our guide and make sure you’ve checked everything off the list. Most importantly, don’t overlook the part about using your knowledge of coding to manage your stocks more easily. We hope that your investment efforts will pay off in no time. Good luck!

7 Great Habits of Website Designers That Stand out

Natasha Lane — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 13:19:39 +0000

Getting noticed as a web designer is often an uphill battle. After all, the industry is getting somewhat easier to enter into, and there are more and more online courses available to anyone who wants to become a designer. In this thriving environment, understanding what will set you apart can be difficult to pinpoint.

So, in this post, we’ll take a look at seven great habits that designers who stand out have honed over the years. Let’s see how these habits can help you take your website design career to the next level.

They Look at What Others Are Doing

Great designers will always look for ways to become better at what they do. They will look at dozens of websites every day to see how other website designers have solved different issues.

They will often also follow certain competitors on social media and keep track of their work. This helps them better understand what direction the industry is moving in and what they can do to both keep up and stand out.

However, great designers never copy what others are doing. They merely look for inspiration and ways to improve their own work.

They Keep Learning

The one way to become a better designer is to, well, continue learning and working at getting better. No matter how good of an eye for detail you have or how well you can translate a client’s dreams into reality, there is always something new you can learn.

Maybe you can start by learning more about website architecture or even SEO. Or you can do an Introduction to web development course to better grasp how your ideas can be turned into a working website.

There are numerous skills that will help you score bigger jobs. Taking the time to work on one of them at a time will help you stand out more quickly.

They Listen to Their Clients

Website designers also need to become very adept at working with all kinds of clients – both those who know exactly what they want and those who don’t actually know what they need.

They need to be able to grasp an idea and translate the key messages and emotions into a functional and aesthetically pleasing product.

For example, a designer might be tasked to create the website of a digital service like Aura. There are countless ways to approach this project, yet this particular designer knocked it out of the ballpark with the hero section’s video. The image of an astronaut about to take off is perfectly aligned with the brand’s promise of increased sales. It’s simple yet highly effective.

This is the kind of flair great designers manage to develop, pinpointing the one element on a website that will make it stand out among a sea of similar ones.

They Know How to Say No

Knowing how and when to say no is another important habit to adopt. Sometimes a client will demand something that isn’t doable. They might have a very limited budget or ask you to work within a very limited timeframe.

When this is the case, knowing exactly how to politely refuse and explain why you’re refusing can quickly set you apart from the designers that will take any project on without thinking the implications and demands through enough.

Always be respectful and honest, and try your best to be clear about your logic. Clients and colleagues will soon start to respect you more.

They Know When to Think Outside the Box

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t always need to come up with something exceptionally unique. Templates and formulas exist in website design for a reason, and sometimes all you need to do is fine-tune them to match a client’s project.

This is not saying that you should create cookie-cutter websites. It just means that you don’t always have to come up with a 100% original idea.

Great website designers will think outside the box and come up with something entirely new when a project truly needs a unique and specific approach. They will take the time to draft proposals and wireframes that are perfectly aligned with the aim, purpose, and audience of a brand.

They Niche Down

Website designers who stand out will also not work with just anyone. They will niche down in one way or another. Perhaps they will work with clients from just a handful of industries, or maybe they will work with just one CMS.

Niching down can help designers become much better at their job. They won’t have to learn about a new type of audience every time they take on a new client and will be able to draw on past experiences to get the job done well.

Make sure there is some variety involved, though. Working on pet food websites alone, for example, will quickly become boring, and you won’t be able to come up with an unlimited number of different designs.

They Learn How to Sell

Finally, in order to truly stand out, great designers will learn how to sell their services well.

They will:

understand how to write winning proposals, how to negotiate, and what kinds of clients to go after
understand their strengths and weaknesses
research the prices other designers with similar experience are demanding, and adjust theirs accordingly

They will NOT:

be too pushy when offering their services
make promises they know they won’t be able to keep
get discouraged when a proposal they’ve spent hours on is rejected

Final Thoughts

By adopting these seven habits of great website designers, you can start to stand out more and attract just the kinds of clients you’ve always dreamed of working with.

How to Grow Your Online Business in 2022

Natasha Lane — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 13:06:07 +0000

Online businesses continue to expand and grow in popularity, and as a result, competition is now fiercer than ever. With growing demands and the constant buzz of competing brands, it's difficult to stay on top of everything – especially in such highly unstable circumstances as a global pandemic.

So, considering the circumstances, what can we expect in 2022? It's difficult to say for sure, but one thing we do know for sure is that the customer-centered approach is only going to be more and more important for a business (online or otherwise) to make it. Everything you do should be with the customer in mind.

Taking this approach, we've rounded up four key points to focus on to help grow your online business in 2022.

The Significance of Social Media Channels

There are so many social media platforms, but there's no reason to be on them all. For starters, there's no point in being on a certain platform if your target audience is not there. And secondly, there's no point in having an account just for the sake of being present – you want to use the platform actively to represent your brand, engage your audience, and reach specific marketing goals.

So, if you're thinking about whether you should create a business account on a certain social media channel, consider your target audience first. Do some research and determine whether your target customer base typically frequents that platform at all.

