5 Top Skills of a Front End Developer: Why This Job May Be Your Best Move

Have you ever encountered a website and marveled at the intricate workings behind it? The interactive buttons and smooth animations that captivate you are the result of front-end development. In essence, front-end development encompasses the creation of all the visible elements and features that make a website come to life.

The front-end layer facilitates your interaction with the web, enabling you to engage in activities such as watching videos and carrying out actions like registering on an online shopping site. The aesthetics, user interface, and overall experience of the webpage are achieved through the utilization of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

We’ll tell you about five of the skills that a Front End Developer must possess to create lively and engaging websites. Front End Developer training at RemoteMode can equip you with these and other in-demand skills to enable you to pivot into a lucrative and creative remote work career.

Skill #1 – Coding in HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery

HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language, serves as the universally accepted coding system for crafting webpages. The Front End Developer uses HTML to define the elements on the page. 

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, define how the HTML elements are portrayed on the screen. 

HTML forms the structural framework of your webpage, while CSS takes care of visual aspects such as page layout, color schemes, typography, and overall style. You need proficiency in both of these languages to perform front-end development.

JavaScript (JS) is another vital tool in the arsenal of a Front End Developer. Through JavaScript, you incorporate interactive elements into websites, including audio and video integration, gaming components, scrolling functionality, and page animations.

JavaScript includes a library called jQuery, which offers a collection of plugins and extensions designed to streamline and expedite the usage of JS on websites. jQuery simplifies common tasks that typically require several lines of JavaScript code, condensing them into a more concise format that can be executed with just a single command.

Skill #2 – CSS Preprocessors

Mastering the CSS language is a challenging task. As projects grow in scope and complexity, developers often find themselves investing significant time in repetitive coding, managing file structures, and resolving conflicts caused by class name duplication.

To mitigate these challenges, CSS preprocessing techniques come to the rescue. Preprocessors like SASS, LESS, and Stylus provide developers with an alternative approach to writing code from scratch.

By utilizing a CSS preprocessor, developers gain the ability to complete tasks that would otherwise be more cumbersome with traditional CSS alone. These preprocessors offer features and functionalities that enhance coding efficiency and code organization.

Skill #3 – Understand Search Engine Optimization

To enhance your marketability as a Front End Developer, it is worth investing effort in acquiring knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is because how you write your code significantly influences the visibility of a website in search engine results. If you create SEO-friendly code from the outset, you become a highly valuable asset to potential employers.

There are several development skills that play a pivotal role in optimizing a website for SEO:

• Crafting lightweight code.
• Utilizing appropriate tags to structure content effectively.
• Implementing critical CSS techniques to enhance page loading speed.
• Incorporating schema markup to provide search engines with structured data.
• Optimizing image loading to ensure optimal performance.

By mastering these skills, you position yourself as a Front End Developer with a strong grasp of SEO principles, making you an attractive candidate to employers in the digital landscape.

Skill #4 – Asset management

Assets are objects that appear in the application, such as images, forms, fonts, backgrounds, and colors. The successful Front End Developer must know how to incorporate assets in the application design 1) to optimize the placement and incorporation of assets while 2) minimizing the impact of changes to either the assets themselves or the design of the application. In other words, when the assets are handled properly, images, videos, fonts, and colors can be changed without requiring the Front End Developer to modify the basic code of the website. This approach to asset management is sometimes referred to as modularization or componentization. 

Consider a scenario where a Front End Developer is working on a website that requires various image assets for different sections. Instead of hard-coding each image individually within the HTML markup, the developer can create a modular approach by using CSS classes to define the styling and background images for the sections. Because the code points to a location of an image file rather than embedding the imaging directly into the page, images in a library can be swapped out to change the look of the webpage without having to modify the HTML and CSS code.

Skill #5 – Testing & Debugging

To maintain a bug-free project, testing plays a crucial role, and Front End Developers must possess the capability to test and debug their code effectively.

In web development, various approaches can be used for testing. One such approach is functional testing, which focuses on examining specific functionalities of the website to ensure they perform according to the design specification. Another technique is unit testing, which involves meticulously evaluating each individual line of code to verify its correct operation.

To assist in the testing process, frameworks have been designed specifically for front-end development. These frameworks, such as Mocha and Jasmine, aim to streamline and expedite the testing procedures.

Mocha is a versatile JavaScript test framework that works seamlessly in both the browser and Node.js environments, simplifying asynchronous testing. Its sequential test execution provides flexible reporting and effective mapping of exceptions to test cases. 

Jasmine, a free JavaScript framework, supports testing for any JavaScript application. It follows the Behavior Driven Development (BDD) approach to thoroughly test each line of code. Jasmine's simplified syntax focuses on testing individual components rather than the entire application.

Final Thoughts:

Becoming a skilled Front End Developer requires a combination of essential skills and knowledge. From mastering HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to leveraging CSS preprocessors and understanding search engine optimization, each skill contributes to your proficiency in creating visually appealing and efficient websites. Additionally, asset management techniques and thorough testing and debugging abilities play a crucial role in delivering high-quality applications.
If you're looking to enhance your front-end development skills and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving digital landscape, consider exploring remote learning courses offered by Remotemode. With our comprehensive curriculum and experienced instructors, Remotemode provides valuable resources and guidance to help you sharpen your skills and become a sought-after Front End Developer. Take the next step in your career journey by contacting a Remotemode career advisor today.