May 17, 2022

What is Front End Web Development?

You may have a lot of questions as you look forward to building your new business. You may have a lot of great skills, but perhaps technology isn’t one of them. That’s ok, you don’t have to specialize in everything to be successful in business. You could have a restaurant and be looking into mailorder frozen dinners, or some other type of business.

Whatever brought you here today, you are certainly excited about building your business and want to know more about front-end web development. When you reach out to companies to talk about creating your company website, it might start to get confusing pretty quickly. Those who work with tech all day often forget that those who don’t are not fully briefed on all the lingo.

You might think that to start your business all you need is a “web page.” When you reach out to several different developers you start to hear a lot of terminology like:

eCommerce platforms
Customer Portals
Custom Collaboration Dashboards
Front-end development and back-end development
Full-stack development
UX Designers

Whoa... Let’s just stop there. It can get to be overwhelming quickly for those new business owners who are new to this type of technology. It’s OK. We can break it down one thing at a time. So, what is front-end web development? Front-end development generally describes the work involved in creating the client-facing elements of a web project. This covers the things that your visitors can see visually, in the “front-end.” This can include things like the header, navigation tools, the body, images, buttons, and interactive elements.

Front-end development covers the parts that you can see. These pieces are what stand between design and computer logic and function. In other words, front-end development brings life to your interactions.

Front-End: Meaning How Does Your App React?

The most recent discussions in front-end development have focused on Microsoft’s Human Interface Guidelines for mobile applications. While this may sound specific, it is a good example of front-end development and its best-use practices.

The idea behind the front-end development of a button for example isn’t really about what color it is. Think about it. What you want is to imply to your user the intended use of the button and entice them to click it if needed to gain the desired results. It is similar to hieroglyphics and street signs. You want the human user to automatically know what to do.

Six Design Principles Found in the Human Interface Guidelines

Consistency: People like to interact with apps that behave in the way they expect. When considering design, an app should implement a sense of familiarity. Use well-known icons when possible, clean text, and commonly understood terminology.
Aesthetic Integrity: How well does the application’s appearance integrate with the behavior of its intended function. If the app is a game, you could expect bright graphics, sounds, and pop-ups. If it is a tool used for serious work, then perhaps subtle, graphics, standardized controls, and predictable behaviors are essential.
Direct Manipulation: This type of human interface describes the type of content in which humans can manipulate the onscreen content. For example, on a mobile device, they could rotate the screen. On a tablet, they could touch the screen. This is self-explanatory, through direct manipulation, the user can see immediate results from their interactions.
Feedback: These are interactive elements that may highlight if tapped, or perhaps a progress indicator or a sound to help clarify to the user that there is some result to their action. It is intended to keep users informed.
User Control: The user is in control, and while the iOS system can suggest optional courses of action, or even warn that to continue will eliminate their account, the end decision is the user. There are usually ways for the app to suggest a course of action or even for the user to find a way to address mistakes.
Metaphors: People will learn and react to an application more quickly if it seems familiar. So, while a digital reading app does not need to necessarily be like a book, giving the user the ability to physically interact with it—turn pages, will allow them to more quickly learn how to interact with the app’s virtual objects.

Top Three Skills Used for Front-End Programming

What types of skills are used in front-end programming and designing? Everyone has come across a beautiful website that has left them awestruck. Even though many businesses tend to stick with what is considered safe and acceptable for their business, it still stands out when you have the occasion to come across a stand-out site. The top three skills needed for front-end programming, (other than a basic understanding of human psychology):

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language or HTML is generally used for web programming. It is a standard markup language that also includes CSS or cascading style sheets. HTML can also use JavaScript.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets is a language that describes the presentation of a document that is written in HTML.
JAVASCRIPT: This programming language is often shortened to JS and is quite popular in use, making it one of the core technologies on the web. Studies show over 97% of websites use JavaScript on the client-side. Many sites use third-party libraries and integrations.

What Does ‘User-Friendly’ Mean?

There are some easy signs that will signal that you are on your way to a user-friendly design. But what does it mean to be user-friendly? It means that your user should be able to easily find their way, make a purchasing decision, and be finished quickly.

From the user’s perspective, they don’t want to spend all their time scanning your FAQs section only to give up in frustration. They came to your site because they wanted to make a purchase, so let’s get them the answers they need and help with their purchase.

User-friendly should be easy. Pull-down menus, straightforward options, clear concise writing, and no surprises all leading your consumer straight to the checkout.

Finding Top Front-End Developers for Your Project

Finding experts in front-end development is easy – contact DataCose. We have top UX Designers ready to tackle your project. Are you in the planning stages? Getting ready to start designing an entirely new website? Maybe you already have a site, but you would like to add some additional features. Whatever your needs are, you should talk to a member of our team.

As a business owner or manager, contact us and discuss your ideas with us. We can let you know how our team can help you reach your goals. Our software developers may have technology and abilities you may not have even thought of. It is a free consultation, let’s have a coffee and talk.