Profile Link: https://www.education-ecosystem.com/codeluca/projects
1. Hi Luca. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Thanks for doing this interview with me! I’m a 19-year-old web developer and designer based in London. In recent years I’ve worked at a creative agency and was the first employee at a successful food-tech startup in London before leaving to work full-time as a freelancer.
2. How long have you been a UI designer and Web developer?
I started tinkering with code at around age 11, and have grown to enjoy combining creativity with technology to build solutions to problems I find or am presented with. I’ve been working professionally in some capacity as a UI designer and developer for the last 4 years.
3. How long have you been on Education Ecosystem? How’s your experience so far?
I joined Education Ecosystem, long before it was called Education Ecosystem. I started livestreaming my projects on the platform back when it was known as “livecoding.tv”. I really enjoyed interacting with viewers and explaining the work I was doing, and others enjoyed watching me. It was also a great avenue for finding new connections who found my projects interesting, and even got a client or two from my streams! Now as an education platform, I hope to come back and create high-quality content for the platform in the future.
4. Tell us about your projects?
As I’m still a young person, there’s so much I want to learn! The majority of my time is taken up by client projects, but any time I have a minute to work on my own stuff, I’m experimenting with new technologies, tools and techniques to use in the future. I’m also passionate about documenting my process, and therefore put lots of time into creating content on my Instagram so others can join me on my journey, learning along the way! (@lucafloats on Instagram)
5. What challenges do you face every day as a UI designer and web developer?
The most important skill I’ve learned over the years is figuring out how to get over roadblocks. As I’m completely self-taught and have never had a formal education in development or design, I’ve learned how to google my way out of most problems. As every developer will find out sooner or later, new types of bugs or problems you’ve never encountered are found on every project you work on. When it comes to design work, learning how to align my vision with my client’s has been the greatest challenge so I can make designs that my clients will fall in love with.
6. Where do you see Web Development in 5 years?
The thing that makes the web so exciting is that it is always changing. Not only 5 years ago, React was barely a thing and Node.js was far from the standard. The constant evolution of tools and frameworks means that there are constantly new tools to learn and familiarise yourself with. This can be both a blessing and a curse, but it definitely keeps the web moving forward! We’re also seeing website designs we would have never thought were possible 5 years ago, so I can do nothing but only guess where we will be in 5 years. No matter where we end up, I’m sure it’ll be only a more exciting platform to be building for.
7. Would you recommend the Education Ecosystem to others? Why?
I constantly preach how project-based learning is the best way to learn new things. Education Ecosystem helps by guiding you through your first projects and helps you develop a portfolio of real-world projects that *you* have built! It is definitely the most fun, exciting and in my opinion, the most efficient way of learning. Instead of learning just the conceptual side, you’re learning through the way you’ll be building in the real world.
8. Is there anything you want to end with?
If you have any questions about any of the concepts I’ve mentioned, have a project you want to discuss or just want a chat, feel free to contact me! I have a bunch of ways you can contact me on my website: https://lucamarchal.com/ Don’t worry, I don’t bite!
