Web Development Essay

Importance of web development: essay introduction, developments, cultural benefits, conclusion for web development, works cited.

At the outset, web designing emerged as an easier and simple way of exchanging information. It was a better means of communication and had better networking benefits compared to the commercial reasons. Later on, the Web became an avenue for making profits, and the information space that was prior for providing free exchange thus changed to a space for commercial transactions.

The open source movement first emerged when major players met and decided to begin the initiative of licensing to protect software developers. The movement was therefore a licensing measure meant to make source codes available to others beside the author through leasing.

There was also need to allow programmers to distribute their software freely and enable people to modify source codes. The current web-based software developers such as PHP, Firefox, WordPress and Linux are thus major contributors to development of modern websites. Open source has consequently had a direct influence on web development and browsing such as flexibility and innovative development initiatives in addition to providing network solutions.

Development of ‘open source’ receives very little attention especially official concerns by the initial founders for its development. The initial organizations to benefit from the open licensing systems directly included the Department of Defence (DOD), Research Agencies, and the Lab researchers such as National Laboratories (Reece et al, 92). These organizations were the most viable producers, users and beneficiaries of the licensing operation.

The firms also provided the platform for major advances such as the firewalls, and other network security tools. Open licensing therefore caused firms to merge ideas and integrate development of operating systems and related software to high-tech but inexpensive software/hardware supercomputers to replace the original Pentium-based systems.

Although departments such as the DOD or Space Agencies may have developed or initiated most of the research into open source, in overall, today’s beneficiaries include commercial agencies. Commercial enterprises such as Netscape, Red Hat, Cygnus, MacAfee and Caldera were quick to realize the opportunities offered by web-based methodologies and begun to offer the open source arrangements.

Other firms that latter on came in support of open source included the hardware developers such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Sun Microsystems and IBM (International Business Machines) among others. Consistent with VanDyk, the concept open source emerged from software engineers, but today the entire movement is made of technologically motivated individuals (9). They focus more on technological productivity as opposed to economical benefits.

Although the initial authors retain all the rights of their code, restrictions are less and simpler to allow others to utilize the code. Today, different countries have constitutions supporting the freedom of speech. Users never thought programs would be freeware in a manner comparable to the way verbal communication is an inalienable right today. Redistribution of software code does not face unnecessary restriction, since developers found that ‘open source’ is an effective way of finding and correcting faulty codes.

Open source also encourages reliability and quality of software due to the independent reviews and the rapid dynamic nature of the web-based programming. According to Van Reijswoud, the simplified way of defining ‘open source’ may appear more pervasive compared to technical definition (230).

The open form of licensing allows any individual developer as well as a corporation to give others freedom to change competence and quality of a code, at the same time retain ownership as long as the beneficiaries agree to equally share the code with others under similar terms of agreement.

This form of web development allows development of new web programmers particularly among users who wish to make their contributions on success and quality of products. Web development has therefore advanced to allow better distribution of expertise through refinement of existing codes. Experts are also able to provide new services through innovation and inspired creations.

The new trend of user-developer enhances development of diverse and advanced modern websites. Open source therefore allows a progressive form of dynamism that is almost impossible to achieve given any other condition that developers may find (Meeker, 38). There is a revolution on the way the software engineering industry has developed in terms software quality and ability to assist beneficiaries from the developments.

Current success of the internet is for the reason that there is direct success of the open source form of web development. Success of World Wide Web therefore indicates the evolution and power of open content. According to Richter, ‘open source’ is a form of licensing that affects development, distribution and use of software, thus causing direct change on corporations (281). It assists to focus innovation of information technology to ensure generation of profits.

Pragmatism demands that people share ideas and beliefs as opposed to involvement in scientific formulae. Open source has therefore been on constant demand among human needs indirectly, since proponents hold up to strict scrutiny of applications. Scientists allow extensive source code usage and analysis, which often means critical review of design, functionality, structure and content.

In line with Allen et al, programming involves more that art or design work, it has a foundation of functionality and practical knowledge (81). Technology maturity has thus caused spreading of knowledge and enhancement of techniques. Programmers are ready and more willing to have their codes examined, verified and used by others. Allowing others to use the code is mostly based on utmost good faith that the favour will be replicated or returned as opposed to financial benefits.

