Job Title:
Application Studio Director, Web Developer
Place of Work:
Industry or specialization:
Journey Group is an independent design company in Charlottesville, Virginia. I lead our application studio, which specializes in web applications that empower small teams to accomplish their day-to-day work.
What got you into Web Design/Development/working on the web?
As I closed in on the completion of my computer science degree, I started considering what specifically I wanted to do with what I’d learned. At the time, I was attracted by what seemed like a shorter distance between developer and interface—and between developer and designer—on the web. I received the chance to intern at Journey Group, and I fell in love with the web, with the company, and most of all, with design.
What does a typical day or week look like for you? What sort of things do you do?
On “good” weeks, I still get to write all shapes and sizes of code: anything from structuring a database or building out an API to implementing reactive interfaces on the front-end. CSS is still cool (even though I sometimes write Tailwind classes all day), and I’m happiest coding “high end” CSS for glossy, responsive web pages. I’m also a studio director, so in that capacity, I spend time directing others in their work, thinking about our studio’s vision and priorities, and communicating with our partners about the nitty gritty of application objectives and requirements.
What types of web technologies do you work with most often?
JavaScript currently rules the day, so we primarily create applications using Vue.js (and its associated framework, Nuxt.js). I choose vanilla CSS (often with SASS, but maybe not for long) over Tailwind most of the time. And if we’re creating a back-end that isn’t JS-powered, we really like Laravel, a fantastic PHP framework.
Personally, I’m still partial to the classic simplicity of an index.html with vanilla CSS and JS (if the project is light-weight enough), but these days, applications usually demand more.
What is your favorite thing about your job?
Flow: that moment when time ceases to exist, your focus is sharp as a knife, and the code you’re writing feels as natural as talking.
Also, I just really enjoy improving day-to-day life for people. When one of our partners lets us know that something we’ve built has positively impacted them, I’m grateful for the chance to do what I do. Who doesn’t like a little positive reinforcement?
Lastly, I work with some of the best people on the planet. It’s such a blast every day to solve problems with them!
Where do you see your section of the web development/design/etc industry going?
Editor’s Note: Due to unforeseeable circumstances i.e., falling through the cracks/John’s incompetence, this interview was completed in late 2023, but not uploaded till now. Thus Josh’s thoughts and experience particularly with AI may have changed, transmogrified or otherwise updated in the intervening months.
I was first invited to respond to this interview before ChatGPT dropped, and part of me wishes I’d been quicker to respond. Then again, how immediately wrong would my vision of the future have proved?
Like everyone else, I’m curious how artificial intelligence (AI) will upset the status quo. For better or worse, I’m currently using the industrial revolution as something of a parallel historical moment. I’m pretty certain many parts of my job will get easier and faster (and probably even go away). I also anticipate a shift in how companies resource developers (and we’re already seeing this).
On the other hand, I’m also hopeful there will still be room for craft—for developers who build on the web for love of the medium and the beauty of the work. And I hope there will still be clients who appreciate that. As far as I can anticipate, people will still be human, and if anything, the value of human-made products and authentic relationships will increase, although the increase may be, in part, because they’ve become more and more scarce.
What are you looking to learn or what skill are you looking to build next?
AI, baby. How can it augment my work? What are the current limits, both technologically and ethically? What are its positive uses in my own code-writing, but also on behalf of Journey Group’s partners?
And I’m continually trying to keep up with the CSS features reaching broad support. There are some really cool updates landing in browsers!
What would you tell someone to do who’s looking to get into the industry? How should they best prepare themselves?
This has been said by better qualified people in many other places, but I’ll add my voice: do as much real work as you can get your hands on.
Is there a way people can get in contact with you to ask questions etc?
https://www.journeygroup.com and https://www.journeygroup.com/team/josh-bryant
Last Question: If you had to be a zombie and you had to eat someone’s brains, whose would it be and why?
Nope. Sorry to disappoint, but I’d be a vegetarian zombie.