Open in app

Sign in

Write

Sign in

2. The Practice of Front-end Development: Overview

Shakib D Shy
15 min readJan 22, 2020

--

2.1 — How Front-End Developers Are Made

How exactly does one become a front-end developer? Well, it’s complicated. Just consider this road map:

Image source: https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap

Today, in general, one can’t go to college and expect to graduate with a degree in front-end engineering. And, I rarely hear of or meet front-end developers who suffered through what is likely a deprecated computer science degree or graphic design degree to end up writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript professionally. From my perspective, most of the people working on the front-end today generally seem to be self-taught from the ground up or cross over into the front-end space from design or computer science fields.

If you were to set out today to become a front-end developer I would loosely strive to follow the process outlined below (Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 will dive into more details on learning resources).

  1. Learn, roughly, how the web platform works. Make sure you know the “what” and “where” of HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, Domains, DNS, URLs, HTTP, browsers, and servers/hosting. Don’t dive deep on anything just yet, just aim to understand the parts at play and how they loosely fit together. Start by building simple web pages.
  2. Learn HTML
  3. Learn CSS
  4. Learn JavaScript
  5. Learn DOM
  6. Learn the fundamentals of user interface design (i.e. UI patterns, interaction design, user experience design, and usability).
  7. Learn CLI/command line
  8. Learn the practice of software engineering (i.e., Application design/architecture, templates, Git, testing, monitoring, automating, code quality, development methodologies).
  9. Get opinionated and customize your tool box with whatever makes sense to your brain (e.g. Webpack, React, and Mobx).
  10. Learn Node.js

A short word of advice on learning. Learn the actual underlying technologies, before learning abstractions. Don’t learn jQuery, learn the DOM. Don’t learn SASS, learn CSS. Don’t learn JSX, learn HTML. Don’t learn TypeScript, learn JavaScript. Don’t learn Handlebars, learn JavaScript ES6 templates. Don’t just use Bootstrap, learn UI patterns.

Lately a lot of non-accredited, expensive, front-end code schools/bootcamps have emerged. These avenues of becoming a front-end developer are typically teacher-directed courses, that follow a more traditional style of learning, from an official instructor (i.e., syllabus, test, quizzes, projects, team projects, grades, etc.).

Keep in mind, if you are considering an expensive training program, this is the web! Everything you need to learn is on the web for the taking, costing little to nothing. However, if you need someone to tell you how to take and learn what is low cost to free, and hold you accountable for learning it, you should consider a traditional instructor lead classroom setting. Otherwise, I am not aware of any other profession that is practically free for the taking with an internet connection, a couple of dollars a month for screencasting memberships, and a burning desire for knowledge.

For example, if you want to get going today, consuming one or more of the following self-directed resources below can work:

When getting your start, you should fear most things that conceal complexity. Abstractions (e.g. jQuery) in the wrong hands can give the appearance of advanced skills, while all the time hiding the fact that a developer has an inferior understanding of the basics or underlying concepts.

It is assumed that on this journey you are not only learning but also doing as you learn and investigate tools. Some suggest only doing to learn. While others suggest only learning about doing. I suggest you find a mix of both that matches how your brain works and do that. But, for sure, it is a mix! So, don’t just read about it, do it. Learn, do. Learn, do. Repeat indefinitely because things change fast. This is why learning the fundamentals, and not abstractions, are so important.

2.2 — Front-End Job Titles

A great divide has been brewing in the front-end developer space for several years between two very different types of so-called front-end developers. On the one side, you have JavaScript-focused programmers who write JavaScript for front-end runtimes that likely have computer science skills with a software development history. They more than likely view HTML and CSS as an abstraction (i.e. JSX and CSS in JS). On the other side, you have, most likely, non-computer science educated developers who focus on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as it specifically pertains to the UI. In 2019, when entering or trying to understand the front-end developer space you will absolutely feel this divide. The term front-end developer is on the verge of meaninglessness without clarifying words to address what type of front-end developer is being discussed.