Employers of excellent source-code providers such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sun Microsystems, IBM and other corporations also have a direct benefit of fame, recognition and demand for goods or services. Their products are a direct reflection of business personality, capabilities, and the collaborative nature.

The use of ad hoc organizations has assisted in great developments, for instance the Apache Group were able to build up the most popular server “World Wide Web”, without ever convening. Working partners such as the Berkeley Software developers’ in-charge of commercial firewalls have employees working from various locations and collaborate electronically. Open licensing therefore allows organizations to pull web-based initiatives together and ensure survival of best products without disenfranchising anyone.

Programmers are becoming smarter to ensure production of the best and greatest codes compared to potential competitors. The easiness of obtaining the source code is also a great inspiration and a guide for many initial code developers especially web designers. An author of a code can find feedback such as suggestions or criticisms from other users and this is vital for systems productivity.

Companies such as Microsoft can also be able to find the open-source teams and expand their capabilities indefinitely since such measure is global and allows full-time international interactions. In line with Koch, open source enables a firm to ensure continuous use, maintenance and enhancement of a product (5). They must be able to integrate change on future developments to ensure competitive investment. The systems are able to harness sustainability, through collaboration of users and developers.

Although code developers are eager to maintain a reputation in the industry, open source may compromise need to recognize ownership of the original version of code. Indiscipline among users and lack of tight security measures to protect originality leads to existence of multiple versions of a code. With such scenario arising, it is extremely difficult to give credit where it is due. The uses are supposed to benefit from enhanced applications and related financial benefits, while the initial developer gets recognition.

Software developers have often engaged and appreciated the open source form of programming due to easiness on implementation of aspects that initially seemed to conflict such as reliability, innovativeness and interoperability. Internet community ought to value creativity and efficiency and ensure that accomplishments are not redone/duplicated but rather improved.

Good open source software incorporates other common data formats, and these forms of reuse and refinement have previously enhanced development of quality and unique software. There are various debates based on open source especially envisioning future prospects of the field of sharing codes. The current research studies on the matter provide only a glimpse of the facts and fail to expound on the possible pedagogy and technological changes.

Today there is a unique but exiting era and as Canne puts it, “the perfect e-storm is becoming less cloudy and ominous” (151). The writer emphasizes the importance of maintaining the idea of open licensing. Founders such as CISCO termed open sources as the greatest investment a company and consequently the government can make.

Open source applications are thus the basis for implementation of the Internet, as well as mail servers. Ideas of the programmers provide chances for improvement, scaling and reutilization of code to achieve new goals. Various internet protocols such as TCP/IP are a long lasting communication and sharing rules still in use on any network today.

Allen, Chris,. Balkan, Aral,. Grden, John,. Arnold, Wade,. & Cannasse, Nicolas. The Essential Guide to Open Source Flash Development . New York, NY Apress. 2008. Press.

Canne, Torre. Product-Focused Software Process Improvement: 12th International Conference , PROFES 2011: Lecture Notes in Computer Science / Programming and Software Engineering Series. Vol. 6759. Italy: Springer ltd. 2011.

Koch, Stefan. Free/open source software development. Pennsylvania, PA: Idea Group Publishers. 2005. Press.

Meeker, Heather J. The open source alternative: understanding risks and leveraging opportunities . New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2008. Press.

Reece, Monique., Shah, Rawn., & Tasner, Michael. How to Innovate in Marketing (Collection) . New Jersey, NJ: Ft Press Delivers. Press.

Richter, Susanne. Critique for the Open Source Development Model. Germany. GRIN Verlag. 2007. Press.

VanDyk, John, K. Pro Drupal development . Second Edition. New York, NY Apress. 2008. Press.

Van Reijswoud, Victor. Free and open source software for development: exploring expectations, achievements and the future . Milan Italy: Polimetrica s.a.s. ltd. 2008. Press.

  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, October 29). Web Development. https://ivypanda.com/essays/web-development-essay/

"Web Development." IvyPanda , 29 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/web-development-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Web Development'. 29 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Web Development." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/web-development-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Web Development." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/web-development-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Web Development." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/web-development-essay/.

