This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at Sohail Smart Solutions, an experience that helped shape both my technical skills and my understanding of creative media. As someone eager to explore both web development and design, this internship offered me the perfect blend of both worlds.
Diving into Frontend Development
One of the highlights of my internship was working on a website project called Young Journalist. It was my first real experience building a complete website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I learned how to make the site responsive and user-friendly, and I added subtle animations to give it a modern, dynamic feel. Seeing the pages come together from scratch and watching them work smoothly across devices gave me a real sense of accomplishment. It was one of those “wow, I built this” moments.
UI/UX Design
I also explored UI/UX design using Figma, which became one of my favorite tools. I used it to design the interface for both the Sohail Smart Solutions main website and the Young Journalist website. I focused on creating clean, user-friendly layouts that were both functional and visually appealing. From choosing the right color schemes to placing buttons and interactive elements thoughtfully, I learned how design decisions impact user experience. Figma helped me visualize and plan out the websites before jumping into code, and it made the entire development process smoother and more intentional.
Exploring Graphic Design
Apart from coding, I also took on the role of a graphic designer. I had the chance to design the logo for the Himam News Library using Adobe Illustrator. It was a fun challenge translating the brand's identity into a visual symbol. I also designed Instagram templates for the company’s social media, focusing on making them visually appealing, clean, and consistent with the brand's tone. It was rewarding to see the designs go live and receive positive feedback.
Learning LaTeX
Another unexpected but valuable skill I picked up during my internship was LaTeX, a document preparation system. I used it to create most of our official reports, like analyzing websites strengths and weaknesses and and through that, I became more comfortable with its structure and formatting language. It wasn’t something I expected to enjoy, but I ended up appreciating how professional and clean documents looked when written in LaTeX.
Media and Photography
The internship wasn’t just limited to design and development we also got a glimpse into the media production side. We took short courses that introduced us to camera settings, and that’s when I learned about the exposure triangle, a key concept in photography involving ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. It was fascinating to understand how these three elements come together to create a perfectly exposed photo. These sessions gave me a new appreciation for media and content creation.
PHP and Mentorship
Lastly, we had the chance to learn some backend basics through PHP. Mr. Abdelrahman, one of the mentors at Sohail, guided us patiently through the syntax and logic. His support helped make the language less intimidating and more accessible. It was nice to step beyond the frontend and see how things worked behind the scenes.