In today’s digital world, the internet has become an integral part of our lives, and websites are the gateway to the online world. When you visit a website, the first thing that captures your attention is generally its design and user interface. This crucial aspect of web development is the domain of front-end developers.
In this article, we will explore the world of front-end development, covering everything from the skills required to excel in this field to the average salaries for front-end developers in India and abroad. Whether you’re a seasoned developer looking to upgrade your skills or someone considering a career in web development, this article has something for everyone. Before jumping to our main topic i.e. Top 10 Front End Developer Skills That You Need in 2024, let’s understand some basic concepts related with it.
Who are Front-end Developers?
Front-end developers are those professionals who work on the design and implementation of the interface through which users view and interact. In simple terms, they use technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to make the UI (User Interface) look engaging. Front-End is again divided into two sections – UI (User’s Interface) and UX (User’s Experience). The user interface is the graphical bridge that connects Front-End development and User Experience. User Experience (UX) deals generally with a user’s overall experience with a product or service. Front-end is used for development roles, and UI is used for design roles.
For example : If you have any doubts, google, and you get results instantly. The moment you see those websites, you easily get fascinated. Right? The credit for the look and feel of the website goes only to the front-end web developers.
Front-end Developer is one of the most lucrative professions which is expected to grow 13% by 2028. If we will discuss the average salary then we have the following data:
In India:
- UI Developer: 5LPA – 12LPA
- UX Developer: 5LPA – 16LPA
- Front-End Developer: 5LPA – 15LPA
Outside India (on an average):
- UI Developer: 34LPA
- UX Developer: 22LPA
- Front-End Developer: 22LPA
Top 10 Front End Developer Skills That You Need in 2024
Now, let’s explore the essential skills needed to excel as a Front-End Developer in 2024. These Top 10 Front End Developer Skills are crucial for your success in the industry and can help you stand out in the competitive field of web development. By mastering these frontend skills, you can enhance your career prospects, improve website performance, and attract more traffic and engagement.
1. HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Front-End development without HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is impossible. They play a vital role in making the UI look dynamic and feel great. Let’s discuss each of these a bit more clearly.
HTML (to structure web pages) abbreviated as HyperText Markup Language, is a scripting language used for developing web pages. It is the foundation and basic building block of websites. It provides an overall framework of the look of a website. For working with HTML at a beginner level, you can edit in Notepad and save it with the .html extension, also you can use different IDEs for a project.
CSS (to add beauty to websites): Abbreviated as Cascading Style Sheet, a language that is used to bring life to a digital document. In simple terms, by adding elements like layout, format, color, fonts, etc. on the page, the page can look engaging and attractive. There are various properties to align the text, add color, bring effect, play with the font color, size, and many more.
JavaScript (to program and make websites dynamic and responsive) is a text-based programming language that is used both on the front-end (client-side) and back-end (server-side) to make web pages interactive. There are several keywords, and concepts required to be understood well in the case of working with JavaScript.
2. Front-End Frameworks
Frameworks are the tools providing components that are customized to speed up development, and may also include a library. It is a platform/tool to build the front end of your website. In simple terms, frameworks build the layout structure of a building. You should be familiar with the work and ways to use it for faster coding. Tasks like managing AJAX requests, associating data with the Document Object Model (DOM) elements, defining a file structure, and styling components on the website can be done using the framework.
There are many front-end frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js, but React is the most popular, easy, trendy, and most-used framework.
React is an open-source, JavaScript library used to build User Interface (UI), developed by Facebook. React is the Virtual Document Object Model (DOM) with exceptional functionality which makes it unique.
Why React Framework?
- React is easy to learn and implement.
- The use of its virtual DOM allows a seamless performance and thus ensuring high-load applications have fast rendering.
- React allows reusability functionality which helps in using the components in other parts of the application.
- Increased productivity and maintenance.
- It has a browser extension named React Developer Tools, which allows you to make it better by having detailed observations of its components.
3. Responsiveness
Those days are gone when with only one device, users used to check a particular website. Today, we all use different devices as per our comfort to view a website and we all want that the page should look responsive and interactive in any type of device. When it comes to web development, frontend developers should be aware of the term “responsiveness” which means the websites should be responsive and viewed on any device whether it would be a mobile, laptop, phone, tablet, etc. The web page should have the ability to adjust itself to the device (laptop, tablet, mobile, etc.) used by the users. Based on the platform, the website should adapt appropriately and adjust its appearance and layout to match the device screen’s resolution. After all, viewing experience matters a lot in creating traffic to the website, which indirectly improves the search engine ranking and thus, inflates the growth of the business. The in-built features of CSS frameworks like Tailwind and Bootstrap help you to make websites more responsive for all device sizes with a little less work.
For example. a website of online educational courses should display the complete column in form of Nav-Bar, big graphics, interactions on the laptop, should shrink in mobile phones and merge to form a side-column wherein you can view each element one-by-one. The main reason to make the website responsive is to make it more user-friendly.
4. Version Control Systems
Version Control System is a system that keeps a record of code changes to a file or set of files over time. They are generally software tools helping the software team to manage changes to source code while also revealing who made which modifications. It is a very helpful skill every front-end developer must-have.
Git (Global Information Tracker) is the most popular, open-source, and distributed version control system where an entire repository can be changed by each user on their system. It uses a command line to install in your system and using Git, it’s easy to undo changes and back and forth with a clear explanation of changes made.
