What front-end development technologies should you learn?

1. HTML/CSS/JavaScript 2. CSS Frameworks 3. JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks - React.js - Angular - Vue.js 4. Package Managers (npm) 5. Build Tools (Webpack, Parcel, Rollup) 6. Version Control/Git 7. Command Line/CLI 8. Browser Developer Tools 9. CSS Preprocessors (Sass, Less) 10. Responsive Design and CSS Grid 11. Web Performance Optimization 12. APIs and RESTful Services

Something that has improved my skills as a front-end developer or as a developer in general, is building a component library. It will considerably level up your abstraction skills and increase your knowledge about the fundamentals of the web.

Foundations: HTML/CSS (SASS, LESS, STYLUS, BOOSTRAP) /JavaScript (NodeJS, TypeScript, Ajax) IDE: VSC. ATOM, SUBLIM TEST, VIM. Frameworks: React.js, Angular, Vue.js Version Control: Git Repositories: GITHUB, GITLAB, BICKBUCKET Important: APIs and RESTful Services Optional: Testing and cloud services

Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as core front-end tools. Explore React, Angular, or Vue.js for dynamic interfaces. Use Sass or Less for maintainable styles and Bootstrap for mobile-friendly design. Understand module bundling with Webpack and employ Git for version control. Ensure responsive designs, grasp RESTful APIs, and understand design principles. Stay updated on industry trends and be adaptable. This forms a strong foundation for front-end development and expands based on project needs and emerging technologies.

In my opinion, once you know basics of CSS, you should start using TailwindCSS in you projects. To develop responsive designs you need to use media queries and need to write plenty of CSS. But TailwindCSS is a mobile first CSS framework and helps you speedup your development process.

I will always suggest using Tailwind CSS because it helps you develop faster and delivers great results consistently. But Why Tailwind CSS? Tailwind CSS simplifies styling websites with ready-to-use classes that apply styles directly. This speeds up development and keeps your design consistent throughout your project. It's great for building modern, responsive web apps quickly and effectively.

In my experience, the very best approach to responsive design is content-first/function-first, followed by most constraints (usually handheld) to least constraints (usually large viewport). A magazine-style publication is going to have very different priorities from a B2B ecommerce offering, and the design should reflect these, using the closest available approximation of final content (always being careful not to expose proprietary or personal information inappropriately). As the front-end discipline evolves, principles become more important and specific techniques less so. This will continue with the rise of AI. A focus on clearly reasoning and specifying expected behavior throughout your responsive range will serve you well.

Responsive design is often overlooked. That's why I think the mobile first approach is the safer way to design a responsive web application. Which tool is used for this depends on taste, UX and, of course, the specifications of the respective project. SCSS and frameworks are often the most common tools, although I personally prefer TailwindCSS, especially for small to medium-sized projects. It makes the process of creating a responsive application quick and easy once you get the hang of it.

To crack responsive design, always remember that 70% of users who visit your application will be using a mobile phone. - Build mobile-first. - Know the major screen sizes: laptops, mobile phones, tablets

Front-end frameworks for the web is one of the most volatile spaces in software development. The frameworks that are bright and shining stars one year often become obsolete or even discontinued the next. Don't pour too much effort into pigeonholing yourself into a single framework, as you will have to update your understanding of this space quite frequently. If you want to develop front-end expertise, learn the core concepts that generalize well between frameworks, and become flexible between many of the most popular ones. This area of programming is still far from reaching maturity and will likely continue to be volatile for the foreseeable future.

For small to medium projects they are a great way to reduce time and cost but for enterprise applications they often cost twice the savings on the back end while trying to maintain. My advice is to treat frameworks as another tool in the toolbox but keep in mind that not all tools are right for the job. Focus on the fundamentals, the underlying technologies, and understand how those tools work.