Below is a list and description of various front-end job titles (Keep in mind titles are hard). The common, or most used (i.e., generic), title for a front-end developer is, “front-end developer” or “front-end engineer”. Note that any job that contains the word “front-end”, “client-side”, “web UI”, “HTML”, “CSS”, or “JavaScript” typically infers that a person has some degree of HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript professional know-how.

Front-End Developer: The generic job title that describes a developer who is skilled to some degree at HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript and implementing these technologies on the web platform.

Front-End Engineer (aka JavaScript Developer or Full-stack JavaScript Developer): The job title given to a developer who comes from computer science, engineering, background and is using these skills to work with front-end technologies. This role typically requires computer science knowledge and years of software development experience. When the word “JavaScript Application” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer should be an advanced JavaScript developer possessing advanced programming, software development, and application development skills (i.e has years of experience building front-end software applications).

CSS/HTML Developer: The front-end job title that describes a developer who is skilled at HTML and CSS, excluding JavaScript and application, know-how.

Front-End Web Designer: When the word “Designer” is included in the job title, this will denote that the designer will possess front-end skills (i.e., HTML & CSS) but also professional design (Visual Design and Interaction Design) skills.

UI (User Interface) Developer/Engineer: When the word “Interface” or “UI” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer should possess interaction design skills in addition to front-end developer skills or front-end engineering skills.

Mobile/Tablet Front-End Developer: When the word “Mobile” or “Tablet” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer has experience developing front-ends that run on mobile or tablet devices (either natively or on the web platform, i.e., in a browser).

Front-End SEO Expert: When the word “SEO” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer has extensive experience crafting front-end technologies towards an SEO strategy.

Front-End Accessibility Expert: When the word “Accessibility” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer has extensive experience crafting front-end technologies that support accessibility requirements and standards.

Front-End Dev. Ops: When the word “DevOps” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer has extensive experience with software development practices pertaining to collaboration, integration, deployment, automation, and quality.

Front-End Testing/QA: When the word “Testing” or “QA” is included in the job title, this will denote that the developer has extensive experience testing and managing software that involves unit testing, functional testing, user testing, and A/B testing.

Notes:

  1. If you come across the “Full Stack” or the generic “Web Developer” terms in job titles these words may be used by an employer to describe a role that is responsible for all aspects of web/app development, i.e., both front-end (potentially including design) and back-end.

2.3 — Baseline Web Technologies Employed by Front-End Developers

The following core web technologies are employed by front-end developers (consider learning them in this order):

  1. HyperText Markup Language (aka HTML)
  2. Cascading Style Sheets (aka CSS)
  3. Uniform Resource Locators (aka URLs)
  4. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (aka HTTP)
  5. JavaScript Programming Language (aka ECMAScript 262)
  6. JavaScript Object Notation (aka JSON)
  7. Document Object Model (aka DOM)
  8. Web APIs (aka HTML5 and friends or Browser APIs)
  9. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (aka WCAG) & Accessible Rich Internet Applications (aka ARIA)

For a comprehensive list of all web-related specifications have a look at platform.html5.org or MDN Web APIs.

The nine technologies just mentioned are defined below along with a link to the relevant documentation and specification for each technology.

HyperText Markup Language (aka HTML)

HyperText Markup Language, commonly referred to as HTML, is the standard markup language used to create web pages. Web browsers can read HTML files and render them into visible or audible web pages. HTML describes the structure of a website semantically along with cues for presentation, making it a markup language, rather than a programming language.

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications / documentation:

Cascading Style Sheets (aka CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language. Although most often used to change the style of web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML, the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including plain XML, SVG and XUL. Along with HTML and JavaScript, CSS is a cornerstone technology used by most websites to create visually engaging webpages, user interfaces for web applications, and user interfaces for many mobile applications.

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications / documentation:

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (aka HTTP)

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications:

Uniform Resource Locators (aka URL)

A uniform resource locator (URL) (also called a web address) is a reference to a resource that specifies the location of the resource on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of uniform resource identifier (URI), although many people use the two terms interchangeably. A URL implies the means to access an indicated resource, which is not true of every URI. URLs occur most commonly to reference web pages (http), but are also used for file transfer (ftp), email (mailto), database access (JDBC), and many other applications.