  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Web-Based Electronic Maps
  • Badrul Khan’s Web-Based Framework
  • Web-Based School Management Mobile Application
  • Antique 2000: Project Plan for the Development of a Web-Based System
  • Web-Based Communication in Business
  • Procedural Programming Languages
  • Phenomenon of the Software Liability
  • Web-Based Recruiting Practices and Benefits
  • Different Programming Languages Analysis
  • Peer Evaluation of Web-Based Instructional Documents
  • The Use of Software Development Tools Always Increases Productivity
  • Software System Implementation Process
  • Google Cloud Products in Khan Academy
  • Ten Programming Languages
  • Modern Scripting Languages and Web Transformation
  • React Native

CSS Frameworks

  • JS Frameworks

Web Development

  • HTML Tutorial
  • CSS Tutorial
  • Bootstrap Tutorial
  • Bootstrap 5 Tutorial
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Bulma Tutorial
  • Materialize CSS
  • Foundation CSS Tutorial
  • Semantic UI
  • Spectre CSS

CSS Preprocessor

  • JavaScript Tutorial

JavaScript Libraries

  • Vue.js Tutorial
  • Underscore.js
  • TensorFlow.js
  • React Tutorial
  • Next.js Tutorial
  • React Material UI
  • React Bootstrap Tutorial
  • React Suite
  • ReactJS Reactstrap
  • BlueprintJS
  • AngularJS Tutorial
  • Angular PrimeNG
  • Angular ngx Bootstrap
  • jQuery Tutorial
  • jQuery Mobile
  • NodeJS Tutorial
  • Express.js Tutorial
  • TypeScript Tutorial
  • PHP Tutorial
  • WordPress Tutorial
  • SVG Tutorial

Web development refers to the creating, building, and maintaining of websites. It includes aspects such as web design, web publishing, web programming, and database management. It is the creation of an application that works over the internet i.e. websites.

Web Development

The word Web Development is made up of two words, that is:

  • Web: It refers to websites, web pages or anything that works over the internet.
  • Development: It refers to building the application from scratch.

Web Development can be classified into two ways:

Frontend Development

Backend development.

The part of a website where the user interacts directly is termed as front end. It is also referred to as the ‘client side’ of the application.

Frontend Roadmap

Frontend Development Roadmap

Frontend Development Roadmap

Popular Frontend Technologies

  • HTML: HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is used to design the front end portion of web pages using markup language. It acts as a skeleton for a website since it is used to make the structure of a website.
  • CSS: Cascading Style Sheets fondly referred to as CSS is a simply designed language intended to simplify the process of making web pages presentable. It is used to style our website.
  • JavaScript: JavaScript is a scripting language used to provide a dynamic behavior to our website.
  • Bootstrap 4
  • Bootstrap 5

Frontend Libraries and Frameworks

  • script.aculo.us
  • Handlebar.js
  • Backbone.js
  • jQuery EasyUI
  • React Desktop
  • React Rebass
  • React Bootstrap
  • React Reactstrap
  • React.js Evergreen

Backend is the server side of a website. It is part of the website that users cannot see and interact with. It is the portion of software that does not come in direct contact with the users. It is used to store and arrange data.

Backend Roadmap

Backend Development Roadmap

Backend Development Roadmap

Popular Backend Technologies

  • PHP: PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development.
  • Java: Java is one of the most popular and widely used programming languages. It is highly scalable.
  • Python: Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more efficiently.
  • Node.js: Node.js is an open source and cross-platform runtime environment for executing JavaScript code outside a browser.

Back End Frameworks and Technology

  • Framework: Laravel
  • CMS: WordPress
  • Framework: Express
  • Framework: Django , Flask
  • Package Manager: Python PIP
  • Framework: Ruby on Rails
  • Framework: Spring, Hibernate
  • Framework: .NET
  • Postgre SQL

Web Development Tutorials

Some important links on web development.

  • Begin Web Development with a Head Start
  • Why do you need a Responsive Website
  • Top 10 Frameworks for Web Applications
  • Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 with their difference
  • 10 Web Development and Web Design Facts That You Should Know
  • How can I start to learn Web Development ?
  • The Future Of Web Development
  • Best Books to Learn Front-End Web Development
  • Best Books to Learn Back-End Web Development
  • 10 Things You Should Know As a Web Developer
  • How to choose a Technology Stack for Web Application Development ?
  • Top 10 Tools That Every Web Developer Must Try Once

Please Login to comment...

