It’s good to have you reading our post this week again. We have packed within some gruesome questions web developers occasionally ask. Should I hone my skills in front-end technology or back-end technology.
If you’ve dabbled in HTML, JavaScript, or maybe a little Python, but you’re not quite sure which path to venture out on, this handy breakdown is for you.
The lines between design and development seem to get more and more blurred on a daily basis, but fundamentally they are still very separate.
Web development has many faces. But no matter the type of development you’re thinking of pursuing, soft skills like attention to detail, ability to learn quickly, ability to solve problems efficiently, and strong communication will stand you in good stead on top of the hard skills
Front-end development
In all, a front-end development is responsible for the interior design of a house that’s been built by a back-end dev. The taste and style of the decor is dictated by the homeowner. “The developers that work on the front end are sometimes more excited about what they do because they’re really able to leverage their creativity.”
So now when we discuss the term “web design”, we’re really talking about those that work with Photoshop and Fireworks, and those that code using HTML, CSS, JavaScript or jQuery (it might be important here to state that jQuery is a compiled library of Javascript).
Everything that you see when using the web is a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript all being controlled by your computer’s browser. These include things like fonts, drop-down menus, buttons, transitions, sliders, contact forms, etc.
Back-end development
So what makes the front end of a website possible? Where is all that data stored? This is where the back end comes in. The back end of a website consists of a server, an application, and a database. A back-end developer builds and maintains the technology that powers those components which, together, enable the user-facing side of the website to even exist in the first place.
Many web professionals that are just getting into the field may have heard a lot of people talking about WordPress. WordPress is a good example of the frontend and backend working together because WordPress is an open-sourced framework built on PHP that you have to install on your server with a database. Designers then customize the look and functionality of WordPress sites using CSS, jQuery and JavaScript.
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