A web developer is in charge of making use of several programming languages to make websites that fully meet the needs of their customers. Depending on the importance of the project at hand, there may be several programmers who are responsible for different aspects of Web Development and must work as a team to move it forward.
In order to bring a website to life, web developer must have meetings with clientes and designers to know and understand their goals, this is obviously in addition to chopping through hunderds of lines of HTML. They must also test site features as they progress, see how the site performs once it goes live, and even perform ongoing maintenance. This is only possible when the web developer has the ability to communicate correctly and have the teamwork skills necessary to create a project from beginning to end. They are equally importante as being able to handle programming languajes.
The professional field of Web Development is one of those that lacks expert professionals, that is why it has become one of the most demanded jobs and with more than attractive salaries, especially in the freelance realm. There’s a lot of demand, but very little supply.
You may wonder how important it is to have web developers, well, here are some statistics that prove its importance (this information has been taken from Coderhouse ):
- 9 out of 10 users abandon a website when its development and design are inefficient, according to a study conducted by WebFX.
- Statistics compiled by Website Hosting reveal that 47% of Internet users expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less, being fundamental in this point the good work of a web developer.
- Users visit almost 9 pages when the loading time is less than 2 seconds and the rate is reduced to 3 pages when the delay is 8 seconds.
- It's not all about speed. 89% of Internet users leave to competitor sites when the browsing experience is unfriendly.
Now you know why it is so important for companies, or independent professionals, to hire good web developers that are trained professionals. A lot of their success depends on them.
What other activities are associated to web development?
The activities that are followed by a web developer also include the creation and maintenance of applications, make sure that the developed system meets the demands of users, and focus on the security of the environment. The developer is a key player in the user experience, which makes a perfect team when they work together with a web designer.
What is frontend development?
Frontend development is, within web development, the one that deals with functional aspects and usability. This includes UX and UI, see article to understand more LINK, so we could say that frontend development is in charge of direct interactions with the user.
We could say the frontend has failed when you’re surfing a website to shop for pants, and when you click the “buy” button, nothing happens. It is a huge deal for the brand selling those pants that the site does not work correctly. With this example it is clear that the frontend developer is responsible for the user experience when using digital platforms such as applications and websites.
It is important to consider that although frontend developers move in the part of the tools that are visible to end users, their work is different from that of a web designer. Frontend experts use programming languages such as React, Angular and Vue, which are Javascript frameworks. In addition, the most popular HTML should be mentioned at this point.
The diference between a web designer and a web developer is that the developer focuses only on usability, not on design. But if you’ve hired someone that can do both, consider yourself a winner.
Usability testing is a fundamental process in the work of frontend developers; these are methods to evaluate the user experience, in this case in digital products such as websites. In other words, usability testing emerges in the intermediate stage between development and launch, when products are tested to see how they respond in practice, in the hands of users.
What is backend development?
Backend development is the development that focuses on the structures that support websites and applications. In other words, backend developers are in charge of what users are not able to see. It is the behind the scenes of a website.
The backend developer establishes the necessary connections with the database and the server. If the frontend is graphed "client-side", the backend is explained with the reference "server-side". Which means, that just like the frontend, backend has nothing to do with the visual part of the site.
In backend development, the work is based on the creation and maintenance of infrastructures, on the management of hosting environments, on solutions to eventual errors and failures, on aspects related to the security of the platforms, on quality control tests, and on the updating of documents.
The general purpose in this area is that a series of operations occur in the background, invisible to the end user. For example, when touching the aforementioned button to buy in an e-commerce, connections are established with databases and servers. Among the most commonly used programming languages are Javascript, Phyton, SQL, PHP and Java, among others.
