The front-end development guide for students
You’ve probably heard it a dozen times — “coding is the language of the future”. From politicians to the faculty dean and your parents, it seems everybody is on the coding bandwagon.
Truth is, most languages aren’t useful to a student now or ever. So instead of learning Python because someone told you it was easy, learn languages based on what kind of path you’d like to get into.
This piece is for people interested in upskilling their technical knowledge — by building out functional and interactive webpages :)
What is front-end development?
Front-end development refers to creating user interfaces (UI), the parts of the application that the user sees and interacts with. Front-end development stands firmly on three pillars: HTML for markup, CSS for styling and JavaScript for logic and interactions. These three technologies have stood the test of time and this section will give you a starting point to each.
Front-end developers often focus on technical issues, while web designers are concerned with aesthetics and user experience.
Why should I learn it?
Learning front-end is one of the most common pathways for anyone looking to break into tech & IT. From thereon, you can make a switch and transition to digital marketing, full-stack development, product development and UX. Check out why others are picking up front-end development!
Okay, you’ve convinced me, where do I start…?
1. JavaScript
Knowing where to start can be the most intimidating part of programming. Our recommendation — learn JavaScript. Why?
- JavaScript is a relatively easy language to learn
- JavaScript is required to build web applications since it is the programming language that runs in the browser
- JavaScript can be used on the frontend (the user interface) and the backend (building API’s and writing server code), allowing you to write full-stack applications with a single language
- There are tons of jobs for JavaScript developers
There are plenty of high-quality free options to get started with coding. freeCodeCamp and Codecademy are excellent choices and are great to set your foundation.
Once you have the basics down, a great next step is JavaScript30. Wes Bos teaches JS by building 30 projects in 30 days!
You should try to do real projects as soon as you can. This is the best way to learn and the most beneficial when looking for a job down the track.
2. HTML and CSS
Before diving too deep into JavaScript, you should also know HTML and CSS (These 3 languages make up the foundation of front-end web development).
At the core of every website you’ve landed on — whether it’s Google or your Sunday visit to The Iconic, HTML and CSS code is responsible for all the text and beautiful renders on the webpage! These two languages are typically learned together — HTML is the skeleton of the page that gives it structure, and CSS is the language that gives it style.
HTML and CSS for Absolute Beginners
Build Responsive Real World Websites with HTML5 and CSS3
3. UI Libraries (React, Vue, Angular)
Modern UI development has gravitated towards a component model with 3 libraries as the primary ones used on the job — React, Vue, and Angular. You are better off knowing one of them very well as opposed to trying to learn all 3. Then on the job, you will be able to pick up something different if the company uses a library that you did not learn. React is the most popular, but Vue and Angular are both being adopted rapidly.
React 16.6 — The Complete Guide (incl. React Router & Redux)
Vue JS 2 — The Complete Guide (incl. Vue Router & Vuex)
This piece was written by David Zhou of Textbook Ventures — we organise startup events, write newsletters, and share tech jobs for student entrepreneurs across NSW.
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