The website was renewed in November, and new articles are now posted once a day. Every day, new articles are posted on the top page, so I register them on the home button of my smartphone and read them while commuting. I never thought that I, who am not an editor or a public relations officer, would be looking at my company's website every day.
I'm not forced to read it, nor do I have to read it to keep up with the conversation, so one of the reasons I read it as a reader out of curiosity is that it gives me a glimpse into the unknown sides of people who work in the same company. If you're on a different team, project, or place of work, there's actually a lot you don't know.
When I realized this, I started thinking about what I personally want people to know about my team. So, this time I would like to write about the coding team of the Coding Factory Department, which I belong to, from the perspective of one coder.
First of all, what is a "coder"?
All members of the coding team have the title of "coder." It is very difficult to explain this to people who are not familiar with web production. As the name suggests, we are "people who write code," but when you hear the word "code," what comes to mind is probably guitar chord charts or power cords. For this reason, I tend to refer to it more simply as "the job of creating websites" when speaking to people in other industries.
Even if you are in the same IT industry, you need to be careful when talking to people in the systems field, because the person who converts the detailed design documents created by programmers into programming languages is sometimes called a "coder."
Our job as HTML coders is to put together the string of alphanumeric characters that appears when you press Ctrl + U on a Windows browser. The main languages used are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and PHP is sometimes used. Depending on the person (company), they may be called "markup engineers" or "front-end engineers."
Next, I'd like to talk about the "coding factory" work that we are in charge of.
The place where I work: "Coding Factory"
A morning meeting. In addition to the daily evening meeting, for projects involving a large number of people, we hold meetings as needed to check on the progress of each member.
Monosus has people from all walks of life related to web production, from marketing and planning to design, coding, checking, and operation. Therefore, we can undertake one-stop site production, but our coding team is also dedicated to a service called " coding factory ," where we receive design files from customers, code and check them, and deliver them to you.
The service was launched back in 2007, when the trend was shifting from table coding to CSS and it was said that "web production had become difficult." It was a rare service at the time that specialized in HTML + CSS.
As an aside, at that time I was working in the information systems department of a small and medium-sized company, creating a core business system for the company. I had worked with HTML, but it was just a container for displaying calculation results, and I didn't even know the difference between div tags and span tags. Of course, it was table coding.
I was told, "If you're a programmer, you can write HTML, right?" and so I started making interface screens, but I gradually began to feel my limitations. I didn't know about the CSS float property, so I had no idea how to position elements freely, and I was troubled by tables whose layout changed depending on the amount of text.
Nowadays, it's rare to see a site with table coding, and coding in CSS has become the norm, but even in the last few years, it feels like the content of projects has become more complex and diverse, from the time we had to deal with differences in behavior depending on the version of IE to smartphone compatibility, responsive web design support, CMS implementation, hybrid apps, etc. One of our designer clients once asked us to do a project, saying, "I thought about doing it myself, but I thought it would be impossible in terms of time and content, so I asked you to do it."
I'm sure that things that we can't even imagine at this point will become commonplace in the future. These things are too much of a burden for programmers and designers to handle on the side. I think it's our job to support them in this endeavor.
What it means to work as a "coder" at Monosus
We are currently checking the points raised by the check team. The coded page cannot be delivered until the check team gives its OK.
Next, let's consider what it means to work at Monosus from a coder's perspective.
First of all, there is the advantage that "I can concentrate on coding and the accompanying direction." This is because the account connects with the customer, and a system is established in which the checker and I work together (sometimes multiple people work together) to move the project forward. Of course, this is also thanks to the "behind the scenes" people such as the team that takes the phone calls and the administrative department.
In "WebDesigning" (right), I was in charge of the "SmartPhone Lab." and "CSS Lab." columns for three years, from the December 2011 issue to the March 2014 issue. In the April 2013 issue (bottom right), a special feature article was published titled "Manual for formulating coding guidelines." In "Tokyo IT Shimbun" (left), I am currently serializing "Coding Methodology."
In addition, speaking at seminars, teaching vocational training, or writing for industry magazines are experiences that most individuals would not be able to have on their own.
Furthermore, I think that the initiatives in Kamiyama Town and the various events filled with a DIY spirit are unique to Monosus. There are some aspects that are not like a company, but the fact that it is not too lively makes it comfortable for a person of a modest disposition like me.
However, if you ask me what is the most important thing when thinking about writing code as an engineer, I would answer "being able to continue learning."
With coding guidelines and a unique education system, it is possible to acquire standard skills in a short period of time, making it a favorable environment for those aiming to work in the web industry.
However, whether that leads to continuing to work is another matter.
In fact, some of my coworkers left the company in search of work in design or creating in-house content. As someone who joined the company because I was attracted by the copy, "We're looking for people who think that 'job = coder' is cool!", it's a little sad, but it's also true that for some people, learning coding skills is just a stepping stone to the career they're aiming for.
That's why I believe there is still more that we can do as a team for members who want to continue working as coders.
For example, it may be a good idea to give members who have become accustomed to a certain number of projects the time they can use freely to learn new skills. Even if it temporarily affects business performance, it will broaden the scope of what the team can handle and lead to increased satisfaction for the individual, so it is a necessary "investment."
Of course, if the skills are not relevant to the project, there is no point in working in a company, so I think it is important to match the skills that the team wants to improve with the individual's wishes.
My personal vision (and hopes) for the coding team
A coder meeting. Once a month, the entire coding team meets to share technical information and project details. The topic on the day was "Writing the Monosasu site."
As mentioned above, the types of requests we receive are becoming more and more diverse. For example, the following types of projects require coding skills and more.
- Involved in the design of a responsive PC website with several thousand pages, providing opinions from a coder's perspective
- Identify elements with similar functions from existing sites where the layout of each page is different, and classify them as parts.
- Create instructions to avoid misunderstandings among the members who will be mass-producing the pages.
- Use a CMS to create a search system
- Create graphical pages like those made with FLASH
- Create a website that is linked to SNS APIs
Also, large projects and technical projects require different brainpower. However, there is a limit to how much an individual can handle, and it takes time. I think it will be more important in the future to have multiple individuals who can do a range of coding and who specialize in different areas, and to have a multi-faceted team.
If you compare it to a training card game,
- First, level up your cards
- Once you reach the maximum level, you can combine it with other cards to acquire new skills.
It's something like that.
I think that having more options for cards to combine will be a good thing for both coders and customers.
In 2015, we not only brushed up on the systems established by our predecessors, but also launched a number of "new initiatives."
Once a month, all the coders gathered and started a meeting to announce their latest status and technical information. We also examined what would happen if we incorporated the ideas of modern CSS architects into the familiar guidelines, and we had many discussions over the course of several months. The coding team is also sending instructors to Kamiyama Town for vocational training , which is often discussed on this site (in fact, I am writing this article in Kamiyama Town).
To be honest, it can be hard to find time to do something in between busy projects, so it's easier to do things the way you're used to. But it's boring to just keep doing things the same way. I think it's cooler to be able to do a variety of things.
In 2016, I hope that each and every member will be able to nurture the seeds that were sown last year without becoming exhausted, and also take on new challenges.
And I hope we will be a team that people want to stay on with, even after three or five years.
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