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Discussion on: Senior front end dev here, ask me anything!

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jackfr0st13 profile image
Deepak Choudhary

Hey Rob,

Thank you for this AMA. I have the following questions:

  1. I am a full stack developer who although can code your front end app and handle all the behaviours, I often find myself struggling to make the UI look more appealing. What would you suggest I do or things I can read up on to come up with better designs.

  2. I am a strong proponent for separation of concerns. One of the reasons why Angular appeals a lot to me and to an extent Vue as well. Nevertheless, I see companies increasingly switch to react or mention that they want developers with React experience. Should I pick up react or continue on my path of vanilla JS with a dash of Angular/Vue when a framework is required?

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kendalmintcode profile image
Rob Kendal {{☕}}

Hey Deepak,

  1. Practice. Simple. A good example of this is to take an existing design (say, a template on somewhere like Themeforest) and code it up from scratch. By doing it over and over, you'll get to appreciate what works and why and develop your creative 'eye' for similar patterns (e.g. navigation or card layouts).

  2. It really depends what you want to do. React, whether you like it or not, is the framework of choice in modern UI development. You don't have to make that choice, but it wouldn't hurt to be familiar with its concepts and approaches, which can only expand your skillset.
    That said, it is largely just modern JavaScript with some HTML thrown in there and some React-specific concepts, so vanilla JS won't go out of style!