Once you've established a presence on a social media channel, regardless of which one it is, always remember that you are getting the opportunity to represent yourself to new people and interact with them. So, be cautious about the content you post on social media. Remember that every new follower represents a potential new customer.

Live Stream Shopping

A live stream shopping event occurs when a person or company uses streaming video to sell products or services to a live audience in real-time. You can do this by utilizing social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, your own ecommerce website, or your YouTube channel.

This new trend is extremely popular among Gen Z and Millennial customers. According to Facebook's research, approximately 60% said they would make a purchase directly from live stream events when brands launch a new product.

TikTok even created a shoppable feature that allows users to add pop-ups to the live stream as a result of its growing popularity. Customers can add the product to their shopping cart by simply tapping on the pop-up.

Excellent Customer Service

No matter how good your product is, you will lose customers if your customer service is poor. With so many brands offering the same things, customers are now spoiled for choice, and they have increasingly higher expectations. They want their problem solved as soon as possible, and they expect the first response to be practically immediate.

In fact, 96% of customers say customer service is important when deciding whether or not to stay loyal to a brand. Customers will feel valued and satisfied if you manage their problems efficiently and meet their expectations.

You need to have highly trained teams to handle inquiries via email and live chat. However, you will require a separate team to respond to any social media requests as soon as possible. This is because your customers will rate you based on your social media response time. If you respond quickly, you'll show your dedication not only to that specific customer but also to the rest of the people on that platform.

Zero-Party Data and Personalization

Zero-party data is information that a customer shares with a company directly. You can ask that your customers register and then ask them questions about their preferences related to your product or niche. Explain to them that you require this information in order to provide them with more personalized offers and services. If you explain why you need the information, you'll be surprised at how many people are willing to answer the questions.

Once you've gathered the data, you can move on to personalization. You can make recommendations, offers, and deals based on your customers' interests. Don't forget about the good old-fashioned email. You can notify them when there is a sale on something they might be interested in, when a product is almost out of stock, and so on. When you have the right data, you can do a lot of things.

Final Thoughts

By placing customers at the center of your strategy, you will be able to maximize opportunities and make growth-oriented business decisions. Make sure to periodically assess the value of your online business and keep an eye on growth metrics. After all, they are your best indicator of whether you are on the right track.

The State of UI/UX in 2022 and Beyond: 6 Things You Need to Know

Natasha Lane — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 11:42:30 +0000

UI and UX have never been as important as they are in 2022, when ensuring your digital home is top-notch is no longer optional. Users simply expect better experiences and are no longer as willing to trust brands with clunky websites.

In this post, we’ll look at six facts to bear in mind when it comes to the state of UI and UX in 2022, which will hopefully help you provide your users with the kind of online relationship they are looking for.

New Kids on the Block

UX design is now considered to be one of the best US jobs. As the position comes with an average salary upwards of $90.000 a year, it’s no wonder that more and more people are honing their skills in the UX department, looking to score a lucrative position.

As Google has also launched its UX design course (among others) on Coursera, it has never been easier to enter the field.

All of this translates to an influx of a younger workforce, ready to take on the job market and leave their mark on the industry. As a veteran UX designer (or someone who is yet looking to make a name for themselves), you need to be mindful that the competition for every job will increase and that you will need to hone your skills further in order to compete.

Speed Is King

Optimizing for website speed is another trend that we expect to become even more important. As our average attention span keeps getting shorter and shorter (and as goldfish all over the world rejoice), if a website fails to load fast and transitioning between pages takes more than a couple of seconds, most users will simply click off.

In terms of UX, this trend highlights the importance of light design, pre-loading, and on-page

optimization. UX designers will either need to become better acquainted with the intricacies of website development and technical SEO or partner up with those who are able to speed things up significantly.

Hierarchy Matters

How a website is structured impacts everything from how it will rank to how pleasant of an experience it will offer to its visitors. Gigantic menus that are impossible to navigate, pages that are important but placed too far from the homepage, and internal navigation that makes zero sense are all a thing of the very distant past.

When you begin to contemplate website architecture, you need to be extremely mindful of the tastes and needs of its target audience. What do they look for most often, and what kind of navigation are they used to?

How old a user is, the device they are using, and their search query will all play a vitally important role in navigation and page architecture. That means that there’s no embarking on a design project without proper research.

Research Is Key

That brings us to our next trend: research.

To offer good user experiences, you now need to devote a significant amount of time to getting to know your client, their audience, and their competitors. What were once considered industry standards are no longer enough, and you need to lend a personal touch to each project.

This will naturally lead to increased costs, and clients will need to be made aware of the extent of the project and what they can expect to get for the price they are paying. This means UI and UX designers need to become more adept at project management and proposal writing in order to demonstrate the value of their work and the results a client can expect.

Accessibility Matters More

The number of cases brought against companies failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act has been on the rise over the past couple of years. They’re especially prominent in a semi-post-pandemic world.

For a UX designer, this means that accessibility, especially in certain niches, needs to become your top priority. Considering how users with different impairments will likely use and navigate a website thus becomes paramount.

There is, however, more to accessibility to consider. Something as simple as placing a “call now” button outside the reach of a smartphone user’s thumb can result in poor UX and lose a valuable lead. Designers need to vigilantly optimize for various screen sizes, operating systems, and traffic sources.

