Websites are crucial to a company’s success. As per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for web developers will grow by 8% between 2019 and 2029.
The web is rapidly evolving, and developers play a significant role in making this happen because software developers and architects work with other professionals in IT, marketing, and other departments to build websites that attract and keep customers.
Therefore, web development is one of the most exciting career paths for a computer science major since it combines analytical and technical skills with creative design and development. Great developers should never stop learning.
You can also learn web development quickly with perseverance and a proper roadmap. Rushing doesn’t make sense because it won’t make you happy, and also, errors can occur at any time.
Web development is basically of two types:
Front-end or Client-side: It’s what the visible to the user while visiting the site, the visual elements, and
Back-end or Server-side: The underlying functionalities that run the site.
You may choose to go with either one to learn or both, i.e., full-stack web developer.
In this blog, we will discuss how you’ll be able to master front-end web development in a month. Yes! You read that correctly.
Let me give you a simple roadmap to know where you are and where you should go next.
Learn fundamental skills
Proper Research & Planning
Create landing pages
Build your Application setups
Know your tools
Full Version control
Be the middleman
Do not rush
Dive deep into frameworks
Get involved with open source projects
There are so many options available today, not only for programming language-wise but regarding frameworks, tools, technologies, etc.
So be ready to prepare for a deep dive into developing your webpage.
The front-end development is basically about the user interface and feedback. If you want to come close to what people want, you should first balance your skills with the available technology.
Hence, begin with the following stuff at first -
Learn Fundamental Skills
The first & foremost step is to begin learning some of the fundamental skills that front-end developers use daily.
Means, start learning HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) & CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). Many kinds of online courses and videos are available on YouTube about getting started with HTML and CSS.
When you reach a certain point and begin to feel good with HTML/CSS, it’s time to move to industrial standards.
The first ten days are about learning fundamental skills. And after that, sign up for any online courses like Team Treehouse or Coursera and learn basic skills. And don’t get all nervous and put yourself in frustration. It will be okay when you begin to understand how it works in the end!
It is also recommended you improve your User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) skills.
For enhancing UI/UX skills, Codepen.io is a beautiful playground. You can use it once you are done finishing some initial courses. Then move ahead and create static web pages.
Proper Research & Planning
Proper research and planning are always needed for technical things to show the desired outcome. Your reading skills greatly influence your path to becoming a great front-end developer and planning to advance your project growth.
At first, you’ll probably read many articles, guides, and manuals on how to do different things. You’ll also start reading other people’s codes. Don’t feel boring about it; instead, enjoy it.
Create Landing Pages
So there’s only one way to become better at what you’re doing. Keep learning and keep building. In short, learn to build!
You’ve probably heard this a hundred times by now, but it is for a good reason why this is the advice that is most often dished out.
So, the next stage is to create landing pages. You can give up to five days in this.
Creating an actual landing page is challenging but not impossible. You will start using JavaScript snippets eventually.
And don’t forget to challenge yourself by building first responsive elements.
Build your Application Setup
If you follow my tips, from learning fundamental skills to research well, you can easily create a fantastic website for yourself or any niche. Now, for the next five days, focus on application development setups.
But remember, quickly throwing together a website that doesn’t involve using a website builder doesn’t equate to being a “front-end developer.” And knowing how to build a website is a small part of the front-end process. So be authentic in what you do!
There is a whole load of the development process that you still should learn.
Suppose we consider performance, testing, QA, and many other areas. It would help if you drove deep as a front-end developer. And yes, it will enhance your web app’s performance and user experience.
Know Your Tools
To know about the tooling options is essential. As you start your journey with front-end development, you will need to decide on your toolkit and services. Great tools will help you automate your front-end development workflow.
Focus on tools for up to 5 days. There are many tools available, but you have to be more specific about what you use for web app development.
One of those tools will be the Chrome developer tools. You can play with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in real-time, giving you immediate results. Also, node.js, npm, and many more excellent tools are there to facilitate your daily work.
Full Version Control
This term may sound a bit too exaggerated. But complete version control will save your sleepless nights. You can trash your branch and roll back to what worked before. I only need to focus 2–3 days on this.
And also, make sure to become an expert at Git or GitHub. Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system designed to handle everything quickly and efficiently. It will save you countless hours, but it will also give you more options to try and learn.
Be the Middleman
As a middleman, you are in touch with clients, UX experts, and other developers.
Middleman gives the stand-alone developer access to all these tools and many more. As a front-end developer, you need to be aware that you have to put yourself in a middleman role.
You will also need to consider different perspectives from other teams also.
Besides learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you also need to make sure to communicate & plan perfectly.
Do Not Rush
You will ask yourself why you do this, and you may want to close this. It may be tempting to give up. But request you, don’t give up so quickly!!
If you’re at that point, I have one piece of advice: never give up!!
Instead, set aside one or two hours every other day to learn, and take a break to entertain yourself.
Make sure you know all the basic skills. If you feel stuck, don’t be afraid to ask questions to your senior, learn from YouTube or some good Instagram accounts, or my favorite — Stack Overflow.
And I know every developer goes through this phase and having the patience to stick it out will help you come out as a pro in front-end development.
Dive deep into frameworks
Finally, it’s time to get involved with specific frameworks depending on your project’s requirements.
Hence, start by looking at the popular frameworks and work out for yourself why they do things in a certain way. And figure out which one is better for your web development.
Using a framework isn’t a big deal, but it’s well worth knowing about them most of the time. To understand how frameworks and industry standards have changed over the years.
Get Involved With Open-Source Projects.
At the end of the month, you must try to get involved with various open-source projects to make you a better front-end developer. Because it will help you build up your online brand as an active and experienced developer.
And don’t ever hesitate from big frameworks. You will pick up good habits and practices and gain experience working with other developers once you are into the game. When you feel ready to write code, go through issues on the repository and pick one manageable problem.
Wrapping it up!!
The path to becoming a front-end developer takes some time. Becoming a front-end developer is about learning various frameworks and programming languages and enjoying the whole learning curve.
It’s about the interaction, responsibilities, and roles of a front-end developer.
If you’re only giving yourself a month to master something more complex than taking the lid off a mayonnaise jar, you’re setting yourself up to fail. So, fail fast and learn so that you can try again. The one who tries never dies. Instead, they can discover the ways that never worked! And the one who is a student of life can quickly and easily learn skills in leaps and bounds. But if your commitment ends in a few days and tries, you have bound yourself as someone not genuinely interested in becoming a master. So, put aside all the negativity, and start creating something as unique as you!!
I hope that I have provided a crisp and wholesome roadmap to being a front-end developer in a month, depending on the different learning ways of other individuals. I also hope that the above info helps you overcome your queries and push you into doing some great work.
And, please, do not forget to drop your comments below.
Also Read :
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO THE MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO DevOps & HOW CAN BUSINESS BENEFIT FROM IT.