Introduction to Web Development
What is web development?
To understand the term Web Development, we ought to break it into two parts. While the word “web” refers to a system of interconnected documents over the internet, including websites, webpages, etc., the word “development” is the process of creating something from scratch. Thus the term “Web development” refers to the process of building, creating and maintaining websites and other web applications that can run on a browser.
Comprising aspects like web programming, web design, web publishing, database management and so on, in simple words, web development is the process of building internet-based applications and designing their functionalities and features. Behind every webpage or website you scroll through or interact with, there is a web developer building those sites and ensuring their proper functionality, giving you a satisfactory user experience. In fact, freelance web development is becoming a popular career choice for many young enthusiasts.
How does web development work?
Depending upon the tasks they are meant to perform and the platforms they are supposed to be working on, web developers use a variety of programming languages like CSS, JavaScript, HTML, etc, to write lines of codes to facilitate the construction of these sites.
What are the different categories of web development?
Front-End Development
A Front-End Developer takes care of the client-facing side of a digital product, the side with which the users directly interact with. Thus, if you are a freelance front-end developer, you are responsible for the look and feel of the digital product. This job title is often used synonymously with that of web designing.
In short, the full-time or freelance Front-End Web Developers convert or translate the client or design team’s visual ideas into codes, thus bridging the gap between design and the technology behind it. They are also responsible for creating functional websites that look and work well on any device and fixing bugs after conducting thorough website trial runs.
Back-End Development
A Back-End Developer takes care of the server side of a digital product, the part which is used to store and arrange the data, but isn’t visible to the users. They essentially take care of how the website works, rather than how it looks.
Back-End Developers do create a basic framework of the website before diving into developing its integral back-end aspects like user authentication, network and hosting configurations, and more. Their primary role is to make sure the digital product functions well, in terms of speed and responsiveness, for which they should be familiar with server-side programming languages, like Pyhton and Ruby, and tools like Git, Oracle, etc.
Full-Stack Development
Simply put, a Full-Stack Developer is required to be equally adept at both front-end and back-end development. Being familiar with all the stages of web development, full-stack developers are often given leadership roles, owing to their ability to create more seamlessly developed digital products.
They are skilled in both front-end programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, CSS3, etc., and back-end technologies and frameworks like PHP, Ruby, Python, etc., thus taking care of the client-facing and server-centric aspects of web development, in addition to debugging and testing the digital products they build.
Difference between Web Designer and Web Developer
Although web designing is a subset of web development, there are certain key distinctions in the two job profiles:
A web developer writes codes to create, build and maintain websites, webpages or other internet-based applications, whereas the job of a web designer is to create all the visual elements on those web pages and websites, like color scheme, font, icons, and other functional elements. While a web designer works directly with the client to come up with designs, based on the client’s vision, a web developer creates and implements the designs selected by the client or created by the design team.
For a full-time or freelance web developer, it is absolutely necessary to have expert-level grasp over multiple programming languages, like HTML, JavaScript, PHP, CSS, Python, C++, etc. But when it comes to web designing, having a working knowledge of some basic programming languages is acceptable.
So if you are a freelance web developer looking the kind of opportunities, Hireon is the platform for you. With a variety of enlisted job categories, it is easy for you to address all your professional requirements, be it as a freelancer or as an agency.
