A Front-End Developer is a web developer that creates/builds the technical, front-end aspects of a website.
Put it this way: Everything one sees on a website (known as the front-end), was developed by the work of a Front-End Developer. As a Sokanu blog says, “a designer crafted the logo and graphics, a photographer took the pictures, and a copywriter wrote the text. But a Front-End Developer assembled all of those pieces, translated them into web-speak, and built the experience you have with each page.”
What does a Front-End Developer do, typically?
Develop and test
On any given day, Front-End Developers can be found “developing” or “testing” elements of a website using any combination of these 10 in-demand Front-End Developer skills:
- HTML/CSS
- CSS and JavaScript Frameworks
- JavaScript/jQuery
- CSS Preprocessing
- Version Control/Git
- Testing/Debugging
- Browser Developer Tools
- Responsive Design
- Building and Automation Tools/Web Performance
- Command Line
Create and communicate
Front-End Developers must be able to work within a project scope or outline and take feedback from clients, creative, or management. Front-End Developers need to participate in project planning/update meetings, and relay project info and updates, in a non-technical way, to other stakeholders (managers/executives/clients/others within the project). Being creative and participating in project meetings enable them to make adjustments based on feedback and testing.
Service-oriented
In addition to technical skills, Front-End Developers should have an interest in being service-oriented, and helping non-technical professionals with their technical needs. They need to have the ability to bring the ideas of clients and teammembers to life.
Front-End Developer versus Back-End Developer
As pointed out by Udacity, “Front-end developers are responsible for a website’s user-facing code and the architecture of its immersive user experiences. In order to execute those objectives, front-end devs must be adept at three main languages: HTML, CSS, and Javascript programming. In addition to fluency in these languages, front-end devs need to be familiar with frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, Backbone, AngularJS, and EmberJS. Many Front-End Developer positions also call for experience with Ajax.
According to Udacity, back end developers are needed to make the server, application, and database communicate with each other. Back-end developers use server-side languages like PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, and .Net to build an application, and tools like MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server to find, save, or change data and serve it back to the user in front-end code. Job openings for back-end developers often also call for experience with PHP frameworks like Zend, Symfony, and CakePHP; experience with version control software like SVN, CVS, or Git; and experience with Linux as a development and deployment system.
Important metrics for a Front-End Developer
- Interaction frame rate
- Time to interact
- Interaction response time
- Page rendering
- DOM processing
