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Front End Developer- What is Front End Development?

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27th Jul, 2023
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Front End Developer- What is Front End Development?

What is Front-End Development?

Web development is one of the most demanded industry skills today. In this article will explain what Front End Developer do, and what skills are required. This will help you become a modern front-end developer

Everything you see on a website, such as buttons, links, animations, and many more, is created by a front-end developer. Their job is to make the vision and design concept from the client-side and implement it through the code. Front-End developers are engineers who work with web designs through programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other CSS frameworks. Front End Developers also make sure the website works well on all devices i.e. making it responsive (mobile phones, tablets, and other computer screens).

What Does a Front-End Developer Do?

Maintaining User Interface

Front-end Developers take UX designs and make them to life on the computer screen. They look to web designers’ wireframes and start building User Interfaces using HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make functional and beautiful websites that users actually interact with. They also work on building layouts, navigations, buttons, images, and animations that a web designer has carefully laid out. 

Making Responsive Site

Responsive web design is about creating web pages that look good on all devices. A responsive web design will automatically adjust for different screen sizes and viewports. Every Front-End developer needs to make sure their website is responsive and also, make sure the website is compatible with every device. 

Mouse and touch-screen friendly elements

Responsive websites must accommodate smartphones by ensuring that every action is accessible through touchscreen. Links must be large and obvious on small screens, and scrolling must be easy across every device types. 

Common Tasks of a Front-End Developer

There are some roles and responsibilities every front-end developer should know:

  • Develop and implement a highly-responsive user interface. 
  • Develop and Front-End architecture to support User interface concepts. 
  • Build reusable components and front-end libraries for future use. 
  • Monitor and improve front-end performance. 
  • Integrate designs and wireframes within the application code. 
  • Fixing Bugs and testing the application using tools. 
  • Following SEO practices. 

Front-End Development: Commonly Used Programming Languages

This section contains the essential knowledge required for the front-end developers need to know in order to make user responsive websites - HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the main pillars for the building blocks. 

  1.  HMTL: is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be used by technologies such as CSS and scripting language such as JavaScript.
  2.  CSS: Cascading Style Sheets is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of documents written in HTML. CSS describes how elements should be rendered on screen, or in other media. 
  3.  JavaScript: is a scripting programming language that adds interactivity to your websites. It is also world’s most popular programming language. JavaScript is easy to learn.
  4.  JavaScript Frameworks:  Front-end developments are the ready-made code, components, such as pre-written standard functions packaged as library, with no need to build common functionality manually. There are various frameworks like React.js, Angular, Vue.js, Svelte and Ember.js.
  5.  Web Security:  There are many aspects of building website security. They are HTTPS, CORS, Content Security Policy, Session/Cookie, AuthN/AuthZ, Secret Key Management, OWASP Security Risks. 

Common Tools Used in Front-End Development

Front-end Developers use various combinations of tools to make websites as per their needs such as:

1. Code Editors Tools

An IDE tool is a program where the front-end developers work to write codes for their websites and web applications. Working with code editors various factors are important to keep in mind while working like optimized performance, editors features, Code reference and Customizable. Some of the top code editors like Visual Studio Code, Notepad++, Sublime Text, and PyCharm. 

2.  Design Tools

Design tools are general-purpose programs that UX designers create and edit assets for use in designs. Before front-end Developers start coding, they can use design tools to create a prototype and wireframes for their websites, which also helps them to test and experiment with the UX design. A few of the most used UI design tools include AdobeXd, Figma, and Adobe Photoshop.

Skills for Front-End Development

In this section, we will cover some additional skills required to work as a front end developer

1. CSS preprocessor, Frameworks

A CSS preprocessor is a program providing some additional features from pure CSS. There are a couple of popular CSS preprocessors e.g. Less, Sass, and Scss. You can also use the CSS frameworks for designing an attractive UI. 

Here are a few lists of options: - 

  • Bootstrap:- It is an open-source and free to use, and it also provides various features related to HTML and CSS templates for UI interfaces. 
  • TailwindCSS:- Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework to rapidly build custom user interfaces. It provides classes like flex, pt-4, text-center and rotate-90. 
  • ChakraUI:- ChakraUI is simple, modular and accessible component library that provides you the building blocks to build your React applications. 
  • MaterialUI:- Material UI is a comprehensive library of components that provides features like flex, grid, container and other material icons. 

2.  API and Restful services

A front-end developer will also make use of API and Restful API services. You should have knowledge of an API(Application Programming Interface) Integration. Representational state transfer is software architecture to guide the design and development of the architecture for the World Wide Web(www). 

3. Creating Responsive Designs

Responsive web design that aims to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and screens. You should also be aware of media query, flex-box and grid for responsive layout for the webpage. 