Localization and Personalization Keep Expanding

Personalization has been a marketing trend for a while, and it will only continue to impact the way users expect to interact with a website. While it is more impactful in the world of ecommerce, even content-based websites need to consider how they serve their posts to different audience segments.

Furthermore, localization – i.e., personalizing content and other website elements based on a user’s location – will become even more important, especially for brands that have brick-and-mortar premises across a wide range of locations.

UX and UI design will thus need to dive even deeper into customer, client, and visitor psychology in order to better understand, for example, what someone from Italy is looking for, as opposed to a visitor from the States.

While certainly a lengthy and potentially costly endeavor, personalization and localization done right can significantly boost a website’s bottom line.

To Sum It Up

By taking note of these six points, you can ensure your website is the best it can be in terms of interface and experience. Your visitors will certainly appreciate it!

How to Know You Are Truly Ready to Advance Your Career

Natasha Lane — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 22:38:07 +0000

When you first embark on your career, chances are you have some big dreams. You envision yourself in a senior job, working on challenging projects for the biggest names in tech, changing the world one line of code at a time.

However, as you climb the career ladder, you soon realize that holding a top position is not quite what you thought it would be. Perhaps it’s not the right move after all?

If you’re wondering whether you are truly ready for career advancement, read on, and you will be one step closer to answering that question.

There Is No Challenge Anymore

Are you starting to feel bored at work? Does it seem like everything you do is the repetition of something you’ve already done? If the answer is yes, it might be the right time to start looking for a different position.

We get so caught up in our daily work lives that we don’t even notice when our career stops advancing. However, if you think your skills are stagnating and that there is no more room for growth in your current position, consider making the next step.

Make sure you analyze whether a lateral or an upward move is the right choice. Perhaps there is still plenty to learn, but your current role in this specific company is just not satisfactory enough? Or maybe you want to switch from web development to something that will enable you to collaborate creatively with teams and clients, like corporate website design? In any case, if you don’t feel ready to take on more responsibility, you can always transfer to a similar position in a different company.

You Have Significantly Enhanced Your Skills

In the IT space, honing your skills and adopting new ones is vital. With the entire industry moving at lightning speed, you can never rely on your present-day knowledge to last you an entire career.

If you’ve been boosting your skillset, now can be the right time to put this new knowledge to good use. You might choose to move to a more senior position or a position in a different department in your current company.

On the other hand, if you haven’t started amassing new knowledge and expertise, that’s fine. Work on some core skills that will help you advance in your career before you start looking for new jobs.

You Are Well-Connected

Breaking into your desired career can sometimes be a question of knowing the right people. For example, you may want to work for a company that isn’t hiring at the moment but you know someone who already works there who can score you an interview. Or, a friend might notify you that their company is looking for someone like you.

The more people you know in your industry, the easier it will be to make your next career move. This is why you should casually network even when you are not actively seeking a new position. You never know which acquaintance can help you land your dream job.

Connect with people you’ve met over LinkedIn, and send them a message when you start looking for a more challenging job. One of them might be able to connect you with your next employer.

You Are Feeling Burned out

There may be a very different reason for you wanting a career change, and it can involve burnout.

When you spend too much time working in a job that doesn’t ultimately satisfy you, where you feel unchallenged and underappreciated, you can start to feel the toll. And if you end up spending too much time in this position, burnout will likely set in.

If this is the case, you can look into taking some unpaid leave to determine whether your job is actually causing your negative feelings. If you discover this is the case, you can then start looking for a more satisfying career.

You Feel Ready for the Change

Before you make that next big career move, make sure you are both mentally and physically prepared for it. After all, it will mean getting to know a completely new company and team. You’ll face a new way of doing things, and you’ll need to take on more responsibility as well.

If you’re feeling particularly tired or burned out, make sure you find the time to take a break first. You don’t want to rush headfirst into something that will only add to your stress.

Be prepared for the lifestyle change as well. You might need to commute longer or start working from home, for example. The hours might be different, and you might find you have less time for yourself. If you are ready to do some hard work and don’t mind the disruption it will cause, you are ready to advance your career.

Final Thoughts

Remember that every significant change in our lives, be it positive or negative, will cause some level of stress. Don’t give up just because you start feeling stressed – it’s a sign that you’re doing something worthwhile.

Privacy Policy in Mobile Applications – Why Do You Need It?

Natasha Lane — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 09:29:38 +0000

The topic of digital privacy is often discussed in developer circles. To the general public, it may remain less relevant until a high-profile security breach happens, and they begin to wonder about all the companies and apps that have access to their personal information.

In this post, we’ll talk about privacy policies in mobile applications, why they matter, and how to craft one that ensures the rights of the app’s users are upheld to the fullest.

Do I Need a Privacy Policy if My App Does Not Collect Personal Data?

Yes.

Even if you don’t collect personal data directly, you may be using a third-party tool (like Google Analytics, for example) that is collecting data, and you’ll need to disclose that.

You need to understand what personal data actually is so that you’ll know how you collect it, store it, and what kinds of security measures you need to have in place in order to protect it.

Apart from the more obvious data, such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses, IP addresses and log data can also be considered private information. A tool like Google Analytics will store this data, which means you need that Privacy Policy to go with your app.

Do Different Countries Require Different Privacy Policies?

Yes.

