2011 Review; 2012 Goals

A quick blog post about things I learned and accomplished in 2011 and goals for 2012.

I hope that by writing them down there’s more chance of me actually doing them.

Things I learned and put into practice in 2011

• Learned Haml and Sass for a couple of Rails projects
• Started using HTML5 Boilerplate
• Started making websites responsive
• Am now using HTML5 and CSS3 for every web project
• Learned how to deploy web apps with Capistrano
• Redesigned TweetNI
• Redesigned WebDesignire

Books read in 2011

• The Lean Startup
• Undercover UX Design
• Pro CSS for High Traffic Websites
• Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love
• Prototyping
• Responsive Web Design

New software/apps for 2011

Some of these apps I had used before, but in 2011 I found myself becoming more reliant on them and working them into my daily routine.

• Axure for prototyping
• Evernote for taking notes (and sharing across multiple devices)
• OnePassword for remembering usernames/passwords
• Omnigraffle for wireframing and sitemaps
• Tripit for keeping track of travel plans

Goals for 2011

A look back at the goals I set this time last year.

1. Read more books Success: I read a good few books.

2. Talk at more events Fail: There were a few Barcamp and Bizcamp opportunities, but I struggled to find the time to commit to any.

3. Develop an iPhone app Fail: Purchased “Beginning iPhone 4 Development” but struggled to get past the first chapter. Started looking at Appcelorator instead.

4. More side projects Fail: Started off the year well by redesigning a couple of older projects, but didn’t get around to working on anything new.

5. Blog more Success: Blogged more this year than I did last year.

Goals for 2012

1. Be more mobile focused Kind of broad but comes down to designing/developing for mobile. Whether that’s native apps, html5 apps, responsive websites - who knows.

2. Release an iPhone app Related to the first goal, I want the experience of developing an app from scratch, submitting it to the app store and seeing it go live.

3. Compete in a triathlon I don’t own a race bike yet and can’t swim very far, but I figure I might have a go at it.

4. Snowboard Just something I’ve always wanted to try.

5. Release at least 3 side projects There are 46 items on my “Someday” list so at least 3 of them should be achievable.

What do you think, decent list?