As you go about exploring career ventures in web development, you’ll likely come across a career option in being a front-end developer. Essentially, front-end web development focuses on visitor-facing aspects concerning websites which is unlike what a back-end developer would do in focusing on the work that goes on behind the scenes. Full-stack developers, on the other hand, are known to work on both ends of the stick.
Like NBA standings, knowledge of what a front-end web developer is can be of help to you when you have sufficient knowledge of what exactly this is in the area of web development. So, for full insight into this, you should certainly continue reading for more.
Front-End Web Developers: An Overview
Front-end web developers are responsible for ensuring that visitors browsing a website can easily interact with the site page by page. By combining design, programming, and technology, the developer will be able to code the website’s appearance and take care of things like debugging.
So, each time you visit a website and see yourself able to see different things, click various icons and interact with the page as you please, know that all that’s possible thanks to the work of a front-end web developer. There will be some variations to front-end web development depending on the company the individual is working for. However, you can expect these developers to cover common tasks like:
- Constantly optimizing the visitor’s user experience
- Using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to bring various concepts to life
- Creating and maintaining a website’s user interface
- Incorporating design on websites that can be accessed on mobile devices
- Creating and launching tools that will help improve site interactions regardless of the browser that the visitor is using
- Working to manage a workflow that comes from operating on software
- Following SEO guidelines
- Fixing and testing bugs for usability
A Front-End Web Developer’s Common Tools
Front-end developers use a combination of web development and design in their work. Therefore, the tools they use need to span across these different areas of focus.
Tools For Graphic Design
Before front-end developers begin the process of coding, they tend to use various graphic design tools so they can create prototypes for the websites they’ll be working on. This lets them conduct tests and experiments on the user interface right before they can start working on the actual code of the site.
Depending on the scope of the project and the size of the team, this process can be very straightforward to undergo; however, you might need a graphics editing program or prototyping tool to get the job done.
Tools For Code Editing
Code editing tools are programs that a front-end developer will choose to write the code for the website project they’ll be working on. In this case, some developers will prefer to make use of lightweight editors while others may opt for tools that are more feature-rich for access to the best code editing tools on the market.
Additional Skills
In addition to designing and coding, these developers also cover other common skills.
CSS Preprocessors
Most front-end web developers use CSS preprocessors to include functionality when dealing with CSS coding. This makes everything more scalable and easy to work with. Before publishing any code on a website, the CSS preprocessors change this into CSS that’s well formatted so it can operate across different web browsers.
APIs And RESTful Services
Front-end developers make use of RESTful services and APIs. Representational State Transfer (REST) is a lightweight architecture that works to simplify network communications. RESTful services and APIs then work to follow this architecture.
Maintaining Mobile And Responsive Design
With an increase in the number of people that use their mobile devices to access the internet, it’s now essential for websites to ensure that they are accessible on mobile. For this reason, front-end developers will create responsive or mobile designs for websites that they’re working on.
With responsive design, these work to change the website’s layout so it optimizes according to the device and screen size in use. On occasion, it will also alter the content and functionality of the website based on these factors.
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