Whenever you use front-end libraries or frameworks, ensure you are making your choice of which to use based on a sound cost-benefit analysis and not just because it is popular and has a large community of people who use it. Remember that the outcome should be about usability and not just familiarity

Essential Frameworks and Libraries React: A popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces, known for its component-based architecture and virtual DOM. Angular: A comprehensive JavaScript framework for creating dynamic web applications, offering a structured approach. Vue.js: A progressive JavaScript framework, balancing reactivity and flexibility.

My recommendation is to stick with one framework for few years (ideally 2+ years) to become expert. These expertise can easliy be transferred to other framework. I have worked with React, Vue and React Native and found lot of similarities between these three. Syntax might differ but underlying patterns are same.

Accessibility, even in 2023, is still commonly an afterthought in software development. And not until litigation began to crop up did the dev community make it a priority. All developers have a responsibility to test their functionality against W3C standards. All functionality should be available via keyboard, which is typically a manual process that should be part of any QA test plan. Ideally, the organization for whom you are working will support the time required to ensure compliance. You will see this specific language in most bid requirements. I see this as table stakes for being a front end developer.

Unfortunately, the topic of web accessibility (short: a11y) is still being approached incorrectly in 2024. Components are created without considering a11y. Time that is lost, because integrating a11y retrospectively can often have major consequences. This could be prevented by developers getting to grips with a11y and creating accessible components from the beginning (which often even simplifies the creation if correct semantic HTML is used and styling is not simply overwritten with CSS without thinking), or by involving an accessibility specialist who is part of the process during design as well as development and testing and who intervenes early enough.

There is one basic rule: Accessibility should be baked into your project from the very first stage. This makes it significantly easier to implement than as a separate stage at the end. As an afterthought, it is usually complicated and ends up in costly refactoring or even rebuilding parts of your product or basically will not be sufficient. Avoid relying on automated tests. They are useful but only as a safety net for simple issues. Almost all issues and correct ways how to implement accessible web can be determined only via manual testing, ideally with real users with various abilities.

Web Accessibility is one of the most ignored aspects of web development and I'm yet to find someone that wasn't guilty of this at one point in their career. It's the practice of developing web content in a way that ensures equal access and usability for all individuals, including those with disabilities such as people with visual, auditory, motor, cognitive, and other impairments. Providing alternative text for images, using semantic HTML, ensuring keyboard navigation and more improves web accessibility and enhance user experiences, reach a broader audience, and promote a more equitable online space.

Web accessibility is the inclusive approach of designing web pages for usability by everyone, irrespective of abilities or preferences. Beyond aiding those with disabilities, it benefits users facing temporary limitations, like low bandwidth. Adhering to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ensures inclusive design, enhancing usability, SEO, and your web page's reputation.

I think the first step is understanding what needs improvement and how they likely affect your web app's performance overall. First Step: Learn about "Core Web Vitals". this includes things like: * SEO * LCP * FID * CLS and more. This would give you an idea of the why and how. Second step: Run your app through a "Lighthouse" check, it's available in all modern browsers. This would tell you what's hurting your apps performance Third Step: It's pretty obvious, Fix em! There are tools/frameworks that take the heavy work out. A good example is NextJS. Just keep learning stuff and finding solutions. You'll be fine.

Web performance is crucial for a seamless user experience, influencing engagement, retention, and conversion rates. It also impacts SEO and ranking. Enhance performance by employing techniques like code minification, image and font optimization, resource caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), and monitoring performance metrics.

Browsers are friends here, they provide lot of tools (extensions) like Lighthouse to run checks and make sure everything is running pretty smooth. Web core vitals is something that we should definitively learn. There are some other techniques that we can implement such as lazy loading, code minification, image optimization, etc. Also some Frameworks are provides components that handle this for us, like NextJS (React Framework) with the Image component.

JavaScript plays a pivotal role in ensuring optimal web performance, as it enables dynamic and interactive functionalities. Its ability to execute code on the client-side allows for seamless user experiences. However, the effectiveness of JavaScript goes hand in hand with well-designed code. A codebase with optimal design is the key to unlocking efficient resource utilization and streamlined processes. By focusing on writing clean, modular, and efficient JavaScript code, developers can enhance website performance, delivering a smoother and more responsive user interface. This emphasis on code design not only improves user satisfaction but also contributes to overall web efficiency by optimizing the use of resources.

