In short coding is an umbrella term for A LOT. It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed at the sheer amount of things you can accomplish with it. This is NOT to discourage you at all; it’s just to encourage you to declare a specialty. It’s like the difference of saying “I’m hungry” versus “I want to eat Mediterranean food”. One statement is the reason you’ll probably settle for some basic food you don’t want to eat over something you’d be happy to spend your money on. Coding is that! Narrowing things down will save you.
Thankfully, I’ve been able to narrow down the path of coding I want to tackle and that is front end development with a slight segway into user interface design.
Well what is front end development though? Right. Let’s talk about it. Maybe we’ll take on user interface or UI design some other time.
Now before I list my idea of what front end development is please know that I am still learning and this definition is sure to evolve as I increase my knowledge around this topic. However, here goes nothing!
A front end developer is the person responsible for breathing life into everything you see and engage with on screen. For example, they are the reason you can see everything from the color selections on the website to the type of font you see on screen. Theyʼre responsible for making sure that those sites can display correctly whether they be on your phone, tablet, or computer. They’re also the people tasked with creating responsible design that can be accessible to everyone including those with disabilities. They are the magicians that tell your browser where to store information once you press the submit button after you input your contact or credit card info on the site. They do all of that and so much more.
So basically, they tell your website or app how to look, how to behave and work well within its given parameters, and how to receive and pass out information making it easier for the consumer experience overall. At least... thatʼs what Iʼve come to understand thus far.
Now I donʼt want to make it seem like front end developers are solely responsible for the magic that is creating a fully functioning digital experience because they are not. Front end developers work closely alongside both UX/UI designers and back-end developers to bring you this kind of enjoyable experience. So teamwork is definitely a thing here. They do, however, have what is known as a full stack developer and that person is capable of delivering on all of these fronts single handedly. As for me and mines though front end development works for me for now.
To conclude, I hope this makes some sort of sense. I do plan on updating you all as I expand my knowledge base. My hope is that Iʼll be able to inspire someone else who wants to become a coding boss from scratch like me. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about UX/UI design or back end development I will include several links in later posts that I feel explain this clearly (shout out to Medium). And by all means for those in the industry jump in the comment section and help enlighten myself and other viewers.
Until the next update.
Happy Coding Dreamers!
Oh yea, in my next post I plan on dropping the links I’ve been utilizing to teach myself how to code. You don’t want to miss it so stay tuned!