The US does not have a federal or national law governing the use of Privacy Policies and data protection. But there is the California Online Privacy Protection Act that defines how you must treat the privacy of the residents of this state.

Canada, Japan, and Australia all have their own versions of this document, and the EU has adopted the GDPR in 2018, so there are plenty of different laws and regulations you need to consider.

Luckily, they are all essentially similar. In a nutshell, they all demand that you protect the personal information of your users and that you delete said information when a user demands.

Is There a Difference Between iOS and Android Privacy Policies?

Both of these mobile stores have their own guidelines that you need to adhere to in order to be able to feature your product.

Apple has specific guidelines in place, which also touch upon the Privacy Policy requirements in section 5.1.1. Read through it and make sure that what you have written matches what they want you to detail.

The Google Play Developer Distribution also has an agreement that you need to uphold. Lastly, Google’s Developer Policy Center also has a section on policy and security that you should read before you launch your app.

What Does the Privacy Policy Need to Include?

There are several points a Privacy Policy needs to cover. These include:

What personal data do you collect?
How do you collect this personal data?
How can users request more data about the information you have on file about them?
What are you going to use this personal data for?
What third parties do you allow to collect personal information?

The answers to these questions need to be written as clearly as possible, and even a layman should be able to understand them. You don’t want to muddy the water with vague or complex sentences. Keep it simple, to the point, and above all else, accurate.

You can also use a privacy policy generator to help you out. Make sure to read reviews first, however. A lot of them will promise a comprehensive or free service and end up delivering far less.

You also need to understand what your cookies are doing and how they relate to the privacy of your users. Make a detailed list of all of them, and explain what they are for and how to opt out of them.

Final Thoughts

Crafting the Privacy Policy of your mobile app is a tedious process; we’ll give you that. However, when you get it right, you ensure that your users can trust you and that you are adhering to the regulations set out by different countries and official bodies.

Take a bit of time to design a comprehensive and digestible Privacy Policy, and you will be making your users feel safer. And that’s certainly a great selling point for your app.

5 Digital Marketing Strategies to Implement in 2021

Natasha Lane — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:15:22 +0000

The year ahead is likely going to adopt many of the digital marketing strategies that we’ve seen flourishing in 2020.

But what we want to do in this post is save you some time and spare you from reading some of those 5000+ word essays on digital marketing strategies you must try. Instead, we’ll give you a short but sweet list of the five best strategies – and leave you to do further research for the ones you find may yield the best ROI for your website.

Here they are:

1. Organic Strategies

If you haven’t yet invested in SEO, now is the time to start. It’s one of the best avenues to improving your organic traffic numbers and attracting some new audiences.

However, you should also consider the current state of your website before you embark on any strategy that aims to bring in more traffic. Consider a landing page builder that will help you design pages that are both visually appealing and provide the right verbal incentives for your audience.

2. Paid Strategies

You should also consider promoting some of your pages, offers, and products through paid channels. This can be Google’s Display or Search ads, Facebook advertising, Instagram ads, LinkedIn ads – whatever you find will work for your budget and attract the right kind of audience.

Alongside the more traditional kind of sales-driven campaign, you might also want to do some content-based promotion to help you gain some extra traffic for your blog posts or video material.

3. Influencer Marketing

Working with influencers is no longer reserved for industry leaders – quite the opposite. Even smaller brands can now work with those who have a large and loyal audience online, whatever the channel they use.

Micro-influencers may be the place to start. Consider engagement and the loyalty factor more than sheer reach numbers, as this is often much more important than how many people see a story or a feed post. The likelier audiences are to trust a recommendation, the better your influencer campaign will fare.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the best ways to promote your brand, product, or service. It’s the easiest and most direct way to grab your audience’s attention. And that’s no surprise, considering how much time we all spend checking our emails.

The trick is to start building your list as early as possible and to provide true value to your leads. Personalization will play a huge role here, so make sure you segment your lists and that your emails are crafted well.

You also don’t want to come off as spammy, so don’t go overboard with the number of emails you send out.

5. Social Media Marketing

Finally, you need to consider your social media presence as well. Depending on your brand, you will want to use just one or two social platforms. There’s no point in being present across all of them – the key is to be where your audience is most engaged, rather than to spread yourself (and your budget) thin across networks that simply can’t yield results.

Remember: when it comes to social media marketing, it’s always better to be very active and engaged on one platform than to be semi-MIA on several.

Be genuine and honest with your posts, talk to your followers, and don’t just use your profiles to promote your brand. You can do so much more, from offering advice to lending a helping hand where needed.

How to Choose a Strategy

Consider two things: your budget and your target audience. Take a look at what your competition is doing and how. Consider which tactic you feel would bring in the most ROI, and start small. You don’t have to have more than one strategy in place. As long as it works, it’s the right one.

You can also take a digital marketing course that will help you make this crucial decision and teach you how best to implement the different strategies.

Final Thoughts

The world of digital marketing can be exciting. It can help you communicate your marketing message with a whole range of audiences easily and seamlessly. Consider the strategies we’ve outlined in this post, and try to implement one of them, for starters. As you grow, you can take on the next one and the next one – and watch as your digital marketing strategy evolves and spreads.