5. CSS Pre-Processors
CSS Preprocessor is an advanced version of CSS. It is a program that lets you generate CSS from the preprocessor’s unique syntax. It maintains the code more easily and the long run makes it easy to edit. CSS preprocessors like nesting selector and inheritance selector are some features that don’t exist in pure CSS that can be used which makes the code more organized and more readable by shaving off some of the lines. Writing repetitive code is time-consuming which is more common in working with just CSS. This can be avoided by speeding up CSS coding by using CSS preprocessors which are another element that any front-end developer must use.
Why use CSS Preprocessors over CSS?
- CSS alone is not beneficial for career growth or attaining versatility,
- CSS Preprocessors allow you to define variables, functions, or perform arithmetic operations which in CSS you can’t.
- It adds extra functionality to CSS thus keeping CSS more scalable and easier to work with.
- It enhances the primary class of CSS thereby creating a better version of websites.
There are three types of preprocessors available – SASS, LESS, and STYLUS in which SASS and LESS are the most in-demand ones. It turns any stylesheet into a program and helps in creating small reusable components and extract libraries. SASS (Syntactically awesome style sheets) is an extension of CSS that enables you to use things like variables, nested rules, inline imports, and more. LESS (Leaner Style Sheets) is a backward-compatible language extension for CSS and it also enables customizable, manageable, and reusable style sheets for websites.
6. Command Line
The CLI or Command Line Interface is a text-based application for managing files on your system. It plays an important role in web development, also an all-purpose GUI (Graphical User Interface) has limitations for some specific applications. You enter some commands in a terminal and it performs some actions which help in getting some results when working with web development. You should also know the properties of the Shell to access operating system functions via a text interface.
It helps you attain faster management. To conclude, command-line tools open up new ways to make your production and delivery of code in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages more efficient.
7. Testing and Debugging
After the development process of a web application, the important aspect comes is testing and debugging to make sure that the results are bug-free to provide a good experience to its user. The chances of getting no bugs in the software development process are very rare and for that, the process of testing and debugging is a mandatory one. It’s an additional skill for any front-end developer to develop the quality of your website. Now let’s get clear with the difference between testing and debugging:
Testing is a software practice to ensure the quality and functionality of a web application. Several factors like usability, and compatibility has to be kept in mind while testing. The primary goal of a tester should be that the application should run smoothly without any hindrance. There are various types of testing some of them include Unit testing and Component testing.
- Unit Testing tests individual blocks of code, where you check that the website should behave in a proper way as designed to be. Every action is being performed like clicking a button navigates to another page if it has to.
- Component Testing examines a particular component and checks individual parts of an application. Here, real data of the written code are tested instead of dummy data by the developers.
There are various other types of testing as well which enhance the working of a website. Other types of testing are Integration Testing, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing, and many more.
Debugging is a process of fixing errors (bugs) found during testing in a web application. This process involves identifying the bug, finding the source of it, and rectifying the problem to make the program error-free and proper functioning of the website. Steps include identifying the error, finding the location, analyzing it, fix and validating it. This process can be done manually or with automated tools. It’s an essential skill needed in a front-end developer as it finds and fixes errors in source code. Also, proper use of breakpoints should be followed to see the flow of code and which easily detects errors line-by-line which helps in understanding the execution of the code.
8. Web Performance Optimization
Web optimization generally refers to the time taken by any site to load. Optimizing web pages improves speed, scalability, and smoothness which is necessary for any web application. A website that takes more than 3 seconds to load is generally considered to be less optimized. Multiple factors which cause optimization issues are:
- global convergence,
- local convergence,
- role of the underlying optimization method,
- role of the multigrid recursion,
- properties of the optimization model.
Steps to improve performance of web:
- Minimizing the use of CSS and JavaScript wherever possible.
- Using optimized images.
- Remove unwanted plugins
- If your website is having trouble getting loaded or any such issues, there are steps to improve it.
- A good hosting provider.
9. DOM Manipulation
DOM (Document Object Model) is a programming interface for web documents. It represents the document as nodes and objects, where programming languages can interact with the page. Using programs, you can change the document structure, style, and content of a web page.
DOM manipulation is interacting with the DOM API to change or modify the HTML document such as adding, removing, editing, and moving elements that are rendered on a web browser. One of the first things to learn when learning JavaScript for web browsers should be DOM manipulation. It represents the structure and the content of any web document which also include styles and HTML part. It allows you to create responsive web experiences. To manipulate an element inside the DOM, the first thing you need to do is to select it and store a reference to it inside a variable. Without refreshing a page, you can update the data and change the layout of the page, and create customizable applications.
10. RESTful APIs
REST which stands for representational state transfer uses API (known as RESTful API) which is an application programming interface that allows interaction with RESTful web services. It uses HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) requests to access and manage data. Several commands like GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE data types mean reading, updating, creating, and deleting operations.
- Using GET requests to retrieve data,
- POST request to create a data,
- PUT request to update a data,
- DELETE request to delete one in an application.
All HTTP methods can be used in API calls. A well-designed REST API is the same as a website running in a web browser with built-in HTTP functionality.
Conclusion
In conclusion, front-end development will continue to be a critical technological advancement in 2024 for improving and making websites and applications appear visually appealing. Specialists in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and frameworks like React are basically still in high demand. Proficiency in testing, change management, device support, and overall system reliability are also highly valued. As technology will continues to advance, front-end developers will have many great opportunities to continue learning and creating innovative work.