Providing a concise list of techniques and tools, such as code minification, image optimization, and CDN usage, adds practical insights for improving performance. Emphasizing the importance of measuring performance metrics completes a well-rounded overview.

A front-end framework is a set of pre-built components, tools, and libraries that help web developers build responsive, user-friendly websites and web applications more efficiently. For me, first HTML,CSS, JS, and Ajax Then I learned Bootstraps, and now I'm a full-time Flutter developer. Flutter is an open-source cross-platform UI software development kit created by Google. But it's always up to you and your project, because sometimes I use bootstraps to create a website. I also tried React JS, Angular, and Vue, but when it comes to cross-platform, I think Flutter is the best because it has a wide range of Ui components and packages.

Front-end testing is essential for ensuring the quality, functionality, usability, and compatibility of web pages across browsers and devices. It identifies and addresses errors and bugs, ensuring that your pages meet user and client expectations. Utilize tools like browser dev tools, code validators, accessibility checkers, performance auditors, and testing frameworks for effective front-end testing.

Testing is a really important topic that we usually skip, either because of delivery times, or simply because we think it is a waste of time. But at least I recommend unit test maybe not for everything, but there are certain components, or functionalities that should have test , it will help to ensure that the component or function will work as you expected and prevent issues once your code is deployed.

Front-end testing ensures web page quality, functionality, usability, and compatibility across browsers and devices. It aids in error detection, bug fixing, and meeting user expectations. Utilize tools like browser dev tools, code validators, accessibility checkers, performance auditors, and testing frameworks for effective front-end testing.

Quality Assurance: Ensures web pages function correctly and meet user expectations. Error Detection: Identifies and fixes bugs, errors, and issues. Cross-Browser Compatibility: Tests across different browsers and devices. Tool Utilization: Uses browser dev tools, code validators, and accessibility checkers. Testing Frameworks: Employs performance auditors and testing frameworks for thorough evaluation.

Becoming a developer can be frustrating, it requires patience and staying focused, but in the end it will be worth it. Someday I received this advice that I want to leave here in case it helps anyone: It’s all about learning, practicing and repeating

- Fundamental Knowledge: HTML, CSS and Javascript - basics everyone should know. W3schools is a good place to start. - Core Libraries & Frameworks: ReactJS/VueJS are core/basic libraries that make code a lot shorter than writing vanilla HTML+CSS+Javascript. NextJS is a popular ReactJS framework. - Supporting Libraries: TailwindCSS is a good way to write css faster. MaterialUI/AntUI/ChakraUI/ShadCN have readymade components. RadixUI makes components accessible. - Supporting Aspects: Typescript helps making Javascript type-safe. Eslint and prettier help imposing code formatting & standards that show improvements while typing. GitHub copilot helps by providing solutions, saving typing time. - Performance: Lighthouse reports - Logging

Through my years, I've discovered that frontend development goes beyond mere frameworks and UI design. There are 3 key important areas to consider as well: - SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Mastering SEO is crucial for ensuring your web content is ranked well in search engines, Understand HTML semantics, meta tags and information structure. - Performance Optimization: Seamless user experience comes from optimizing the performance of your web application. Techniques such as lazy loading, code minification and responsiveness are of great advantage. - Accessibility and Scalability: Prioritizing accessibility ensures digital experiences are inclusive and usable for all users. Complying with accessibility standards like WCAG and ARIA

It's not all about code. With some effective communication, a dash of business knowledge and a pinch of design fundamentals you're able to provide exponentially more value. Especially now that AI is getting better and better at writing code.

I'd also emphasize the value of understanding tooling in modern development. Tools like Webpack for bundling, Babel for JavaScript transpilation, and ESLint for code quality can significantly enhance development efficiency. These tools streamline the development process, manage dependencies, and ensure code consistency, crucial for larger projects and team collaboration.