If web development was a party; Learn Web Development road map like a pro in 2021

So let's talk about web development using a party as a reference point. It's likely that your intention is to learn web development in 2021 and you need a road map. I have come up with this to help you navigate the path using the party that you are already used to. You must have attended one party or the other. It's even possible that you have organised party and invite your friends before now.

In a party, we have people that handled the kitchen behind attendees. It's behind because people don't usually know them, they cook behind the curtain. It's the same in web development. We have people called Back End Developers. They are the one that basically deals with the logic aspect of the web and how people's data are stored and retrieved. How do we know if you put a wrong password? How do we know if you have enough money to buy our products on our website? It's handled basically by Back End Developers.

So if those people that are supposed to cook refused or didn't present delicious food, attendees will be angry and complain. As an attendee, you ask for what you want and get it. The person that cook how to get what you want from the website and how it gets to you after checking if you meet basic requirements is Back End Developer. Basic requirements in party maybe if he buys our cloth gives him gift otherwise just give him water.

It's even possible that you are going to request for a food that's not available. For instance, if you attend a wedding party in Nigeria you won't want to demand beans, people in charge will tell you sorry we don't have that. It's also applicable in web development. If you demand what's not available or have access to, you get an error as specified by the Back End Developer.

Okay so let's now look at the venue of the party. That beautiful designs, decorations, arrangements, etc must have been made possible by some set of people. In web development too, when you visit a website and you like the interface, the color combination, where buttons are placed, etc it's the venue of the party. This beautiful interface, design and decorations are implemented by those we call Front End Developer. So if you are the type that loves design, you should focus on Front End Development.

Another possibility here is that those that cooked the party's food behind the curtain are also the one arranging the venue and designing it. Think of the scenario in real life. How tough would it be? It will be very tough and challenging but attainable. We have name for people that can do both Front End and Back End of a website and they are called Full-Stack Developer. So when you hear full-stack, it's for those that can handle the design of the website and as well how the website handles response of users (in this case, party's attendees) and store their database.

Meanwhile, you will agree with me that before going into the venue to arrange it. Ideally, we need to have a well-structured plan on how we want the venue to look like. In the case of wedding, we must know before hand where we want to put the couple's chair, where people from the groom side will sit, the kind of decorations we want to use, numbers of chairs needed, etc. If not we would waste our precious time to arrange, re-arrange and still re-arrange before finalising it.

In web development too, we have people that plan how the website will look for the front end developer. The person will draw out the plan and give it to the Front End developer to implement when he gets to the venue. The study is called "User Interface and User Experience (UiUx)", the person designing it is thus conventionally called UiUx designer. This doesn't involve coding on a face value. So if you love designs and colour stuff and you don't want to involve in writing code, you can opt-in for Ui Ux designs.

In planning party, it's possible that the person that drew out how the venue should look like and the design will be the one going to the venue very early in the morning to implement his plan. These people in web development are called 'web designers'. They know UiUx and how to implement it. As for a full-stack developer, he or she must also understand uiux. Then you will agree with me that being a full stack developer isn't a small job. In fact, some argue that's not possible to be a full stack developer in reality. This is a discussion for another day.

I believe by now you know what uiux designers do, what front end development is all about and what back end developers do. You also know who is a full stack developer or web designer. But there's still something we have in the party that we have not discussed. It's how the food is being served to people at the party. And I think it will be better to discuss that in part two of this article. It is what we called API in web development. API stands for Application Program Interface. Don't forget see API as menu in a party or how food gets to you.

There is something we also need to know which is skills needed or technology to learn to become a web developer (Front End, BAck End, or Full Stack), UiUx or Web designers. Just like in party, those handling the kitchen must be a certified chef. They must also possess some skills. I shall explain in details what you need to learn to achieve your dream as a web developer.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you enjoy it or learnt something knew, kindly leave a comment and clap. You can reach me via abideenmuhammed2018@gmail.com and follow me on social media: GitHub, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I am Abideen Muhammed, a Data Scientist / Software Developer.