This article is targeted towards people who have no idea about coding for the web or probably you are a front-end developer and do not know where to go next. Stay calm, I got you covered. You might as well know “Everything but you just want to know a little about what technologies are currently in, this should help you.
Ok so let’s get started.
WHERE DO I START?
This is probably the easiest question of all. Anyone who tells you not to learn HTML/CSS first is NOT a WEB DEVELOPER.
STEP 1: HTML/CSS
They are the building blocks of all web pages. No matter how technical or robust your web application might be, the front of such website is still going to be presented via HTML and CSS and probably some client-side JavaScript. HTML handles the mark-up and presentation while CSS handles the styling.
One other important reason to learn HTML/CSS first is that there is no alternative. They are always used. You cannot be a web developer without knowing them. When it comes to Server-side languages, you have tons of languages that handles that. But as far as front end is concerned, they still run on HTML.
Please note that It is advisable to know them very well. Positioning items on the web pages should not be a problem. They are pretty easy to learn compared to some other programming languages out there.
Basic Tools:
Text Editors: There are tons of text editors out there to make use of for making your web pages such as Notepad++, Sublime text Atom.io etc. I would suggest going for sublime text. There are also some IDEs such as Dreamweaver, netbeans just to mention a few, but I think those should be left for more complex programming task. Sublime text is excellent to make use of as a designer/developer.
Image Editing: Photoshop, illustrator etc are examples of complex powerful image editing software. Do not be afraid. All you need is the basics such as image slicing, cropping, resizing images etc. That should get you going as a front-end developer.
FTP/SSH Tools: At some point, you might want to push your website/applications unto the internet. You would be needing a file transfer tool for that and I think Filezilla is pretty good for you. Putty (for Windows) is also an option but I would strongly recommend Filezilla. Leave SSH a little at this point – if you are still a beginner.
STEP 2: BASIC JAVASCRIPT
Awesome job so far. You have learnt the HTML/CSS and you are pretty good with it, this is the next step you need to take. Now do not get it twisted. Am not talking about Angular js or Node js or React js etc. I am referring to the basic JavaScript. All you want to learn at this point is your data types (Strings, numbers, arrays, objects, etc), functions, conditionals, loops, operators, event handlers – I click on a button and something happens, etc. I would be doing a series on Basic JavaScript in my coming articles. It is really helpful to learn them now because they are the basics programming principles for any programming language. Also consider learning JSON. JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. Don’t be scared. It is pretty easy to learn. Most of the APIs today are in JSON format. You could master it in a day (if you put all your heart to it). I should also be doing a series on this too in the coming days. Finally, on JavaScript, try lay your hands on jQuery. Please and please, only take on jQuery if you feel you are already comfortable with JavaScript even though it makes things easier than the default JavaScript.
STEP 3 DEPLOY A BASIC WEBSITE:
If you are at this stage already. It means you are doing really great. No matter how small your website is, try push it to the internet. You could start out with a basic landing page, a portfolio page or something really small just to show that you are ready for the big thing coming next. All you need to get this done is a shared hosting (hostgator, immotion etc), domain and some basic CPanel information. It’s a lot easier than deploying a node js application.
TADAAAA!!! At this point, you can call yourself a WEB DESIGNER.
You might be wondering why I said Web Designer and not a web developer. This is so because you do not have the capability to do a backend or something. So, do not worry. You can earn a lot from this. Believe me, you can make a good living from this. There are things you can do at this point:
- Build simple but professional websites.
- Build UIs for web applications.
- PSD to HTML/CSS Conversion
- Work for a company as a front-end developer
- Be a freelance web designer.
At this point, you might want to ignite more fire in you and go for something bigger. You then begin to ask yourself, “What Next after Point 0?”. Don’t worry, there is more to come. Stay tuned for upcoming articles.
Thanks a lot for reading. I hope it was worth your time. See you soon..
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