What is a Front-End Developer

They are the building blocks for web and app development, so you must learn if you want to get into web dev. Fortunately, there are numerous online resources available to assist you in learning and practicing them. Some of the highest-paid professionals in the world are front-end developers. They use their knowledge and talents to design appealing and user-friendly websites. While some may be devoting their full time to learning new coding skills, some may be learning it during the little time they have between work and other life commitments.

• Below you will find information about the key technical skills you need to know in order to successfully land a job as an entry-level front end developer.
• To put together this guide we read hundreds of front end developer, front end engineer, junior web developer, and web developer job listings and consulted many frontend development experts.
• They are full-stack developers who have project management experience, adept at disciplines in the configuring, managing, and maintaining computer networks and systems.
• Debugging is simply taking all of the “bugs” (errors) those tests uncover (or your users uncover once your site is launched), putting on your detective hat to figure out why and how they’re happening, and fixing the problem.
• Increased Internet usage, especially in the mobile field, means a greater need for user interfaces, which in turn means more front end developer jobs.
• This will help you learn the concepts thoroughly (and not just on the surface).

That way you, and the 100, or 1,000 closest developer colleagues can all work on the same codebase, at the same time, without worrying about overwriting each other’s work. Fundamentally, the purpose of JavaScript frameworks is to speed up development. They can also be used with libraries like jQuery to truly keep the amount of from-scratch coding you have to do to an absolute minimum. With continuing development for mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, designers need to ensure that their site comes up correctly in browsers on all devices.

How TO – Become a Front-End Developer

Front-end developers must be effective communicators (written and verbal) because they must interact with both the technical team and the client. There are also have some style libraries that make styling your web pages simple, such as Bootstrap, Sass/Scss, Tailwind, and so on. As a professional frontend developer, you should be familiar with APIs and how to consume and manipulate them.

If you are considering a career change into front end development, you’d be smart to do so. FreeCodeCamp’s Responsive Web Design Course will teach you the basics of CSS, responsive design and accessibility. Responsive design is essential in creating websites that look good on all devices. As a frontend developer, you should understand how the command line works because it allows you to access operating system functions through a text interface.

Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

I bet you didn’t know that according to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,  all websites must be accessible to people with disabilities, did you? But what’s horrible is that it’s estimated that only 2% of websites meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Until all modern browsers work perfectly with web standards, knowing how to make each of them work the way you want them to is an important skill.

Besides his volume of work in the gaming industry, he has written articles for Inc.Magazine and Computer Shopper, as well as software reviews for ZDNet. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Web developer employment in the US is projected to grow 15% from 2016 to 2026. Some of the skills mentioned here have stood the test of time (HTML and CSS and JavaScript are all over 30 years old), and some will inevitably fall by the wayside as everything else develops and changes.

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This can be done by creating a responsive web design using stylesheets in CSS. If you’re just starting out as a front-end developer, you don’t have to have every piece of your portfolio be a client project. As your career progresses, you will be able to highlight more projects on which you have worked.

• The latest studies predict that by 2020, there will be a deficit of approximately 1 million developers in the United States alone.
• This approach was pioneered in 2010 by a developer named Ethan Marcotte, and he created this method in hopes of creating a simpler answer to the question he posed which was “But how can we—and our designs—adapt?
• They can also be used with libraries like jQuery to truly keep the amount of from-scratch coding you have to do to an absolute minimum.
• Front-end developers should also have good attention to detail and be meticulous in all aspects of their work.

We have come a long way from that where if you have the required skills, it doesn’t matter where you learned them. If you are completely new to front-end development, you can start with beginner courses and move on to more advanced topics. For example, when you visit a website from a desktop computer with a big monitor, you’ll see multiple columns, big graphics, and interactions created specifically for mouse and keyboard users. On a mobile device, the same website would appear as a single column optimized for touch interaction, but using the same base files. In order to start on any front end web development career path, you’ll have to master coding with HTML and CSS. The good news is that getting a solid working knowledge of either of these can be done in just a few weeks (and you can even start today in our free online coding course).

Cross-Browser Development

If there’s one thing that all front end developers have to have, regardless of the job description or official title, it’s excellent problem-solving skills. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the backbone of any website development process, without which a web page does not exist. When a user clicks on a word or a phrase that has a hyperlink, it will bring another web-page. A markup language indicates text can be turned into images, tables, links, and other representations. It is the HTML code that provides an overall framework of how the site will look. The latest version of HTML is called HTML5 and was published on October 28, 2014 by the W3C recommendation.

The general process is the same for any service that uses RESTful APIs, only the data returned will be different. Rather than having to code everything from scratch, jQuery lets a developer add ready-made elements to projects, then customize as necessary. You can use jQuery to perform common JavaScript functions like adding or removing classes, or to build common web UI elements like countdown timers, date pickers, or tooltips. Now, like HTML, CSS has come a long way since it was first invented in 1996, and nowadays you’ll be writing CSS3. In addition to all the colors and beautiful fonts and animations you’ve come to know and love, CSS3 makes building responsive layouts easier than ever.

We’ve also learned that becoming a front-end developer without a degree is not only possible, but also attainable. Here’s a fun course that will help you build your own portfolio site with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – so you can practice those web dev skills. Version control makes this much easier because it allows you and your team to efficiently communicate and manage (track) all changes made to the source code. It also gives you information such as who made the changes and what changes were made. As previously stated, a back-end developer is responsible for everything related to the backend, including logic, database communication, and much more. John Terra lives in Nashua, New Hampshire and has been writing freelance since 1986.

• W3Schools offers a wide range of services and products for beginners and professionals, helping millions of people everyday to learn and master new skills.
• In fact, you wouldn’t be allowed to touch a single line of code in any professional development environment without using a version control system.
• Responsive design is essential in creating websites that look good on all devices.
• Examples of JavaScript can be found in virtually any web page including the freeCodeCamp homepage.
• This can include animations, dynamic styling, effects/behaviors when buttons are clicked, game motion, and so on.
• It is the front end developer’s job to take the vision and design concept from the client and implement it through code.

However, some people are able to pick up coding concepts a little bit quicker than others. If you enjoy the learning process, you will be in a much better space to learn it quicker than most. Every single online application has that part with which users interact. When you log onto a website, you are greeted by the welcome page, the menu, site map, and other items that facilitate navigation and utility. All of those items fall under the collective term of “front end.” The front end includes the user interface, which is the part of the website or app designed for the consumer’s use.