The Essential Front-Developer Skills You Should Have

Nowadays, Front-End Developers are in great demand and they are holding a specific place in web development segment. As a front-end developer, there are some essential skills you require to well-trained & specialize on in order to land in a great job and be expert in your field.

Being a front-end developer, it has a lot of responsibilities, including the efficiency of a navigational system, effective load time, feature-ready functionalities, and understanding of prominent technologies. Besides, they are the key to engage users, privilege companies or associates and supports development firms to commit futuristic solutions. So, before stepping into this field, you must know the skills required to become a successful front-end developer.

According to a survey, there are around 98k front-end developers available globally and the maximum numbers are arriving from the USA, which has nearby 28,407 developers.

Let’s have a look at the crucial skills needed to become an expert in front-end development.

10 Front-End Developer Skills You Need to Have

To become a front-end developer, you must acquire the following skills to get a successful career.

1. Be Consistent in Front-End Development Languages

The front-end developer should be professionally qualified in all the front-end development languages.

HTML/HTML5/XHTML: HTML is the basic programming language which is most important for front-end development because it’s what assembles all the parts & pieces of a website. Indeed, a web page cannot function without the HTML codes. It is the structural part of the web and directs the browser the elements in the website, links to CSS and javascript files.

CSS/CSS3 –  CSS makes the web beautiful. It is responsible for fonts, colors, images, and positioning of different elements on the websites. It can either be inline or an outside file. When you utilize HTML & CSS you can make the most basic of websites with some powerful functions.

JavaScript: It is really important to make the web pages be more interactive. JavaScript appends more functions to the website. So, you can easily build maps, online games, and interactive websites. Nevertheless, JavaScript cannot function without HTML & CSS. This is the most famous language amongst front-end and back-end developers.

jQuery: jQuery is a famous javascript library that gives an extensive framework of objects and functions that allows you to work with HTML pages with ease. With the support of jQuery, a front-end developer can utilize and access lots of available extensions & plugins, handle events, perform engaging animations, and modify them as per the specification.

CSS Frameworks – Frameworks make the responsive development simpler and right now contain distinctive classes for the buttons, forms, and different elements on the web page. Just as the JavaScript frameworks, CSS frameworks are utilized to optimize the workflow. This is made possible through built-in grids like in CSS and Bootstrap components.

JavaScript Frameworks: It is important to learn the JavaScript Frameworks as they help one to organize code. These frameworks help in creating web application easier and follow best practices. The most common include Angular.Js, React.Js, and Backbone.Js. They give a ready-made structure for the JavaScript codes. Besides, these popular frameworks have ready-made functions, structures, and scripts, and help us to implement various functionalities with a single click.

Responsive Web Design – In this digital world, mobile is the future. The number of users of the mobiles is growing day by day and the larger traffic on the websites is coming from mobile phones. Understanding responsive design principles and how to implement them on the programming side is key to front-end development.

2. Be Master in the Development Tools

In front-end development, you must understand and master the development tools. If you master them, it will make your whole experience excellent. The modern browsers are not just outstanding for users but they are great for developers also. These development tools help developers to make changes to the DOM on the fly and notice the changes. Debugging javascript is comfortable with these tools. Some browsers like chrome give such tools, for example, Node and Chrome developer tools which enable you to play around with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

The additional tools cover;

Task Runners – This serves as a compiler for Sass & Lass. Therefore, if you are utilizing them, it will come in helpful.

Yeoman – It assists the front-end developer to efficiently commence the projects.

Package management – This assists in organizing assets, libraries, and files. For example, Bower.

3. Ability to Optimize the Web Server

Web development also requires to know the server optimization, to minimize the burden on the server. As a front-end developer, you should learn the optimization of the server. The server should have several requests so as to reduce its loading time. Moreover, you need to be aware that no 404 pages appear at any connection or instance.

4. Being Ready to Build Cross-Platform Sites

Nowadays, the front-end developers are developing for an extremely wide range of platforms. Desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and other handheld devices all require to have an available, professional, and elegant GUI. The cross-platform websites have moved away from simple responsive designs. Moreover, they must take advantage of the features of every platform like the ability to pinch, pull, and swipe.

5. Never Stop Learning

To be an expert front-end developer, you should do a lot of study & research on the latest trends and technologies. Besides, get to join communities that will assist you to get more concepts. Although, being a developer is not being a designer so you must be careful about what you get. Moreover, read technical articles, guides, download e-books, subscribe to newsletters and make sure you gain all the knowledge you want. In the end, as a front-end developer, you must know the performance testing and QA. Although, the most professional developers read and gain skills every day; so don’t ever stop learning and reading.

6. Be an Awesome Coder

It does not matter how much experience you are having in web development. You must have smartly arranged codes. Besides, you should know the fundamental codes to the most complex ones. This essentially applies to JavaScript codes. So, make them simple, smart and functional. Hence, make sure in the codes, there are right comments, proper tags, clear codes structure, and proper CSS files.

7. Having Problem-Solving Skills

If there’s one thing that all the front-end developers have to own, despite the job description or official title, it’s great problem-solving skills. In the case of some codes refusing to work, you need to be able to solve the codes and identify what is wrong. Moreover, a front-end developer must know how to interpret the psychology of users who visit the website. Although, a good front-end developer will see this as a puzzle to be solved, rather than a crash in the making.

8. Be Creative

As a front-end developer, you must be more creative and learn how to develop the web page structures. And the structures should be different and just responsive. So, this is because; many people like to browse the internet utilizing their smartphones rather than desktops or laptops. Making the structure is what makes a strong foundation. This requires JavaScript development, page expansion, encrypting back-end development, design, and adjustment.

9. Testing Skills

Testing is a vital part of building web applications. Before launching a website or app, a front-end developer needs to be ready to test all the functions to check that they are working properly. Without testing, you may never understand broken links and this will be a disappointment to your visitors.

10. Good Communication

Finally, this might seem contrary to all the technical skills covered in this article, but front-end developers will often need to be in constant communication with their clients. Therefore, you want to work hand in hand with back-end developers and designers to ensure the website is up and running in no time. If the project wants to be a success, effective communication needs to be there.

Also Read: How to become an Expert Front-end Developer

Conclusion

However, the above-mentioned front-end developer skills are some of the most important to get interviews and land jobs. Therefore, these abilities are requested by companies hiring Front End Developers. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced in this field, you must have these skills to become an expert in front-end development.