Most Common Health Problems in IT and How to Prevent Them

Natasha Lane — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 18:00:01 +0000

The software industry is continuously growing, and many people are choosing to test their luck in this branch. However, like every other profession, being in software development doesn’t come without downsides. The nature of work in the IT industry includes various types of physical and mental stress. In fact, some studies even suggest that the level of stress among IT and ITES workers is comparatively higher than in other employees. If you are working in this sphere or if you are planning on starting, here are some health risks you might face and ways of preventing them.

Lower Back Pain

The most common health problem tormenting IT workers, and generally everyone who spends their work hours sitting, is lower back pain. Spending eight hours or more sitting in front of the computer results in huge stress on the joints and cartilages of the back, which inevitably causes back pain. This usually happens because of bad posture and/or uncomfortable chairs. If you let these causes persist, they can cause structural changes in the bones. The back pain that happens occasionally can, in such situations, become chronic.

The first thing you need to do is get an ergonomic office chair. The chair should then be adjusted to your proportions and the height of your desk. Your lower back should be pressed against the chair. Also, you should try to get up every 30-45 minutes, take a short walk, and stretch.

Insomnia

Short-wave light from the computer screen causes disturbances to the circadian rhythm. This suppresses the production of melatonin and disrupts the regulation of body temperature. As a developer, you are probably spending more time in front of the computer screen than the average person, which means that you are more likely to develop sleep issues such as insomnia.

Fortunately, there are several evidence-based approaches to alleviate insomnia, and they include stimulus control, progressive muscle relaxation, sleep restriction therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)

This is a condition where a median nerve that passes through the wrist is compressed because of the constant movement of the joint. The inflammation is caused by repetitive work, usually from typing or using a mouse. Some of the symptoms to pay attention to are tingling and numbness of the hand, pain, weakness of the hand, and decreased grip.

CTS can be prevented. It is imperative to stretch and bend the wrists frequently. Your keyboard should be positioned so that your elbows sit on the table at a straight angle. You can also use gel pads for palm support, and make sure you take short breaks.

Neck Pain

Sitting in the same position has consequences on your entire spine, and that includes your neck as well. This will first demonstrate as neck stiffness and later grow into intolerable pain. The best way to avoid it is by maintaining the right posture. As with the back pain, you should break the long work sessions by taking a walk or doing neck stretches.

Computer Vision Syndrome

Because you spend eight hours and more in front of the computer screen, you might experience vision problems characterized by pain around the eyes, sensitivity to glare, red eyes, dry eyes, eye fatigue, and headache. According to a report published in The Times of India, 80% of the people suffering from this condition work in the IT department.

To make it easier on your eyes, try to look away from your screen every 20 seconds. Use an anti-glare screen cover and avoid working in a completely dark room.

Anxiety and Stress

Stress and anxiety are bad enough on their own, but they can also hamper your health and even cause depression and heart problems. It’s difficult to battle the deadlines, the targets, the errors, and their consequences. It is even more difficult to find an effective way to battle workplace stress.

The best tips we can give you are not to carry your work home, spend quality time with friends and family, and be physically active.

Final word

As you can see, there are many health problems caused by the nature of work in the software industry. However, this doesn’t mean you need to give up on your career dreams. Most of these issues can be avoided by focusing on prevention first.

4 Self Sabotaging Behaviors That Are Halting Your Career Growth (and What to Do About Them)

Natasha Lane — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 11:58:33 +0000

We are all guilty of some occasional self-sabotage: we psyche ourselves out before a bit department meeting, we procrastinate and endlessly delay tackling that huge code we’ve been looking at for days, we keep telling ourselves we are not worth a better job or a higher paycheck.

And while these occasional moments of doubt and negativity are perfectly all right, if you keep engaging in them and continue to nurture them, your career will never really take off, and you’ll remain stuck in a place you don’t like and don’t want to be in, with no one to blame but yourself.

Let’s look at some of the ways you are sabotaging your own progress, and what you can do about them:

You are running away from problems instead of solving them

Challenges in the workplace are simply normal – everyone has them, even Elon Musk.

If you are one of those people who avoid any kind of friction and confrontation, and is looking to sweep an issue under the rug and never return to it, you are sabotaging your own growth and progress.

When an unpleasant situation rolls around at work: you are faced with a deadline that is too short, you are blamed for a mistake you did not make, someone else is taking all the praise for something you have done – don’t run and hide, but take the situation head on, and work on solving it.

You feel angry and entitled

You may be an incredible designer. You may be able to write clean and efficient code better than anyone else on your team. But if all you do is feel entitled and smug, arrogant in your own talents, you will effectively be cutting off your road to success.

There is more to building a career than knowing how to do the work, sadly, that’s just the way it is. Apart from the talent and knowledge, you need to let go of resentment and work towards your goals. So what if so and so has already been promoted? So what if so and so is driving a Porsche? You are living your own life and walking your own path, and letting go of the anger and focusing on yourself will instantly open up new doors for you.

Here is a book that might help you with this issue – letting go of some of that ego, and focusing on things other than yourself.

You work when you should sleep

Sleep is one of the most important things we will ever do in our life – even though it may seem like a whole lot of wasted time. Without sleep, all of our creativity, talent, focus and perseverance will just go down the drain, never to be seen again.

