Front End Development — For Beginners

Usually, a person’s first dive into web development involves learning certain tools, and a combination of these tools make up the foundation of front end development.

What is Front End Development

Front end development is the branch of web development that handles the visual or client-side (look and feel) of a website. Professionals involved are known as front end developers.

Tools / Languages

Front end development is a broad field, and as a result, it boasts of a plethora of tools/technologies. The basic foundational tools to get started with are:

HTML

An acronym for HyperText Markup Language, HTML is the first language beginners start with. According to Wikipedia,

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser

It handles the structure of a web page. They consist of elements which are defined by a start tag, content, and an end tag. Here’s an example:

<h1>Hello there 👋</h1>

Few HTML elements do not consist of an end tag. HTML5 is the stable recent version.

CSS

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It’s used in styling HTML elements or a web page in general. Such styles include fonts, colours, and layouts. It has a simple syntax and consists of rules, with each rule containing one or more selectors, and a declaration block. Here’s an example:

h1 { 
  color: blue;
}

CSS3 is the most recent version.

JavaScript

JavaScript, commonly abbreviated as JS, is one of the most of the popular programming languages. Just as HTML and CSS provide structure, JavaScript adds interactivity to a webpage. Here’s an exemplary syntax:

console.log('Hello there 👋');

It is a high-level language and developers, I included, term it as easy to learn but hard to implement.

Frameworks

While delving into web development, you’d begin to hear of frameworks. They’re an integral part of development in general.

According to TechTerms,

A framework, or software framework, is a platform for developing software applications. It provides a foundation on which software developers can build programs for a specific platform.

In front end development, they’re used to develop websites and web apps quickly. This section covers some popular front end frameworks.

CSS

Thinking of which CSS framework to try out?

• Bootstrap
• Foundation
• Bulma
• Skeleton

Here’s a bite-sized list of 6 CSS frameworks you should consider using in your next project.

JavaScript

• React
• Vue
• Angular
• Ember
• Meteor

Jobs Titles In Front End Development

Front end development is in demand and would be for a long time as businesses depend on it. Due to this, there are always vacant positions for frontend professionals. There are several titles, but common ones are:

• Front End Developer
• Front End Engineer
• JavaScript Developer

Responsibilities and Job Requirements

Now we have an idea on popular job titles in front end development, let’s have a quick look at the roles they perform.

Front end developers are responsible for implementing visual elements that users engage or interact with when using a website or web app. They usually analyse, code, design, and debug applications to create a seamless user experience.

Here are the basic job requirements:

• Understanding of key design principles.
• Proficiency with HTML, CSS, JavaScript.
• Experience with responsive and adaptive design.
• Experience designing, building and maintaining RESTful APIs.
• Excellent verbal communication skills.
• Good interpersonal skills.

The aforementioned are basic/minimum requirements in getting a front end developer role. A popular recommended requirement is to have demonstrated knowledge of a front-end JavaScript framework.

Learning Front End Development

A good thing about web development is that it can be learnt online, mostly through courses. Some are free, and others are paid. Popular platforms include:

• FreeCodeCamp (Free)
• Codecademy (Freemium)
• Udemy (Freemium)
• TreeHouse (Paid)
• Coursera (Freemium)

There’s usually hype about learning a framework as soon as you get started, but this isn’t recommended. Learning the basics of the three core web technologies; HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (especially DOM manipulation) would aid you in the long run and would help you learn any library or framework with ease.

Conclusion

WooHoo! You made it to the end.

Learning front end development is a long process, but not hard.

And now you have an idea of what it entails, tools involved, frameworks, responsibilities and job requirements, and resources to learn from. Goodluck 🚀