Top 5 Essential Skills Need to Become a Front-End Developer

When you look at websites and wonder, why the layout is such, why the button function likes this, or why the site looks so complicated, it ...

When you look at websites and wonder, why the layout is such, why the button function likes this, or why the site looks so complicated, it means that you’re focusing on the front-end features. You think you could develop a website that performs the best. Yes, you think of becoming a professional front-end developer. Today, such web development experts are much in demand and for all the good reasons. If you aspire to become a front-end developer, you need to have the required knowledge and skill sets to prove your mettle.

According to an article published on CNBC, there are technical skills that you need to master to stand out from your competitors. For instance, you may learn JavaScript for developing smart interfaces. When it comes to web development, there are many things to learn. It is a continuous learning process. The more you read and stay updated on the latest technologies, the better you can grasp the concepts related to website development. All you need is to take some time out of your busy schedule and research on the latest trends of web development. Whether you want to start from scratch or hone your skills further, here are some of the top tips to help you become an expert front-end developer.

Top 5 Essential Skills Need to Become a Front-End Developer

1. Plan about your projects first

First things first, a web developer needs to plan his or her projects. It’s one of the things many professionals forget to do, rush on a project without any strategy, and mess things up. It might seem boring to sit and plan but will benefit you in the days to come. Rock-solid planning will save much of your development time, complete your job on time, and do away with stress when working on a tight deadline.

Planning need not be complicated all the time. For instance, just preparing a list of elements and templates that require conversion from PSD to HTML or for that matter breaking up some complicated elements into smaller parts and writing these things is sufficient. When you are working on a project, creating a to-do list will help you stay organized, emphasize on obstacles initially in the web development phase, keep your mind focused on the job you have currently, and keep your manager, boss, and client on the same page.

2. Focus on design equally when you are into web development

When you’re aspiring to be a front-end developer, you need to appreciate and focus on web design equally. As far as designs are concerned, they seldom translate one: one browser, and many times, you do not even have proper designs, if you are working on a responsive version of a website.

When you are working as a front-end developer, you will need to make a number of small design-related decisions for a web designer. You need to learn what constitutes a good design so that your designer can endorse those happily.

3. Being proactive is the key to success

When you walk up to your supervisor and say that you need more time to complete the project, it is a worse situation in your professional life. You also say that the project couldn’t be delivered as per the deadline. Definitely, you will not want something like this to happen and be in the bad books of your boss. Therefore, you should be proactive while working as a front-end developer because it eliminates all obstacles or delays in the web development process.

Sometimes, it is fine to take longer to work on a project if you focus on quality more than quantity. Then, it is not a good thing to keep things to you. If you feel that a project will require three weeks to complete instead of two, talk with your manager and explain why you will take another week. For example, if you are stuck with a bug or can’t figure out why a page element is not working, it is fine. Every developer faces such issues, even the seasoned ones in some project or the other. When you face such problems, voice your concerns. Your seniors will understand that you are working hard to deliver nothing but the best.

You can send details of your daily work-in-progress to your boss or client to keep them in the loop. It would only take you a couple of minutes. Being proactive makes you more professional in your approach, builds trust and rapport with your seniors or clients, and improves your credibility as a front-end developer.

4. Become a master of QA

It’s true, quality assurance (QA) isn’t the most interesting aspect of web development, but then you cannot afford to ignore or overlook the same. You need to bear in mind that quality is not created during the QA process, but during the development phase instead. You can make your job a tad easier with the use of tools such as Browsersync and BrowserStack.

Since the majority of web development professionals work on Mac, the common problem is that they do not check their tasks on Windows. You simply can’t avoid this issue no matter what platform you work on, but users will use both Mac and Windows.

5. Focus on your skill sets

You need to focus on your skills and invest to develop your expertise as a front-end developer. It does not imply spending money on costly books, certifications, or seminars, but investing your quality time to master web development skills. There is no shortcut to this process and studies indicate that it would take approx 10,000 hours or so to master a specific development skill. It means four years of your time, working 40 hours every week.

Spend time researching a couple of new plugins, frameworks, testing new websites, and reading web-development tutorials and blogs. If you want to learn more about the correlation between design and development, you can consult with experts from reputed web development or similar platforms.

Conclusion

Now that you have these tips handy, it will give you some idea to prepare you to become a successful front-end developer. Spend some time for grasping web development trends and concepts.