So instead of pulling long hours to get a job done, start working on your sleep, and watch as you do more in less time in “regular” hours. Start by looking at the way you use your electronic devices: instead of helping you relax, is your phone keeping you up? Are the podcasts you are listening to too exciting to let your brain rest?

Make sleeping better a priority: invest in a soothing and relaxing space, get rid of the devices that don’t help, set a routine and execute it every day. Once your body gets used to the sleep, you will notice you are working better and smarter, providing plenty of advancement opportunities.

You are trying to do everything for everyone

This was me a couple of years ago. Whenever someone brought up a task that needed to be done I knew I could handle, I would volunteer. Not because I wanted to get ahead, but because I honestly wanted to help out and do it. I knew I could do it well.

Soon this became the norm: whenever there was something to be done, Natasha was instantly the one everyone thought of. This resulted in an increased workload, a whole lot of stress, and a feeling of underappreciation I suffered from daily.

And it was all my fault – I was the one who trained people I could do more without asking for anything in return. I told them it was okay to assign me stuff no one else wanted to handle. I was the one who invited burnout into my life out of the genuine desire to help someone else out.

Learn from my mistake and don’t keep pushing yourself more than you need to. Of course, take on the extra work, help others out, but know how to leverage it: ask for help, say no, and remind people what you are doing whenever you need to, because no one will keep track of your workload if you don’t.

Final thoughts

We are sometimes our own worst enemies, and we get lost in our own minds and behaviors, not even seeing what it is we are doing to ourselves and our careers. Take some time to look at yourself objectively and analyze the ways in which you are tripping yourself up – and remember to do it every now and again, because bad patterns have a way of creeping into our lives uninvited and unnoticed.

Growing Strong: How to Scale Your Web Design Business

Natasha Lane — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 11:41:41 +0000

While starting a web design business and making it sustainable is still the most precarious stage in your company’s life, the next step can be just as difficult – scaling it without jeopardizing what you’ve already built.

The opportunities for making the wrong steps are all too numerous, especially if you just jump into it without a plan or method.

The good news is that there are a couple of things you can do to avoid these pitfalls and ensure your scaling period results in plenty of new business, a bigger but still happy team, and a good foundation to take your web design business even further in the future.

It all starts with people

It doesn’t matter how much you believe the old adage that people matter most in business – the fact remains that your scaling process will revolve around people.

For one, taking on more work will mean that either your existing team will need to take on much more work (which is often already impossible) or you will need to hire new people .

Hiring new people is often done haphazardly by small companies, which soon enough find out why this is not something that should be rushed. There are just so many questions to answer:

How many people exactly will my growing business need?
Do I hire juniors or seniors?
How much should I offer them?
Do I have the money to hire the right number of new people?
Do I know what’s the right number of people?
How can I onboard them?
How will my existing team react?
Maybe I need an HR person?
How many HR people exactly will my growing business need?

And round and round we go.

Of course, there is always the sensitive matter of perhaps outsourcing some of the work, which is a whole other can of worms.

Your current team should also be behind you when you decide to scale. Going from three to a dozen people may not seem like a big deal, but long-evolved internal culture can be shattered within days.

No matter how you cut it, you will need to have a good, long think before you even start moving on the personnel-scaling front.

It’s also a bit about money

The fact that you are considering scaling your web design business means that you probably have a steady cash flow and that your financial situation is not in mere survival mode anymore. You might even be feeling comfortable.

Well, you shouldn’t be.

Scaling a business is an expensive endeavor, even if youʼre being really stingy.

We already mentioned hiring new people. Those people will need to be paid. Do you know how to weigh the need for new people with the expected growth in revenue?

You will need to find the money for the marketing push that will bring you new clients.

You might need to find new offices and equipment. And pay for them.

As your business continues to grow, it will need more money, which will, in turn, cause new complications which will, in turn, require more money…

You get the gist.

If you’re not really comfortable with the money aspect of running a business, talk to someone who is. Consultants and advisors may cost you some money (see, more money needed), but they can save you a ton in the long run.

Be careful, however. Not all of them are the same. Find someone who understands growing businesses, different types of financing options , and preferably the tech industry too.

Promotion, promotion, promotion

You can have the best team in the world and the soundest business model for the future but they won’t do you much good unless you attract new clients for your web design business.

To do that, you will need to promote yourself, and do it in more ways than one. This is the marketing push weʼve talked about, and more.

Build trust

When selling web design services, the key to attracting clients is trust. There are far too many “web design agencies” out there, with the levels of expertise and track records below subpar.

Your potential clients need to know you are not one of those.

Your website is the first contact your potential new clients will have with your company and it goes without saying it has to show what you can do. Who would trust a web design agency whose website is an abomination from 2006?

And yet, you wouldn’t believe how many of those exist out there.

Make sure to make your past clients’ testimonials one of the focal points of your website. If you’ve won any awards or have certifications that you think would also build trust, feature those prominently too.

Your blog is another way to show your expertise. Cover new, challenging topics. Show off your work. You might also consider writing for other publications (such as dev.to). Get your name and the name of your company out there.

Hosting events, such as meetups or free classes, can also be a great way to promote your company and the expertise of your team.

Build networks

Before scaling, most web design companies get most of their business through word of mouth. Mostly, however, this just happens and itʼs not something youʼre really active with.

