The invention and innovation of the web technologies in the past few years have taken a rapid growth in the industry leaving the developers in dismay every time some new specification is released. This favored the websites, applications, and content to be accessed easily and fastly from any device.
To cope up with the fast evolving web technologies, the need for developers to have the following 5 skills has been mandatory. Or else the exit doors are always opened for them.
Essential Skills Every Web Developer Should Have
Ability to follow and learn trending standards of the industry
As I told before, the web technologies have been evolving into and new shape every day. There come new versions of the technologies with new libraries and functions which need to be brushed up to develop a website of today standards.
Web developers need to stay aware of the new technologies coming into the market and the share that they are occupying. Involving in the development may not give any developer ample of time to spend on knowing the trends in the industry, but it is essential to make some of it for the same.
You can set Google alerts or follow Google cards with specified interests in web development if you are even a too busy developer. You can even check out that in breaks. Web sites like Yahoo answer, Quora and Stack Overflow will help you grab the knowledge of the trending technologies quickly. Peeping into the discussions that on the go there will give you insights of the merits and demerits of the technology so that you can choose whether to learn or not. Because it is also true that you cannot learn all the upcoming technologies in your professional lifetime.
Knowledge about the different platforms and browsers
The birth of new technologies has also raised new questions in the developer’s minds. Will they be compatible with the different type of browsers? The reason for these kinds of doubts inspires from the behavior of the web elements like as the tag in HTML. The marquee generally works on other browsers, but when it comes to Chrome, it runs faster than the set value.
Not only that, unless we specify browser specific properties and values in CSS, it won’t work properly. That means to write a single property or action, and we need to write three or four lines of same code which should a good web developer know about.
The difference in the end-user functionality of the web technologies will be changed with the browser chosen to run the code. And we are aware people use different browsers on different operating systems.
Should understand user interface of the application
Sometimes, the web developer may not be the user interface designer. Designers bring the usability at the end-user side in their designs and care about the look and feel of the web application of website. The developers who are responsible for back-end coding should understand how the front-end design and the user interface works or else the whole application may collapse into ugly ogre eating up bandwidth.
The importance of the user interface should not be the over seeded by the necessity of the security and accessibility of the back-end information. Because, without proper UI, no data will seem easy to access at the user end. Take for example the banking website with ugly UIs. It is even difficult to find where they have put the login form on the login page if you are using the page for the first time. Once logged in, it throws us into a sheer mess where we don’t know what to do for a second. That’s not how the designer-collaboration should work. Our banking websites are pure examples of what happens when developers don’t mind about the user interface.
Optimized coding skills & testing
Web development or any other job is not to get it done by any chance by the end of the day. Any task should be coded smartly optimized. Too many lines of codes, though perform the task, not the real work skill. Like the father of the software giant, Microsoft, Bill Gates says “Do not hire a programmer who writes too many lines of code” says it all.
f you would like to optimize your coding skills, you can take coding programs available online. You will learn how to write a few lines of code that do everything that you need instead of writing too many lines that might be difficult to understand. Always keep in mind that your code should be simple and easy to understand even when given to another web developer.
And it is important to mind the SEO in mind while developing the website. It is most important for the websites who want to grab the organic traffic. Only optimized and error free coding can help achieve that. It will also be the easy for the SEO department later to look after the search engine appearance issues.
Good communication skills with the designers and clients
This is not the last but an important skill that every web developer should have. Without communication and collaboration, you cannot create the opus magnums of your work. Just like we have seen in the ‘importance of the UI’ section of the article, the applications that have lower user-friendly interface will not value the functionality of the website of the whole application. That is why the installed apps change UIs frequently along with functional updates. The right communication with the designers and clients will reduce the gap between the requirement and the final product.
Wrapping up
To catch the speed of the ever innovating web technologies, an average developer should possess the above five skills for the betterment of his career and the promised future of the company he is working in. Not just these there are certainly other things that a web developer should be aware of, say testing. It is recommended to have some testing skills to test the application or the module right before handing over the responsibilities further to the following personnel to the department. This will earn good feedback from testers to the managers for developing error-free applications. Don’t you think that will secure your job in the company? What do you think? Have we covered all the points? Feel free to share your thoughts in comments below.
