2020 in Review

2020 was crazy in many ways. It was an exciting year for my self-employment. I decided to take off from all my projects as of the first of January to reposition myself. I started blogging about web performance, accessibility, freelancing, and sustainability in digital developments.

Furthermore, I’ve done many internal web performance workshops. 2020 was the year to offer it to the public. Every developer or development team should be able to book a workshop with me.

Then in March, COVID-19 tore the world from its anchors. I’m very sorry for so many people who have lost work, loved ones due to the pandemic. COVID-19 still turns everything upside down. I can consider myself to be very fortunate to work in the digital industry.

Tante Hilde - A free virtual marketplace for your local stores in the Allgäu

As sad as 2020 started, the year also had its hights for me. At the beginning of the pandemic, I thought much about my hometown and the local stores. From the first day of the lockdown, they couldn’t sell their products the way they used to. During my thinking, I got a call from Julia. She owns a local agency Studio Leeflang specialized in sustainability. We have teamed up with another agency and launched Tante Hilde.

The idea of Tante Hilde was one platform where all the local shops can present their store. They could inform the customers about delivery options, order conditions, and much more. Not only was it fun to create Tante Hilde. It made us feel like we could help. Moreover, Julia and I now work together on projects. We are benefiting from each other skill’s.

devcademy

After we rolled out Tante Hilde, I plunged into the concept and development of my devcademy. devcademy is a teaching platform. I offer remote workshops for developers and development teams. Topics are web performance, web accessibility, and JavaScript.

For the start of this project, I’ve decided to put in place a web performance checklist. The checklist should reveal the main problems of the user’s website. Furthermore, it should give individual implementation advice to the user. The basis of the performance checklist is Lighthouse V6. On top of that, I offered a personal feedback meeting with each participant.

Thanks at this point for every nice meeting I had with you folks. I’m glad I could help some of you. I’m looking forward to offering these free web performance help in 2021 again. What made me even happier are the first successful workshops within companies. The feedback I got from you was great. Thank you for that.

Blogging

My blog developed well in 2020. In the beginning, I only had a couple of readers per month, which increased with every article. I got great responses from you folks. Even the readers who didn’t share my opinion gave me so much constructive feedback. I’m looking forward to having these conversations in 2021 as well.

In the middle of the year, I published one post every week. I came up to 29 posts in 2020. A weekly regularity is quite challenging if I want to have a high and consistent quality. Thus I decided to extend the period in 2021 to one post every 2 to 4 weeks.

Additionally, I started a new collaboration this year in August with DebugBear. In 2020, I wrote three blog posts, and you’ll find some more on the blog in 2021.

If you have missed one of them, I encourage you to read the following posts:

• Front-end JavaScript performance
• Debugging JavaScript memory leaks
• Creating a web performance team

Web Performance Quiz

Before I went to hibernation in December, I started my web performance quiz in November. It currently contains 30+ questions about browser work, web performance metrics, performance culture, user experience, image handling, and web performance patterns. You can still challenge your knowledge if you haven’t done it.

The quiz will be an ongoing project, and I’m happy if someone wants to collaborate on it together. I didn’t find enough time to publish the source on Github, but I do that in January or February.

The web performance quiz was a total success, and it was much fun to see your results on Twitter and Linkedin.

Piepmatz Community

In December 2020, I started a collaboration with the Piepmatz Community. The Piepmatz Community founded a center for sustainable living in Kempten, my hometown.

They are planning an educational offer, and an unpacked store, and a store for fair fashion. These ideas combine up what we need to be more sustainable in our daily life. Thus I decided to help them voluntarily.

I’ve implemented an online membership application for their non-profit association. There are some more developments planned in the future. Check out their offer if you like to know more about that project.

The hibernation of December

December is always packed with stuff that I need to finish before the holidays and plans for the next year. I decided to go into a blogging hibernation to have a fresh start in 2021. And I tell you it’s worth it. My first blog post is ready for you and will be in your inbox in time next week.

Learnings

2020 had many topics that I need to work on simultaneously. I created devcademy, set-up the newsletter and the blog, and worked on projects. I don’t want to bore you with more enumerations, but my week was full. Sometimes I found myself jumping from topic to topic within one hour. Something I learned in 2020 is to prioritize tasks better. The quality rises, and I’m less stressed.

A small outlook for 2021

2020 was thrilling, and 2021 will be exciting too. Sustainability will be a big topic. Digital technologies are currently responsible for 4 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. That is why it is more important than ever to be sustainable. There is one significant advantage of making websites more sustainable. Web performance, user experience, and sustainability are all intertwined. Thus these topics will shape my blog and my work.

Thank you

At the very end, I want to thank you, my readers, and especially my newsletter subscribers. I’ve planned some exclusive things in 2021 for you. Until then, have a safe and successful start in 2021.

If you like this article, smile for a moment, share it, follow me, check out my RSS feed, and subscribe to my newsletter.

Cheers Marc

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