Context
Front End For All (FEFA) was a community of aspiring web developers (like myself) seeking to add purpose to their portfolios while helping real organizations / nonprofits in the process.
Role
I founded FEFA around 2020; I contributed as a designer and developer alongside Jason Chiang and John Chou.
FEFA started as a way for people looking to get into web design and development to learn by doing, and to hopefully make an impact from the outset.
The problem
Like most people learning to code, I was told to create some ‘portfolio projects’––e.g. The prototypical to-do list app, or an Instagram clone. The problem I saw with this approach was 1) everybody makes the same thing, so good luck standing out, and 2) the projects themselves didn’t feel useful beyond a learning exercise.
I ended up reaching out to real people and offered to build them a website for free, making sure to set the expectation that I had no idea what I was doing but that I was committed to learning and working together.
This experience proved to be so instrumental on my ‘coding journey’; with FEFA, I wanted to help facilitate this kind of experience for other developers either looking to learn and/or to give back.
Case study – Las Vegas Town Fridge
The Las Vegas Town Fridge (LVTF) was a community-led network of fridges / food pantries throughout Las Vegas. We partnered with LVTF to design and build their first website that became the primary touch point for people looking to donate food, as well community members looking to take advantage of the different food programs.
The site featured an interactive map that showed each fridge’s location and hours (a major technical feat at the time for a fledgeling developer like me), as well as a volunteer portal for those looking to get involved.