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications:

Document Object Model (aka DOM)

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML, and XML documents. The nodes of every document are organized in a tree structure, called the DOM tree. Objects in the DOM tree may be addressed and manipulated by using methods on the objects. The public interface of a DOM is specified in its application programming interface (API).

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications / documentation:

JavaScript Programming Language (aka ECMAScript 262)

JavaScript is a high level, dynamic, untyped, and interpreted programming language. It has been standardized in the ECMAScript language specification. Alongside HTML and CSS, it is one of the three essential technologies of World Wide Web content production; the majority of websites employ it and it is supported by all modern web browsers without plug-ins. JavaScript is prototype-based with first-class functions, making it a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. It has an API for working with text, arrays, dates and regular expressions, but does not include any I/O, such as networking, storage or graphics facilities, relying for these upon the host environment in which it is embedded.

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications / documentation:

Web APIs (aka HTML5 and friends)

When writing code for the Web using JavaScript, there are a great many APIs available. Below is a list of all the interfaces (that is, types of objects) that you may be able to use while developing your Web app or site.

— Mozilla

Most relevant documentation:

JavaScript Object Notation (aka JSON)

It is the primary data format used for asynchronous browser/server communication (AJAJ), largely replacing XML (used by AJAX). Although originally derived from the JavaScript scripting language, JSON is a language-independent data format. Code for parsing and generating JSON data is readily available in many programming languages. The JSON format was originally specified by Douglas Crockford. It is currently described by two competing standards, RFC 7159 and ECMA-404. The ECMA standard is minimal, describing only the allowed grammar syntax, whereas the RFC also provides some semantic and security considerations. The official Internet media type for JSON is application/json. The JSON filename extension is .json.

— Wikipedia

Most relevant specifications:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (aka WCAG) & Accessible Rich Internet Applications (aka ARIA)

Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e., unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).

— Wikipedia

2.4 — Potential Front-end Developer Skills

Image source: http://blog.naustud.io/2015/06/baseline-for-modern-front-end-developers.html

A basic to advanced understanding of HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, HTTP/URL, and web browsers is assumed for any type of professional front-end developer role.

Beyond the skills just mentioned, a front-end developer might also be specifically skilled in one or more of the following:

  • Content Management Systems (aka CMS)
  • Node.js
  • Cross-Browser Testing
  • Cross-Platform Testing
  • Unit Testing
  • Cross-Device Testing
  • Accessibility / WAI-ARIA
  • Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO)
  • Interaction or User Interface Design
  • User Experience
  • Usability
  • E-commerce Systems
  • Portal Systems
  • Wireframing
  • CSS Layout / Grids
  • DOM Manipulation (e.g., jQuery)
  • Mobile Web Performance
  • Load Testing
  • Performance Testing
  • Progressive Enhancement / Graceful Degradation
  • Version Control (e.g., GIT)
  • MVC / MVVM / MV*
  • Functional Programming
  • Data Formats (e.g., JSON, XML)
  • Data APIs (e.g Restful API)
  • Web Font Embedding
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (aka SVG)
  • Regular Expressions
  • Microdata / Microformats
  • Task Runners, Build Tools, Process Automation Tools
  • Responsive Web Design
  • Object-Oriented Programming
  • Application Architecture
  • Modules
  • Dependency Managers
  • Package Managers
  • JavaScript Animation
  • CSS Animation
  • Charts / Graphs
  • UI Widgets
  • Code Quality Testing
  • Code Coverage Testing
  • Code Complexity Analysis
  • Integration Testing
  • Command Line / CLI
  • Templating Strategies
  • Templating Engines
  • Single Page Applications
  • Web/Browser Security
  • Browser Developer Tools

2.5 — Front-End Developers Develop For…

A front-end developer crafts HTML, CSS, and JS that typically runs on the web platform (e.g. a web browser) delivered from one of the following operating systems (aka OSs):

These operating systems typically run on one or more of the following devices:

  • Desktop computer
  • Laptop / netbook computer
  • Mobile phone
  • Tablet
  • TV
  • Watch
  • Things (i.e., anything you can imagine, car, refrigerator, lights, thermostat, etc.)
Image source: https://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/104084/roundup-internet-things-forecasts-market-estimates-2015/

Generally speaking, front-end technologies can run on the aforementioned operating systems and devices using the following run time web platform scenarios:

2.6 — Front-End on a Team

A front-end developer is typically only one player on a team that designs and develops web sites, web applications, or native applications running from web technologies.

