12 Best Front End Developer Skills that we should consider in 2019

Are you a fresher who is interested in building a career in the Front End Development? or Are you an expert looking to sharpen your Front End Developer Skills? Either way, this is the right time to start, since every single enterprise and business need a comprehensive website now.  Let’s have a look at the front end developer skills that will help you reach the top of your game in 2019?

1. HTML/CSS

HTML and CSS are full-fledged technologies that help the developers to create useful websites by clubbing the latest trends. It doesn’t matter whether you want to include animations or graphical design in your site; these languages allow you to accomplish the task with ease and are one of the must front end developer skills that any developer should possess.

To be more precise, HTML(HyperText Markup Language) gives information to the web browser how the content inside the HTML file gets structured. It decides how to display the images and videos on the website. CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) is the standard technique to structure these HTML pages.

One cannot develop a website without getting the necessary knowledge in these languages. These building blocks lay the foundation for the front end development, which is an essential chapter for the learners.

2. JavaScript/jQuery

What we mentioned in HTML/CSS is something that deals with the style components of the page. But JavaScript comes under the category of a programming language that defines the function. i.e., when you are creating a web page, use HTML/CSS for the perfect look, and then use JS to coordinate the website features.

For a simple web page without dynamic features, try HTML and CSS. But when interactive situations like audio, video, chat, animations, scrolling, etc. rises, we have to use JS.

jQuery is a library extension of JS that has a predefined collection of plugin libraries which can use while programming. These libraries make the task even faster. It may require multiple lines of code while we go with the JS, but it gets shrunk when we use jQuery. It will become a single line of code that makes the execution simple. Of course, saving some time is good, right?

3. JavaScript Frameworks

JavaScript Frameworks help you to make the coding easier and faster. These frameworks occupied with ready-made structures and can compile with the jQuery libraries. Most popular frameworks are React, Angular, Ember, PhantomJs. It is up to you to decide which framework suits well with your work.

AngularJS is one of the widely using JS that aims to make the framework more agile and flexible. It is suitable for creating single page applications(SAPs) and offers two-way data binding along with DOM manipulation. ReactJs is another framework which is developed by Facebook and enabled users to create interactive and reusable UI components. In the MVC architecture, it is called V(View). Both client and server side rendering is possible here. Vue.js is a different framework that has the properties to create scalable, dynamic and single page applications and you can even combine it into the existing projects — using that you can also easily bind your data to HTML.

PostCSS is not a preprocessor that transforms CSS, but it provides a parser and a framework to create the plugins that can do the functions such as analysis, asset handling, and optimization and transforms the parsed CSS.

It deals with various plugins that counts more than 200 and can use to solve CSS processing tasks.

PostCSS Core consists of:

• CSS Parser that creates AST for each line of CSS Code
• Set of Classes
• CSS Generator that creates CSS Line for the Object Tree
• Code Map Generator

4. CSS Preprocessing

We have already gone through some aspects of CSS, and now we are getting into a different concept, called CSS Preprocessing.

CSS Preprocessor is an advanced version of CSS, that enhances the primary class of CSS to create better versions of websites. It is not just a language to improve the styling elements, but it helps the developers to skip some tasks like writing CSS selectors and colour strings frequently.

Three types of preprocessors are available namely Sass, LESS and Stylus. You should write code that will be OK for the preprocessor and in turn, it will convert it into CSS that will work for the website.

5. Version Control/Git

What will you do when you encounter a problem that may push you to start over while you are creating the markups using HTML, and style elements with CSS and codes with JS.

Ok, we have Version Control as a saviour. It will track and control the changes occurring to the code that cut out the problem. We have open source stalwart Git as the version control software that can be used to find out the problem by searching on the previous version. It helps us not to tear the entire codes to solve the issues.

6. Testing and Debugging

You may be working on local business sites or else some international brands; one thing in common is the site requirement without any errors.

Coding without mistakes is impractical. The possible solution is the debugging phase after doing the proper testing.

It can perform in different ways, like unit testing or functional testing.

In Unit Testing, we will be looking for every single code and errors.

In Functional Testing, we focus on the functionality of the website which is the primary concern.

To ease the testing phase, we have tools like Selenium, programs viz Mocha and Jasmine that can complete the task with simple steps.

7. Building and Automation tools for Improved Performance

We have seen that the three main building blocks with front end developing phase is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. All other features try to support these basics. Likewise, the Building and Automation tools help the developer in making the best possible output.

Creating a website with the desired features seems to be easier for a developer. But to make it acceptable from the user perspective, it demands some tricks. For our case also, we won’t stick on a website that doesn’t provide the effortless way to access the information.

Usually, the performance of a website gets described by the time that the site takes to load. If it exceeds a few seconds, then the users will naturally leave the website. How can we solve this problem? Your website will contain a few images that took more time to get loaded than the text. Optimizing these images by compressing and scaling will create a significant difference in the loading time. Another way to improve the performance is by minifying the CSS and JavaScript codes.
These tasks demand considerable time and effort. It can address with the automation and building tools like Grunt and Gulp. For a front end developer, getting the tasks completed with a minimum period with the best output is essential.

8. Browser Developer tools

The ultimate product will be reaching the users through the web browsers, and its compatibility with the browser describes the quality of the website. It is a critical part of the success of any site. Every browser is now available with the browser developer tool that allows the developer to tune the pages by setting in the same browser. It provides the way how the browser is interfering the programming codes.

This described tool will be consisting of an inspector and JavaScript Console. This inspector gives permission to watch how the runtime HTML will look like and the way CSS gets applied to the web page. You can also edit these components that will help you to see the changes live. The JS Console helps you to find the errors in the code when it runs in the browser. Slight variations can be observed in these tools depending on the browsers.

9. Responsive Design

People will visit websites using different platforms. Surfing only through the laptop and PC is far beyond. Creating separate user interfaces will be a hectic task, and the solution is a responsive design. Receiving the same format of the website in different devices help the users to find the desired options easily. It is made possible with the responsive design that molds to the shape of the displaying device.

Getting expertise in responsive design is essential, but you don’t need much effort since it includes the elemental part of CSS and an introduction to the bootstrap. The technologies are interconnected. Once you acquire these skills, you will be getting the bonus topics.

Interested to know more? Read Beginners Guide To Responsive Web Design

10. Command Line

GUI (Graphical User Interface) is the commonly used method to perform tasks in a system. But on some occasions, you need to write the command line to get the data or information. To be a flawless front end developer, you need to have skills with the command lines too.

11. Soft Skills

We have a misconception that the developers are just intended to create user interfaces effectively. But to make efficient products, you need to communicate with the clients to grasp his ideas. You should prepare with verbal and vocal communication skills and to work with a team; you need to possess the basic lessons of the team working too.

12. Problem Solving Skills

While working with a whole team, you may encounter with decision fatigue. Even in the implementation of design for a joined project, each developer will have a different opinion and to club these ideas, the best problem-solving skill is necessary.

Conclusion

We have gone through the basic skill sets, and you may now get a conclusion that it is the Front End Developer who manage the site layout and he decides how to display elements with a creative and interactive pattern.

If you have an artistic mind, never miss a chance to study the basics of front end development. Once you get the key ideas, practice with simple portfolios and web pages. Continue the learning and always explore something new. We wish great days ahead.

Are you passionate about Front End Development? Do you possess the above-mentioned skills? Join Us at Webandcrafts!