  • Web Technologies
  • How to Delete Whatsapp Business Account?
  • Discord vs Zoom: Select The Efficienct One for Virtual Meetings?
  • Otter AI vs Dragon Speech Recognition: Which is the best AI Transcription Tool?
  • Google Messages To Let You Send Multiple Photos
  • 30 OOPs Interview Questions and Answers (2024)

Improve your Coding Skills with Practice

 alt=

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

11 Reasons Why You Should Become a Web Developer

Imagine being passionate about your job, solving complex problems, working on interesting projects, and earning a high salary.

Maybe you’re bored at your current job. Maybe you feel stuck with no room to grow, or perhaps you wish you had the option to work remotely or even freelance. If any of these sound like you, it may be time to make a change.

It might be time to consider becoming a developer .

Whether you end up working as a web developer or software engineer , or any of the other wide range of coding jobs out there , learning to code opens a huge amount of doors in your career.

If you’re looking to make the move, then CareerFoundry’s Full-Stack Web Development Program is a popular choice. It gives learners the best of both worlds: A self-paced online platform allowing you to master the fundamentals of web development, and a dedicated support team of mentors, tutors, and career specialists to help you forge a successful career in today’s job market.

We’ll give you some reasons why you should join the thousands of other who are switching to this exciting area. Some of the benefits may surprise you…

11 great reasons why you should become a developer:

1. it’s intellectually challenging.

Web development is a fast-paced and challenging career, centered on creative problem-solving and continuous innovation.

As a web developer you’ll work with a multidisciplinary team of designers, other developers, and marketers to realize your projects. It’s no wonder, then, that it’s a much-praised area to get into to.

In fact, two of the top three of Indeed’s Best Jobs of 2023 list are in web development. Full-stack developer comes in first place, with cloud engineer and backend developer not far behind.

One reason for that is that web development is a field that constantly challenges you to think critically and creatively. You’ll be working on complex problems and projects that require you to continuously learn and innovate.

2. Developers come from many different backgrounds

While many web developers come from a more analytical or technical background, we’ve found that anyone can become a programmer if they apply themselves. 

For example, the CareerFoundry Full-Stack Development Program has many successful graduates who used to work in teaching, Uber-driving , customer service, insurance , architecture, youth-work , and HR, to name but a few. 

A recent study by Career Karma found that companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are some of the largest employers of bootcamp graduates. On top of this, being able to code is an incredible transferable skill , allowing you to work across a huge variety of positions in a range of industries. 

3. Web developers are in high demand

The tech skills gap is real, particularly among developers. Employers struggle to find qualified web developers and software engineers, and the demand keeps growing. 

This has businesses seriously worried. According to a survey by McKinsey , 61% of HR professionals believe hiring developers will be their biggest challenge in the years ahead.

Want to see for yourself? A quick check shows over 140,000 job openings for developers in the U.S. on LinkedIn at the moment . Filter down for your own area or a particular discipline, and you can see how many opportunities are out there.

As you can see, the need for developers isn’t going anywhere any time soon, either—as digitisation gathers pace.

4. Web developers are paid much higher than average

This high demand has inevitably resulted in high wages for programmers. According to our salary guide , the average developer in the United States earns $82,460 per year —that’s more than 50% higher than the average U.S. salary of $53,490 .

While these figures naturally vary depending on factors like seniority, type of industry, and location, as a web developer you can expect to be well-remunerated.

Bear in mind that as you gain more experience and add more skills to your skillset, your earning potential will also rise, potentially comfortably into six figures.

Want to learn more about how much you can earn in different disciplines? Check out these guides:

  • Software engineer salary guide
  • JavaScript developer salary guide
  • Full-stack developer salary guide
  • Frontend developer salary guide
  • Python developer salary guide

5. You can work from home…or further afield

On top of that, developers are far more likely to be able to work from home. The 2022 Jamstack Survey showed that 83% of developers work remotely , with it being a major factor in why they stayed in their current role or left their old one.

In a time when a lot of bosses are trying to force their employees back into the office as the pandemic recedes, engineering teams are frequently those who aren’t subject to a RTW (Return To Work) policy.

You may even be able to work from anywhere in the world as a remote web developer.

Regardless of where you’re doing it, web developers and software engineers have better chances of being able to demand a healthy work-life balance from their employer.

