A front-end web developer is a professional that creates the visual representation of a user’s request within a browser. This is the creative that determines the interface and general experience that the website or application presents to its users.
There was a time at the very beginning of the World Wide Web when a front-end developer was not yet needed. However, the mid-1990s gave birth to the development of the commercialized Internet we know today and accompanying that was the need for a front-end developer.
HTML tables were an evolutionary step to organize content on websites, while graphics added visual appeal in the early 1990s. Early websites were still clunky and unintuitive by today’s standards, but it was an important step in web development.
Soon after, front-end development flourished with the introduction of JavaScript in 1995 and Flash in 1996. By 1998, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were created, and all the tools a modern front-end developer would need were now available to make websites.
What Does A Front-End Developer Do?
The main duty of a front-end web developer is to ensure that the web application offers a great user experience. While a developer may care about a site’s appearance, their job is, first and foremost, about performance.
All the neat flourishes and seamless page loading are all the jobs of a front-end developer, and this introduces a need for both creative and technical skills. Front-end developers need to have the imagination to understand how a website will look, and also have the technical ability to turn a vision into reality.
This also has to happen in a completely seamless and intuitive way for the user. A front-end developer works with both web designers and back-end developers.
While front-end developers create what a user sees, the back-end developer is working in the background and creating code on a server to fulfill a user’s request.
Front-end languages
Front-end development is not complete without its facilitating languages; HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
HTML defines the structure of a website, as well as the basic elements of how a website should look. Generally, HTML helps with functionality like making characters appear bold or italicized, and determining which block of text should be a paragraph.
That’s nice if you want a text-based site, but what if you want to change the background color? Early web developers used only HTML and were limited by the language’s inability to handle design or style. That’s where CSS comes in.
CSS is a language that determines how a page should look. Using CSS, front-end developers code all the stylistic changes in one place.
This ensures that there is no need to repeat a command every time you want a little change in style on your site. For instance, it takes only a few lines of CSS to change the color of all your headlines at any time.
Javascript is the final layer of cake and the language that turns a static website into a dynamic experience.
If you’ve had the pleasure of surfing the web in the mid-1990s (think AOL CDs and dial-up connections), you know all too well about the frustration that comes with waiting for a page to load. If you wanted to do anything on a site, you’d have to wait for it to refresh. Luckily, we don’t have to wait anymore, thanks to JavaScript.
The AngularJS framework, for example, lets developers build single-page web apps efficiently. jQuery simplifies tasks and AJAX adds XML, a markup language, to JavaScript. This is what enables sites to update without refreshing.
How to become a front-end developer?
Based on everything you’ve read so far, almost all front-end developer jobs require HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Framework knowledge, including JSON and jQuery, is also necessary for any web development job.
Senior front-end job descriptions may ask for experience with PHP or frameworks with server-side templates. An advanced degree is not required for front-end developer jobs, as most hirers on Glassdoor, for instance, are looking for practical experience instead of advanced education.
An Associate’s Degree is the typical level of education for entry-level front-end developers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics.
The Death Of The Need For Front-End Developers; A Myth
“There are so many ways to set up a website without the need for a dedicated web developer”. You may have heard phrases like these, right?
Well, you can select your site template, add some interactive features, and you’ll have a functional website in an hour. However, while it’s easy to create a website, extensively customizing websites to the brim becomes a major problem for a lot of website owners out there.
Front-end developers make your site unique. They make it stand out from the rest. It’s safe to assume any website you consider intuitive and unique is the result of a skilled front-end dev.
Additionally, more websites need to be optimized for mobile. This is a big reason why the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the growth in demand for front-end developer jobs.
Conclusion
E-commerce growth is also expected to drive demand for web developers and, if this sounds exciting to you, there are many ways to start your front-end development career. Pick up a course or join a community today.