Let me give you a simple 🚦Roadmap to know where you are, and where you should go next.
Every website has two parts. A Front end, and a Back end.
The front end is the part where you see it in the browser and interact with it.
All the visual aspects.
The back end is the part that powers the front end. It’s behind the scenes, and it’s mainly about storing data and databases and providing it to the front end.
So web development jobs fall into three categories:
1. Front-end development
2. Back-end development
3. Full-stack development (involves both front-end and back-end development)
👨💻Front-end Development
Front-end developers use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build the front end.
HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language. We use HTML to define the building blocks of our web pages.
CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets, and we use CSS for styling webpages and making them beautiful.
Now, most web pages are interactive. The response to our actions is like clicks and scrolling. This is where JavaScript comes in. With JavaScript, we can add functionality or behavior to our web pages. For example, we can like a post.
JavaScript is a programming language, while HTML and CSS are not. We can't use them to tell the computers what to do. We use them to define the building blocks of our web pages and style them.
Every webpage you have seen on the internet is built with these three languages.
So, the better you learn and understand these languages and their features, the better you will be at front-end development.
🚦Front-end Developer in 6 Months
So, your front-end development journey starts with HTML and CSS. I would say if you spend 3–5 hours a day studying and coding, you should be able to have a reasonable understanding of these two languages in about a month and a half.
Once you learn these languages, you need to learn JavaScript.
I would say learning JavaScript would probably take another six weeks (1.5 months) of your time.
Of course, you’re not going to be a JavaScript expert in just six weeks. But you will have a reasonable understanding of it, and you will learn more as you work on different projects.
So, the first three months are all about fundamentals.
🛠Frameworks
Now, building a website often includes a bunch of repetitive tasks. This is where front-end frameworks and libraries come in.
A framework or library comes with a lot of code that you can reuse on our websites.
So, they help us get the job done faster. That’s why a lot of companies these days use one of these popular frameworks, like React, Angular, or Vue.
Now, you don’t need to learn all of this to get started. Different companies use different tools for their different projects. As you move from one project to another you may want to learn about the other tools.
⚛React
If you’re starting out, just focus on React. Because it’s the most popular tool in this space. Once you learn React, you can always learn the other tools if needed.
For React you would probably need one to two months.
💫Version Control System
All right, what’s the next step?
Version control systems
We use a version control system to keep track of our project history and work collaboratively with others.
📌Git
There are many version control systems out there like Git, Subversion, Mercurial, and so on. But Git is the most popular tool in this space, and it’s used by more than 70% of software development teams. That’s why you see it in almost all job descriptions.
You would probably need another two weeks to learn Git.
📂Design Tool (Optional)
As you go through your front-end development journey, you need a design tool that allows you to blueprint, design, and build components for your website before actually writing code without any fancy tech stuff.
Figma is the best place to do it! 63% of designers use Figma, making it the most popular tool on the market. Figma helps front-end developers design web pages and parts of websites, so you can show them to your team or clients. You can also use it to make design systems, which are like plans for how your website should look. So why not sign up now and play around with it? It's FREE!
You can also try Figma Professional, which allows you to have team libraries. Figma Organization grants you access to company-wide libraries, perfect for large organizations with several offices or teams. It's chock-full of in-depth analytics to improve your designs.
The fundamentals of Figma may usually be understood in a few days of concentrated practice, and a thorough comprehension can be attained in a few weeks.
📝Conclusion
So, these are essential skills for every front-end developer must have. You’ll see this list in almost every job description.
For now, just focus on these four skills or four steps. Remember, less is more.
Don’t try to learn too many things quickly. You won’t learn anything. You will just waste your time.
All right, that’s your roadmap to becoming a front-end developer in 6 months.
You can also watch my full animated video on YouTube to understand this article better:
Thanks for reading this article. Good Luck!