6. It’s creative

While to the uninitiated you might think that coding is lots of pushing around ones and zeros, but it’s actually an incredibly creative outlet.

Coders are encouraged to come up with their own solutions and workarounds, as well as design and build their own approaches, tools, and even become software architects .

Frontend development in particular can showcase some of the more eye-catching creativity, from visuals and elegant Dark Modes or icons, all kinds of neat web design is out there. Just checking out some web developer portfolios can give you a sense of the creative possibilities web development can bring.

7. Web developers are constantly evolving

The technology industry moves quickly, and so web developers are constantly learning and advancing in their careers.

There is practically no limit to how much you can improve your skills and progress in your career as a web developer. Things such as cloud computing and big data have become more and more commonplace of late, and the programming possibilities that Web3 offers are numerous.

8. Web developers can work in many types of companies

As a web developer, you have the opportunity to work for startups, agencies, large corporates, or even as a freelance developer . 

The choice is yours, based on whether you’d prefer working as part of a large team or a smaller cross-functional one, on a variety of projects or a smaller number of large ones, or just which company culture suits you and your working style best.

9.  It’s still one of the fastest-growing job areas

We’re alway hearing that software engineering and development is a growth industry, and the tech layoffs of early 2023 show little sign of affecting it. 

This is because the majority of coders aren’t working at M.A.A.N.G. companies. They are working in industries as diverse as pharma to farming, retail to real estate. It’s no wonder, then, that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a whopping 16% job growth for web developers between 2022 and 2032, and 25% for software developers and testers .

There’s no two ways about it—web development is firmly one of the jobs of the future.

10. Developers are shaping the future

From self-driving cars and Chat-GPT to the “Internet of Things,” developers are changing the way technology and the world works.

11. Web developers are empowered to make a difference

Job Satisfaction: As a software engineer, you have the satisfaction of seeing your work come to life and have a tangible impact. You’re building products and solutions that people use and rely on every day, which can be incredibly fulfilling.

How to become a web developer

Well, now that you’ve got eleven great reasons to become a web developer under your belt, the next thing is to start your journey.

There are many different ways to become one, and that’s why we’ve created a dedicated step-by-step guide to how to become a web developer . 

Try our free 5-day coding course on for size to see if a career in programming is for you. In it, you’ll build and style your own portfolio website using HTML and CSS, bringing it to life using JavaScript.

If you’d prefer to read more about the world of coding first, check out these articles: 

  • What is a Hackathon?
  • Is Coding Hard to Learn?
  • What is Rubber-Duck Debugging?

Logo

7 Reasons You Should Learn Web Development

Maybe you have your reservations about starting a career in web development . Or, maybe it’s a trade you haven’t thought about yet. Either way, we’ve gathered seven reasons why you should learn development to help you decide if web development should be your next career move. Heard of web development bootcamps?

1 Now Hiring! There Are Web Dev Jobs Available

Given that there will be approximately 1.4 million computing jobs available in 2020 , with only 400,000 qualified developers to fill them, those interested in acquiring in-demand skills can certainly benefit from having web development and coding in their resume. It’s safe to say there is, and will continue to be, high demand for web developers. You won’t have to worry about finding jobs for web developers any time soon.

2 A Great Income

According to U.S. News & World Report, certified professional web developers earn an average salary of $64,970 nation wide. Salary shouldn’t be the only factor when deciding whether or not to learn web development, but it should be taken into consideration. With the average household income in the United States being $56,516 in 2017 , average income for web developers looks pretty nice.

3 No Wasted Time in Learning How to Code

If you’re serious about learning how to code, there are several options for web dev education. You can do a CS degree, teach yourself online, or do a bootcamp. All are great options; it really depends on how quickly you want to get out into the workforce. The benefit of bootcamp is that you can know how to code, and code well, in 13 weeks. 13 weeks! It’s an intense 13 weeks, but you will have people dedicated to your success in learning and finding a job throughout your bootcamp experience. Before you know it, you’ll be in a career you’re finally excited about!

4 You Can Work From Anywhere

Have freedom to work whenever you want from wherever —imagine that. All you need for web development is the internet and a laptop. Not all jobs are remote, but if that is your preference, there are remote jobs out there for you. 

