What you need to know to become a front-end developer
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In recent years we have... Remote Scout introduced programming to various career changers. In our experience it is Frontend development a great way for career changers to break into the tech industry, get hired and make money. A 2020 Stack Overflow survey (opens in a new tab) found that front-end software developers in the US earn an average of $110,000 per year, while Zippia estimates (opens in a new tab) that there are currently over 80,000 front-end -End developers are employed in the USA.
If you're looking for a lucrative career in a growing industry, front-end web development could be yours Dream job be, even as an entry-level web developer.
In this post, you will learn what a frontend developer is, what they do, how to become a frontend developer, and what languages, frameworks, and tools you need to learn to be successful in frontend development.
Before we begin, we would like to point out that the terms " Frontend developer ", "front-end engineer" and "front-end web developer" have different meanings at first glance and there are small differences between them, but they can actually be used interchangeably! Backend is the counterpart to this.
What is a Frontend Developer?
Those: pexels.com
Frontend developers are engineers who implement web designs using programming languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This is the person on your team who writes the code for a website's navigation and layouts - a website looks different on your phone because a front-end web developer designed it that way (thanks to mobile-first or responsive design).
They also ensure that the website does not contain any errors or bugs and that the design looks as it should on different platforms and browsers. All of these tasks are important for a good user experience.
The code that front-end developers write runs in the website visitor's web browser (also called client-side), while a back-end developer's code runs server-side using open source environments (such as Node.js ) or programming languages (like Python ) is performed.
If you think of web development like a car, the front end would be the body, paint and interior color (i.e. all visual aspects of the car), while the back end is the engine and transmission. The website visitor interacts directly with the frontend (you can touch it and swap and change things without changing the engine itself), while the backend runs everything in the background. Now you know something about web development and cars - thank us later!
Full-stack developers can program using both front-end and back-end languages. What do frontend developers do?
Your everyday life as a frontend developer
When working with the frontend, web design knowledge is important because frontend engineers translate web designers' designs into reality on the screen. They look at a web designer's wireframes and blueprints (often called design comps) and then use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create functional and beautiful websites that users can actually interact with.
This means that they implement the navigation, layouts and buttons that a web designer has carefully designed and ensure that all design elements function properly and look the way they should look according to the designer's UX/UI research.
In addition, front-end web developers also ensure that the website runs properly. Companies want their customers to get the most out of their websites. Therefore, they need employees with knowledge of front-end web development to ensure that the interface always works properly by fixing any errors that visitors might encounter.
For example, imagine upvoting a comment on Reddit (a regular user interaction on the platform) and nothing happens - the lack of a response could mean there's a bug with the upvote button, meaning someone with experience in frontend development would try to fix this error as quickly as possible. (However, if you see a cat bug, it's probably not their fault :)).
INTRODUCE MOBILE-FIRST OR RESPONSIVE DESIGN
In the US alone, more people access the Internet via mobile devices (opens in a new tab) than via desktop computers. So it's no wonder that responsive and mobile design skills are very important for employers!
Responsive design means that the layout of the website (and sometimes functionality and content) changes depending on the screen size and device used.
When you visit a website from a desktop computer with a large monitor, you see multiple columns, large graphics, and interactions designed specifically for users with a mouse and keyboard.
Ethan Marcotte, an independent web designer, speaker and author of Responsive Web Design,(opens in a new tab) who popularized responsive design,(opens in a new tab) said:
"Instead of tailoring disjointed designs to each of the ever-increasing number of web devices, we can treat them as facets of the same experience. We can design for an optimal viewing experience, but embed standards-based technologies into our designs to make them not only more flexible, but also more adaptable to the media make that reflect them. In short, we need to practice responsive web design.
Before responsive design, separate pages were created for mobile devices. The same website appeared as a single column optimized for touch interaction but using the same base files on mobile. Responsive web design has changed this experience. Instead of using the same files, developers are now creating different themes for mobile devices.
Mobile design can include responsive design, but can also mean creating separate mobile-specific designs. Sometimes the experience you want a website visitor to have on a desktop computer is completely different than what they should see when visiting from a smartphone.
In such cases, it makes sense to design the mobile website completely differently. A bank website with online banking would benefit from a separate mobile website where visitors can e.g. For example, you can see the nearest bank location and a simplified account view (since mobile phone screens are smaller).
This is an example of how web page elements can adapt to different device screen sizes, such as: B. on the screen of a desktop computer, a tablet and a smartphone. / Source: Aukera.com
FIXING BUGS AND ERRORS THAT APPEAR ON THE SITE
Imagine you are building your wonderful web presence and suddenly the computer goes on strike and continues to go on strike. This is what it looked like in a Harvard classroom in the fall of 1947 when a moth was discovered in the hardware of a computer. A boy programmer Grace Hopper was among those who discovered the moth and is credited with coining the term "bug" for "error in the code."(opens in a new tab)"
As a frontend developer, it is important to be familiar with testing and debugging processes.
Unit testing involves evaluating individual blocks of source code (i.e. the instructions that tell a website how to work). Every programming language has a different method and structure for testing these code blocks.
Troubleshooting is simply a matter of applying a detective hat to any "bugs" that are revealed during these tests (or that are discovered by visitors once your site is launched) to find out why and how they occur and fix the problem. Think of this as a human raid.
Different companies use slightly different debugging processes, but once you've used one, you can adapt to others fairly easily.
Since testing and troubleshooting contribute to a large part of a positive user experience, these are important skills for a front-end web developer.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Development is all about creative problem-solving and getting your program to work - from thinking about how best to implement a design, to fixing bugs that pop up, to making your front-end connect seamlessly -Codes with the backend code of another software developer.
An example: You have created a perfectly functioning frontend for a website and are handing it over to the backend developers to integrate it into a content management system (CMS). Suddenly half of your great features stopped working - what would you do? No, really, what would you do?!
A good front-end web developer will view this as a puzzle to be solved rather than an absolute disaster. Of course, a great, experienced frontend developer will anticipate these problems and try to avoid them in the first place!
Sadie Jay, one of our Get Hired Alumni, says: "The way you approach solving problems is just as important as the code you write. It's okay to be intimidated, but don't Don't let that stop you. Ask follow-up questions, start with what you know, and document your process."
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