4.  Testing and Debugging skills

As you are developing your application, there will be errors in your code that need fixing. Debugging is a process for identifying the errors in the code and fixing them. 

Benefits of Being a Front-End Developer

We all know how important the front end plays in the entire scenario of a website, whether it’s design and elements or the entire well-organized structure to make everything perfect and work smoothly. Here are some benefits while working on your upcoming projects. 

  • Rapid Development and User-Driven outcomes

Using certain modern frameworks will enable you to work faster development of elements.

  • Secured

One more feature in the cap while using a framework in front end development is that the coding is fully secured.

  • Easy to Learn, Use and Scale Up Technologies

Today most of the modern frameworks and technologies preferred for front development have passed through the most stringent features and is user friendly.

  • Advanced Features and Layouts

While working on a feature or element built for the website, is a major concern for developers to ensure its robustness. Frameworks that are used by front-end developers will provide extra features for the development of a powerful website. 

Front-end developers are a vital part of the development teams. You can either train to be a front-end developer or take a fullstack developer course that provides you a hands-on experience of working with all aspects of the software development lifecycle. 

How Can You Get a Job as a Front-End Developer?

Once, you complete the technical aspects of the front-end development, you can start applying for the jobs through various portals. 

Before applying for jobs make sure you have developed your skills and are ready for the interview.

Follow these steps:-. 

  1.  Learn CSS, JavaScript and HTML:- These coding language are the essential building blocks for web and app, so you need to learn them.
  2.  Get Informed:- Get acquainted by reading articles and books about front-end development. By knowing how things work on the website, you can make a better understanding of various coding languages.
  3.  Enhance Your Skills: - Check out some of the tutorials, tools, and open-source projects. Resources such as Knowledge Hut, Documentation etc.
  4.  Resume Building:-  A perfect resume is the highway to get yourself notice by headhunters. You can perfect your resume using various resume builder templates that suite your purpose. 
  5.  Jobs Portals:- You can apply for jobs through social media and various job portals such as LinkedIn, Angel list, Indeed, and Company career sites.

Front-end development is one of the most sought-after roles in the IT industry today and a lot of aspirants enroll in Front-End Development Course to improve their skills and crack your interviews with ease. 

More Practices That Go Into Front-End Development

You can become a front-end Developer. If you follow these simple steps. 

1. Learn front-end Skills

Learned the basic technologies like HTML,CSS and JavaScript. 

2. Practice

Here’s one that everyone talks about i.e. “Practice makes perfect” comes into play. Start building a small application into a big application. 

3. Learn Command Line

It’s a good idea to get at least a basic of concepts like displaying files and file system navigation. 

4. Learn Version Control 

There is an impressive selection of version control systems to choose from, but if you want to go with the most popular, go with Git and Bitbucket. 

5. Take a Course

Take a front-end development course that will help you to upskill your knowledge and boost your confidence. Also, if you want to learn more about front-end take this course Knowledgehut front-end Development bootcamp which will help you to develop your skills and knowledge towards the front-end development concepts 

Conclusion

Front End development primarily focuses on User Experience. Using the coding and design techniques, you as a front-end developer build the element of an application that are directly accessed by the end-users with the goal of easy to use, fast, and secure, user engagement and interactions. But thanks to the latest design and technologies which helps to build sophisticated design and interactive designs.

A major trend in front-end development in recent years has increased due to the use of mobile and smart devices. Therefore, front-end developers must ensure that their applications are consistent, fast and high-quality user experience for all the devices. That’s very big challenge. 

This is the guidance or learning path, not the rules. The objective is to accommodate the learning based on the experience of the people in the community. I hope this will help you to understand the role of the front-end Developer. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1What does a front-end developer do?

If you are thinking about what a front end developer does, he/she must: 

  • Decide web page design and layout and also, build front-end libraries for the future use 
  • Develop the features to enhance the User Experience 
2What does front end development mean?

 A front-end development means a programmer that codes the front end of a website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for a website or Web Application. And, also making responsive websites using flexbox and grid.

3What are the skills required for a front-end developer?

You should proficient in coding languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ES6, and other CSS frameworks. Also, you should be able to make layout and responsive design. 

4How do I write career objectives for a front-end developer?

Here are some steps that you can follow while writing your resume objectives for a front-end developer position: 

  • Do your research about the company 
  • Focus on what skills the hiring manager wants 
  • Use the correct formatting
Profile

Prateek Singh

Blog Author

Prateek Singh is a highly-skilled at building front-end interfaces. He loves JavaScript ecosystem and have designed & developed multiple products in his career. He has worked in Fintech, E-Commerce, Healthcare & Semi-conductor industries. Prateek enjoys conversation on Programming, Sports, Art, and Space Science. He is fascinated about origin of the universe, the existential reality & the design around us. 

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