WebDevelopmentBanner

5 You Can Work at an Awesome Tech Company

Tech is where to be right now. Because there is such a high demand for web developers and so little trained developers to fill those positions, tech companies are doing an excellent job at making work like very comfortable, if not enjoyable. If you choose to work for a tech company as a web developer, you’ll enjoy free food, ping pong, and rad coworkers.

6 There Are Always Freelance Opportunities

If you’re the type that likes to work project to project on your own terms, then being a freelance web developer is for you. Once you join the web dev community, you will find that there are plenty of opportunities for you to freelance. Coming right out of bootcamp, you can charge $50 an hour —depending on where you live —for your work. And, that will only increase as you become more skilled. 

7 It’s Creative and Fun

Web development gives you the opportunity to express yourself creatively on the internet. If you have an idea you would like to try as you discover your web dev skills, try it out. Web dev is a fun, creative experience.

Deciding a career will always be a difficult decision, especially when you’re unsure of what the outcome will be after you’ve invested time and money into learning a new trade. Fortunately, the high demand, easy-to-learn, fun-to-experience life of a web developer is always a great choice for someone ready to have an exciting career in code.

Grab Your Web Dev Course Outline from Devmountain

  • Career Support , Web Dev , Web Development

Related posts

3 Reasons You Should Learn UX Design

My journey to becoming a web developer from scratch without a CS degree (and what I learned from…

My journey to becoming a web developer from scratch without a CS degree (and what I learned from…

by Sergei Garcia

My journey to becoming a web developer from scratch without a CS degree (and what I learned from it)

ghF0kB011QpDd5vWRlaUjD1H0NxV6dLsKfjf

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Sergei Garcia, and I’m a full-time front end developer with 2 years experience. In that time, I’ve worked as a front-end developer for both a Forbes 500 consulting firm and a small company.

This may not sound like a lot of experience, but finishing my second year as a developer has been a huge milestone for me. This is because I had no real experience doing web development — and not much programming experience in general beyond some basic C# and Java training I got from a few online courses. I also didn’t have a computer science degree since I graduated with a degree in IT project management.

I’d never written about my experience despite all the help I’ve received from wonderful resources like Medium, Stack Overflow, and Reddit’s programming subreddits. So today, I decided to change that. Today I’m going to fill you in on what went right, and what didn’t, so that if you’re embarking on this journey, you’ll have better luck than I did.

I know that there are a lot of articles like this, but not very many of them discuss the process with the benefit of an extra two years of hindsight.

I’ll start off with my journey, including what went wrong along the way. If you just care about what my suggestions for the shortest possible route to becoming a web developer from scratch are, feel free to skip to the last section: The shortest route .

So, without any further ado, Let’s get started!

Getting the Basics

After deciding I wanted to get into web development the first question on my mind was “What do I learn?” After doing some research, I ended up making my learning path based on what most entry-level web developer positions asked for, which was:

HTML & CSS

  • CSS Preprocessors (Less & Sass)

Responsive Design

Design patterns.

  • Task Runners

Here’s how it went.

I began my Journey learning JavaScript through CodeSchool (paid) and Codecademy (free). If you don’t know about these, they’re great websites that allow you to learn to code by coding inside the browser.

I found learning resources like this were the best when you are just getting started. Just be advised that this method of learning gets tiring quickly once you get into more advanced stuff, since their algorithms for checking whether you solved the code example correctly have some accuracy issues. Both of their introductory courses to JavaScript were outstanding and I highly recommend them.

Once I got the basics out of the way, I proceeded to get a stronger JavaScript foundation by reading the Eloquent Javascript: A Modern Introduction to Programming book by Haverbeke (free).

This book was recommended to me by a lot of people in the JavaScript forums as a must read, and for good reason. That book was tough — especially if you’re just learning programming like I was back then. But I’m glad I didn’t give up and kept at it. It was phenomenal due to the vast scope of programming concepts it covers, even if it was a bit ruthless at times. Whatever you do, don’t skip the code challenges. Once you finish this book, then you can finally say with confidence that you have a good grasp on JavaScript.

You can also optionally learn jQuery (though I really don’t recommend learning it yet — more on this later). You can learn it through CodeSchool’s Try jQuery course.

