An Opening Greeting for Yorihiroi Frontend

Hello.

My name is Kazuhiro Hara, and I work as a web / XR developer / designer under the trade name Kansock.Industries.

If you are interested in an introduction, please see the About page on that site. I started building this site on New Year's Day 2024 and launched it from there.

In recent years, I have been struggling with my own job title.

Depending on the era, I might be working as a web developer / designer, doing serious backend or cloud infrastructure engineering, focusing on teaching or writing, or getting involved in support, mentoring, hiring, and many other things. I have also continued design research for more than 20 years. My style is to use all of those experiences to help clients. But I am not doing everything at once. At one point I might be deeply focused on one of those areas, then after that period ends I stay loosely involved while starting something different. Even if I stop doing something actively, it does not mean I have no interest in it.

That makes it hard to introduce myself. There is also another problem: veterans tend to end up with long titles. In any case, this is not a good way to introduce someone. You were probably tired just reading the previous paragraph. If you were, then writing it was worth it.

My areas of interest are still broad. What has not changed for me is that I am "someone who makes things using computers," but that does not make it clear where my main axis is. For a while I tried calling myself a creative developer, but it did not quite fit. Design engineer does not feel quite right either.

In the first place, I do not think roles like something-engineer are clearly separated from each other. They are just ways of slicing one's relationship with computers along different axes.

In recent years especially, I have also been getting involved with XR, which now ranges from native experiences to WebXR.

Because I wanted to keep a certain direction for myself, I wrote a 2023 resolution on my trade-name site titled "Toward a Broader Frontend". At the time I named it somewhat casually, but even in 2024 I wrote an entry called My 2024 Resolution to Work on a Broader Frontend, and I have become more convinced that the phrase "a broader frontend" was not just a temporary slogan.

So this site is about standing at the point called frontend while also covering a wide range of topics around it.

Eventually I would like my printed business card title to be, as the domain name suggests (this domain is yorihiroi-frontend.engineer), "Yorihiroi Frontend Engineer." I should prepare business cards soon.

English is also one of my major efforts, so I basically plan to provide information in both Japanese and English. However, this will not be bilingual in a strict sense. Even for the same article, the Japanese and English versions may differ slightly.

That is not because I particularly want it that way, but mostly because my English ability is limited. What I learned most through Japanese-language learning support activities is that the stance of trying to communicate has value in itself, no matter how imperfect it may be.

Following that value, even if the content may feel embarrassing to English speakers, I want to actively share information and connect with people outside the Japanese-speaking sphere.

Incidentally, even though I say I am working on English, the reason I kept "yorihiroi" in Japanese in the domain name is that I also support easy Japanese learning, and through those support activities I have encountered the strength of the Japanese language. I intentionally decided to leave this part in Japanese.

Because kanji are a very high hurdle for Japanese learners, I chose "yorihiroi" instead of "yori hiroi" written with kanji.

For now, thank you in advance.