A bare-bones development team for building professional web sites or software for the web platform will typically, minimally, contain the following roles.

  • Visual Designer (i.e., fonts, colors, spacing, emotion, visuals concepts & themes)
  • UI/Interaction Designer/Information Architect (i.e., wireframes, specifying all user interactions and UI functionality, structuring information)
  • Front-End Developer (i.e., writes code that runs in client/on the device)
  • Back-End Developer (i.e., writes code that runs on the server)

The roles are ordered according to overlapping skills. A front-end developer will typically have a good handle on UI/Interaction design as well as back-end development. It is not uncommon for team members to fill more than one role by taking on the responsibilities of an over-lapping role.

It is assumed that the team mentioned above is being directed by a project lead or some kind of product owner (i.e., stakeholder, project manager, project lead, etc.)

A larger web team might include the following roles not shown above:

  • SEO Strategists
  • DevOps Engineers
  • Performance Engineers
  • API Developers
  • Database Administrators
  • QA Engineers / Testers

2.7 — Generalist/Full-Stack Myth

The term “Full-Stack” developer has come to take on several meanings. So many, that no one meaning is clear when the term is used. Just consider the results from the two surveys shown below. These results might lead one to believe that being a full-stack developer is commonplace. But, in my almost 20 years of experience, this is anything but the case in a professional context.

Image source: https://medium.freecodecamp.com/we-asked-15-000-people-who-they-are-and-how-theyre-learning-to-code-4104e29b2781#.ngcpn8nlz
Image source: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017#developer-profile-specific-developer-types

The roles to design and develop a website or web application require a deep set of skills and vast experience in the area of visual design, UI/interaction design, front-end development, and back-end development. Any person who can fill one or more of these 4 roles at a professional level is an extremely rare commodity.

Pragmatically, you should seek to be, or seek to hire, an expert in one of these roles (i.e. Visual Design, Interaction Design/IA, Front-end Dev, Backend Dev). Those who claim to operate at an expert level at one or more of these roles are exceptionally rare.

However, given that JavaScript has infiltrated all layers of a technology stack (i.e. Node.js) finding a full-stack JS developer who can code the front-end and back-end is becoming less mythical. Typically, these full-stack developers only deal with JavaScript. A developer who can code the front-end, back-end, API, and database isn’t as absurd as it once was (excluding visual design, interaction design, and CSS). Still mythical in my opinion, but not as uncommon as it once was. Thus, I wouldn’t recommend a developer set out to become a “full-stack” developer. In rare situations, it can work. But, as a general concept for building a career as a front-end developer, I’d focus on front-end technologies.

2.8 — Front-End Interviews

Preparing:

Quizzes:

Questions you may get asked:

Questions you ask:

2.9 — Front-End Job Boards

A plethora of technical job listing outlets exist. The narrowed list below are currently the most relevant resources for finding a specific front-end position/career.

Notes:

  1. Want to work remotely as a front-end developer checkout these remote-friendly companies.

2.10 — Front-End Salaries

The national average in the U.S for a mid-level front-end developer is somewhere between $65k and 100k.

Of course when you first start to expect to enter the field at around 40k depending upon location and experience.

Notes:

  1. A lead/senior front-end developer/engineer can potentially live wherever they want (i.e., work remotely) and make over $150k a year (visit angel.co, sign-up, review front-end jobs over $150k or examine the salary ranges on Stack Overflow Jobs).
Front
Front End Development
Frontend
Front Ent Developer

--

--

Shakib D Shy

Written by Shakib D Shy

2 Followers

I am Shakib. I have 4 years of experience in web applications using PHP and Frameworks like Bootstrap, JavaScript or using CMS like WordPress.

Help

Status

About

Careers

Press

Blog

Privacy

Terms

Text to speech

Teams