Well, if you want to scale – you have to get active.

Reach out to companies from industries that intersect with yours – graphic designers, marketing agencies, IT solutions companies. Believe it or not, companies such as accounting firms and the likes can also bring you new business. Youʼll probably want to work out some kind of a referral/commission system for this.

Local small business associations and chambers of commerce are often overlooked when, in fact, they can be a great source of new business.

Try a bit of paid advertising

Paid advertising usually doesn’t work best for web design agencies. Sure, if you do your targeting perfectly and find the right channels to find just the people looking for services such as yours, you might get some results.

In reality, however, you will most likely be doing the same as a dozen agencies in your area, you will have trouble differentiating yourself, and you’ll end up spending far too much money for lukewarm leads, at best.

Don’t knock it off without trying, but don’t expect too much from it.

Final thoughts

Scaling any business is not an easy task, web design definitely included. Be slow and methodical. Be very careful with your money and your team. Never stop thinking about ways to make new clients. Last but certainly not least, understand that you don’t know everything and that there are people who can help you.

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Making it in the World of Coders as a Non-native English Speaker: How to Boost Your Knowledge and Portfolio

Natasha Lane — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:29:00 +0000

The IT industry has been dominating – and is set to further dominate – both the international and many national job markets.

Coding, development, design, and testing have all become coveted positions that are not only interesting to work in, but also well-paid.

Add to that the fact that diligence, perseverance, and a willingness to learn often constitute the most important traits needed to get into the industry, and that you can usually start your career at a low-level position and work your way to the top, and you’ll see why working in IT is becoming the new prestigious career path.

However, there’s a bit of a fork in the road here.

In order to make it in the high-powered world of coders, you do need to fulfill one universal criterion: have a very decent command of the English language.

The importance of the English language

To a certain extent, it’s true that you may not need to speak English all that well to land a job, depending on where you live in the world.

However, code itself is in English, so understanding it will be much easier. Plus, most IT products are exported from second- or third-world countries to what are predominantly English-speaking countries. Lastly, English has become the unofficial lingua franca of the IT world – so if you want to make it big, and work on the more exciting and lucrative projects, language learning should be at the top of your priority list.

1. Learn the language through a course

The obvious first step you can take is enrolling in an English language class, either locally or online. Having a tutor is the best way to learn a language because you get to hear it, speak it, and ask questions immediately, which is not the same when you’re learning all on your own.

You can choose one of the most reputable courses available to non-native speakers, such as one of the Cambridge Certificates or IELTS. Both will provide the knowledge you need to make it in IT, and both are recognized internationally by employers all across the industry.

You can find plenty of online resources for both these courses, and work on your vocabulary for IELTS, or practice your grammar for the Cambridge set of tests in your free time.

2. Watch and read to help you deepen your knowledge

Another great way to learn a language is to watch movies and shows and read as much as you can.

Try to use either no subtitles or use the English subtitles to help you better understand what is being said. Also, make sure you watch something that’s interesting enough to keep you wanting to watch even when the language becomes a bit difficult.

Reading in English should be the least of your challenges. Anything from blogs to the news is a welcome option, but also make it a point to read something directly related to the role you want to pursue in IT. This will both help your knowledge of the language and your industry knowledge.

3. Find a native coder you can talk to

Forums and Slack channels are a great place to find fellow coders who will be willing to help you out, both with untangling a specific problem and with your practice of English.

Try making a couple of international friends whom you can talk to regularly, and focus on working through some of your challenges. Don’t expect them to be able to explain the workings of the English language, though – you can rely on a tutor for that. Just focus on noticing how they talk and enrich your vocabulary that way.

4. Don’t let fear hold you down

One of the most common fears non-native speakers face is that everyone is paying attention to their mistakes and laughing at them internally.

This is most certainly not the case. In fact, you’re already ahead of most of the native-speaking coders you come across, as you speak at least two languages, while many of them only speak one.

Try to work through your fear as much as you can, in settings that scare you the least: chat with someone online, leave comments on posts and forums, and so on.

Once you accumulate enough experience, you can take on an actual project.

5. The payment gap

As a non-native speaker, there’s a certain level of certainty that clients will want to pay you less than they would a native speaker.

Instead of delving into the ethics of this move, let’s explore how you can deal with it.

First, you can accept the lower rates as a way of getting into the industry, and work on smaller projects that will add to your portfolio. That way, you will have relevant experience to showcase and can leverage it into better jobs later.

On the other hand, you can absolutely refuse to settle for the lower price, especially if the code you write is very good. There are people out there who won’t care about your perfect English as long as your product is on par. Looking for them might be a bit of a longer affair, but it can be worth it.

Both of these courses of action are a good option. Your choice should depend on your personal situation and what you would like to achieve.

6. Prep in advance

Once you start working on a project, you can always prepare ahead before a meeting or even before writing an email.

If you have an English tutor, you can go over what you’re going to talk/write about with them, and make sure you cover all of your bases well. You can also ask a native or near-native friend to look it over and help you out with the grammar and wording.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, though – all non-native speakers do. As long as you show you’re working on it, and are genuinely interested in the project and contributing your best work, you’ll be coming off as committed, dedicated, and a true asset.

