Websites are an integral part of most of our daily lives. Learning, working, shopping, playing; we encounter websites for almost everything. Maybe you have been inspired by a beautiful online work portfolio, or have been frustrated by an app or game that does not have the features you really want.

Have you ever thought about how these sites are created?
What are the skills you need to create them?

Front end web development is not a magic, it is a just skill. Our digital presence makes website powerful marketing tools, and most companies recognize the importance of having a well-dressed, seamlessly integrated site.

It is hard to stand and provide users memorable experience within 1 billion existing websites on the internet. That’s the reason businesses are always looking for skilled front-end developers to increase the productivity and provide a great look & feel better for their websites.

The front end part of any website is that with which user interact. The part of user facing side of the website is developed by the front end developers.

What’s the front end developer’s task?
His task is to take a PSD from Graphic Designer and codes it into the frontend so that it can be seen by the user. Front end developers work using three essential languages: HTML, CSS, and JAVASCRIPT.

1. HTML (used to define the content of web pages)

HTML, or Hyper Text Markup Language, is the foundation of modern website creation. It is allows a front-end developer to format page content e.g. text, images, links, headers, sidebars, etc. and control the structure of a web page. It is considered a flexible language that is relatively easy to pick up especially the basics. The latest version is HTML5.

2. CSS (used to define the layout of web pages)

CSS, short for Cascading Style Sheets, is responsible for the actual look of a website. Whereas HTML controls what is presented on a website, CSS controls the way in which it is presented e.g. font, color, and layout.

3. JAVASCRIPT (used to program the behavior of web pages)

JAVASCRIPT, the hardest and most advanced, it is used to create interactive elements on a website, such as sliders, pop-ups, and drop-down menus. Not to be confused with Java, JAVASCRIPT brings levels of sophistication to websites that would not be possible with simple HTML.

4. JQUERY (Used to promotes simplicity and makes animated applications)

JQUERY promotes simplicity; this library is built on a short and simple code. JQUERY elements display even when JAVASCRIPT is disabled. JQUERY easily integrates with the any IDE tool. JQUERY also proved to be very helpful to develop the animated applications just like flash. JQUERY decrease the load time of website on the browsers.
If you have a very appealing website but your website is not on the first page of Google search due to the bad way of coding, JQUERY can optimize your website for search engines as JQUERY is SEO friendly.

5. BootStrap (Used for developing responsive mobile websites)

Bootstrap is an open source JAVASCRIPT framework developed by the team in twitter. Bootstrap is the combination of HTML, CSS and JAVASCRIPT code designed to help build user interface components. It is also call frontend framework. There are some reasons why front end developers prefer bootstrap frame work.

  1. Easy to start.
  2. Base styling for most HTML components.
  3. Bundle of many JAVASCRIPT plugins.
  4. Save lots of time.

6. Responsive and Mobile Design

When a website is responsive, the layout of any website adjusts in all devices’ screens. A responsive website automatically changes to fit in the device resolution. There are four general sizes of screens, all websites responsive according to them:

  1. Desktop monitor screen.
  2. Small screen of laptops.
  3. Tablets screen.
  4. Mobile phone screens.

Why websites should be responsive for all devices?
Because you want the visitors landing to your website through mobile, your best customers by providing them best user experience.

7. Cross Browser compatibility

Every browser displays the same website differently, even different versions of browsers displays the same website differently. It is all cause of the default styles against each browser. The ability of the code to build the website look same on all the browsers, it is not a very easy task because some components of the website like Scroll bar, radio buttons and check boxes etc. vary browser to browser, all these things can be show same on all the browsers on the demand however a good frontend developer has the ability to make the website compatible with all browsers.

In this digital age, web development skills are in high demand because everybody wants an attractive website for their business.