2021
Dec 20, 2021 • 3 min read
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash
Life
This year has been the first in which we’ve experienced the pandemic since day 1.
I have to be honest: since I and my family got the vaccination jabs in last summer, life has almost returned to what it was before March 2020, apart traveling. Some dinners out, inviting friends at home, visiting parents with peace of mind.
The so-called “new normal” has become normal.
Working Life
From a working point of view, it was an equally special year.
In May I left Citynews after 5 years. It was a difficult choice but made at the right time.
I joined HCL Software as Senior Product Designer the same month. Entering a new company without ever having been physically there was rather strange.
I like working remotely. It gives me the opportunity to be close to my family by combining work in a healthy way.
But having no way of getting to know your colleagues live is not an experience that I recommend.
Even in full-remote companies there have always been “real” moments of aggregation. And I honestly missed that.
Personal Projects
I have had a lot of fun and satisfaction from some personal projects I worked on this year.
In April I launched Designable, a newsletter on Product Design, UX and UI.
I want to share with you some numbers: 16 issues, 70 subscribers and an average 20% reading. It’s a success to me.
I’m still looking for the ideal format and experimenting. It’s written in 🇮🇹 Italian to date but I’ve plans to make the 🇬🇧 English version too.
In September I launched CSSUI, a library of interactive components made in CSS only. The idea came to me some time ago, while I was looking on the web how to create a dropdown with only HTML and CSS. It will certainly not be the new Bootstrap or Tailwind. It’s not even my goal. I like to think of it as an alternative to jQueryUI but in CSS. A little nerdy and very niche. I am happy that this project has garnered interest on Github.
I rather would thanks 🙏 Omar (@omaxel) who joined the project in October and actively contributed to the latest v0.2.0 release. We have several ideas in mind for the future. I can’t wait to get to v1.0.0! 🚀
Writing
I started the 2021 with a goal in mind: write at least 1 post per month on my blog. This one you’re reading is the 12th. Mission accomplished! 🏆 🎉
You can find some of my articles also on Medium and DEV Community.
Speaking
In March I partecipated at CSSDay as speaker giving a talk about CSS Custom Properties. Although the conference took place remotely, it was very engaging and fun. See the slides.
Mentoring
In 2021 I joined ADPList as Design Menthor. It has been such a totally new experience to me. I run two mentorship sessions to date and it was great! Giving career advices or portfolio reviews let me understand how much importanti is to share our experience and knowledge. I definetly want to increase these sessions the next year.
So, if you’re looking for some design mentorship, pick a topic and book a slot ⏱
What’s next
I close this “boring” post with some sneak peeks: a new adventure awaits me next year. I will be able to confirm shortly. Stay tuned! 👀