Final thoughts

As a non-native English speaker, you may feel at a disadvantage, but you don’t need to. Always keep in mind that the IT community is vast and truly operates globally. Finding your place in it may be a challenge, and it may take a lot of work, but it is nowhere near impossible.

#UX Design and #SEO: How to Make Them Work Together (and Why You Should)

Natasha Lane — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 01:18:14 +0000

Back in the olden days of the internet, SEO was a relatively simple affair. All you had to do was stuff your content with relevant keywords and produce a ton of it, and you would quickly find yourself climbing the search engine rankings. But, over the years, search engines have gotten smarter, making SEO more challenging with each new Google algorithm update. Thanks to Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and the rest of Google’s algorithm zoo, user experience became vital, and SEO became more complex.

Things got especially tricky for SEO specialists and marketers with the emergence of mobile-first indexing, which made mobile UX a significant ranking factor. In fact, 52% of mobile users have said that a poor mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company. The truth is, users have gotten so accustomed to seamless experiences online. Hence it’s no wonder that as much as 45% of them expect content to display equally well across all their devices.

Are SEO and UX really at odds with each other, or are they inextricably connected? As you’ll see in the following tips, SEO best practices should always take UX into account, because then everybody wins: you, search engines, and your audience.

1. Produce Amazing Content with UX in Mind

SEO factors, such as great content, high-quality backlinks, keywords, and phrases are necessary to help your site find its way to the target audience. Excellent content, whether it’s articles, infographics, images, or video, is still as essential as ever for driving traffic to your website or blog. But once your audience gets there, it’s up to UX designers to shape their experiences with your business and make sure that they stick around.

Everything from text formatting and visuals to featured articles contributes to the overall UX. If users start spending more time on your page, Google will note that as a signal that your content is fresh and useful, thus improving your ranking.

2. Reduce Page Loading Time

Everyone hates pages that take too long to load – that’s a no-brainer. But, even though it’s a sign of poor user experience, it will hurt you even more when it comes to SEO. Google also hates pages that take forever to load, and will assign them a lower ranking as a result.

Another signal that is linked to this one is your website’s bounce rate, which represents a percentage of users who visit your site once and never come back.

Loading time affects your bottom line: a one-second delay in page response can diminish your conversion rate by as much as 7%. So, getting your website to load faster fixes both your SEO and UX, demonstrating once again why you should make them work together.

3. Keep Searcher Language in Mind

Keywords are not only crucial when it comes to SEO and your ranking, but they also provide you with keen insight into what your target audience is looking for – provided that you perform keyword research, of course.

Now, one of the most common problems among businesses and their content creators is the presence of industry-specific jargon. This sort of language, while perfectly clear to those in the industry, may be somewhat meaningless to your audience, who likely won’t be searching for the phrases and keywords they don’t understand.

Also, when doing keyword research, keep user intent in mind. For instance, if someone is looking for the phrase “on-page SEO,” you really have no idea whether they’re looking for someone who provides those services or if they’re looking for information on how to do it themselves. You can identify their intent by looking into long-tail keywords and by researching your audience, so you don’t fall into the trap of making the wrong assumptions.

4. Make Navigation Simple

Let’s say you’ve got great content on a website that looks amazing and loads fast on all devices. That means you’re golden in terms of SEO and UX, right?

Not quite, because one of the things that can make or break your website is poor navigation. If a user has to go through multiple menus just to get the information or service they need, they’ll simply take the easier route and opt for one of your competitors. Having a search bar is an absolute must. Menus have to provide all the relevant info without being too complicated.

Again, it all comes back to Google not liking websites that provide poor user experience, and having a site that’s difficult to navigate will certainly ruin your SEO efforts.

5. Make Use of Headings

Headings are not only an element of UX (since they allow users to find their way around longer pieces of content) but they also play a big role in your SEO. How so?

Well, in addition to telling readers where they are, headings also help search engines figure out what your content is about and tell crawlers what your content’s hierarchy is like. Make sure only to have one h1 tag per page, as it will let the search engines know what to focus on. Of course, you shouldn’t always use all tags. In most cases, you will only deal with h1, h2, and h3 headings.

Headings hold SEO value, especially if you place your keyword near the beginning of the h1 tag, as well as inside the first h2 tag. However, refrain from using your keyword inside every single subheading. Search engines such as Google or Bing only look at h1 and the first h2 tag when it comes to keywords, but if your keyword is all over the place, they may penalize you for over-optimization.

6. Use Images and Alt Text

Images are not only great for breaking up your posts visually and further illustrating the points you’re making, but they’re also crucial in UX design because people are drawn to visuals. When coupled with alt text, they will benefit SEO as well, since they describe what your image is about or what it represents in that particular post. Make sure to keep your alt text clear and descriptive, include your target keyword, and make it 125 characters max for best results.

7. Provide a Good Mobile Experience

We’ve mentioned earlier in this article why your website needs to work well on both desktop and mobile. And we don’t just mean looks, but also site speed, navigation, images, and so on. Even stuff like large enough buttons, calls to action, or having enough white space can make a big difference in UX on mobile. The better the interaction with your site, the better your SEO, whether directly or indirectly.

Conclusion

As you can see, when SEO and UX work together, they solve a whole slew of issues, helping you create a great experience that is both user and search engine-friendly. What more could you ask for?