If you’ve ever accidentally leant on Ctrl+u on the keyboard and a box of random characters has appeared on the screen, then you’ll know what code looks like.
While these strings of letters, numbers and templates appear to many terrifyingly nonsensical, I’ve always been fascinated by how these symbols fit together to create a webpage. For those unfamiliar with coding – front-end is what the user will see, as it generally refers to everything user-facing.
Centres teaching this 21st-century skill are popping up all over the country and recently I found myself fulfilling my curiosity at a one-day in Islington, London.
While some may expect coding clubs to be full of unfashionable computer whizzes, silently tapping away on their computers, instead I found myself in a relaxed studio with stylish 70s floor lamps and a startlingly red “S” on the exposed brick wall, lit with vintage bulbs.
There was also a surprising mix of ages and sexes – our class was a mélange of careers from small business owners to digital designers and artists. Everyone had a different reason for wanting to code. “I’ve always paid someone to design my website and for a smaller cost I could learn to do it myself, so I thought why not? I’ll give it a try,” said Chris Cray, a freelance animator.