After learning JavaScript, I proceeded to learn the fundamentals of HTML & CSS and web design through CodeSchool’s HTML & CSS learning path . These courses are still my favorites today, since the pacing is great, and the overall scope of what they cover allowed me to acquire a stronger foundation to this.

You could also switch this out easily for something like Codecademy’s HTML & CSS course and still get similar results. Or if you are up for a challenge, Udacity’s course Intro to HTML and CSS is far more complete, and slightly more challenging.

Bonus : If you can get your hands on Jon Duckett’s HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites book, it’s also a rock solid starting point for learning HTML & CSS (with a sprinkle of web design). It’s highly rated (4.7/5 on Amazon), offers a solid introduction to the world of web development. It’s a beautiful book thanks to it’s clean design with big letters and colorful pages. I often come back to it just to admire it.

Less / Sass

For those unfamiliar, Less & Sass are CSS transpilers that allow you to write CSS in a more elegant manner. This lets you do things that aren’t normally supported, like nesting CSS rules. Once finished, these CSS transpilers “compile” your code and convert it to normal CSS.

There are 2 major CSS transpilers right now: Less and Sass . Sass is the more popular one, but I found learning Less first to be easier, mainly because using Sass on your computer requires also installing Ruby, which I wasn’t fond of.

You can get a quick, yet complete overview of Less using WinLess’s Online Less Compiler and it’s code examples to see how your Less code would turn into CSS. You can also try Sass online using SassMeister (though this doesn’t include code examples).

It doesn’t matter whether you learn Less or Sass first. They’re extremely similar, so once you know one, you pretty much know the other. You can find a great quick comparison between Less and Sass on Shelby Moulden’s article Comparison between LESS & SASS .

I originally learned about responsive design and Bootstrap using Codeschool’s HTML & CSS path, but I recently found Udacity’s course by Google on Responsive Web Design Fundamentals to be fantastic at covering the basics and beyond in a far more complete manner than Codeschool did.

You can do responsive design without any additional framework, but it’s far easier with the help of a responsive framework like Bootstrap. Bootstrap’s official documentation is very well made so you should have no problem at getting started with it.

If you are having trouble grasping it’s basic principles, read Froont’s blog post on 9 basic principles of responsive web design . It has beautiful clean & simple animations that help illustrate visually the principles of responsive web design.

I didn’t really know what exactly AngularJS was back then, but I knew everyone was talking about it, and that if I wanted to become a web developer I needed to learn it. I found Google Developer’s Design Decisions in AngularJS to provide the best general overview of what AngularJS was and how it improved making web applications.

I first thought of learning AngularJS through their official documentation, but this turned out to be a terrible idea. The documentation wasn’t very easy on beginners, and the cluttered formatting made it hard to read and understand.

I then proceeded to learn AngularJS through Codeschool. With my positive experience on the JavaScript and CSS courses also from there, I expected nothing less than a great course. I was wrong. The course was a disaster from the get go, since the algorithm used to check if you got the code example right sometimes didn’t work right and marked your clearly right solution as incorrect. There were even times where all it took to fix the broken validation system was a page refresh. As for the course’s content, it wasn’t great either. It did an ok job at explaining the basic components of an AngularJS application, but it did a terrible job at integrating these into a real application, leaving me with far more questions than I started with.

After some searching around forums, I stumbled upon Egghead.io (free / paid) where I had much better luck. Their course material was a lot cleaner, more concise, and more complete, making for a far better experience. Not to mention that apart from their courses, they have bite-sized 2–5 minute lessons that cover important topics. (For example: What is a controller? What is a filter? What is $scope?) These make it really easy to understand the basics. They also have some videos that require payment, but they are usually the ones covering more advanced angular topics you will not need until later on. I took their AngularJS Fundamentals course and I was fully satisfied with the results (and also became a big fan of Egghead.io’s courses in the process).

Design patterns are basically reusable code solutions that can be repeatedly used to solve common software problems. Having a foundation on this will make you far more competitive software developer in any programming language. This will also make it easier for you to understand other people’s code, since you’ll quickly identify what design pattern they used on their code to better understand it.

I found the 2 best sources to learn this are doFactory’s JavaScript Design Patterns and Addy Osmani’s Learning JavaScript Design Patterns . I found doFactory a lot easier to understand, while Addy Osmani’s book was a lot more complete.

Chrome DevTools

Chrome is one of the most powerful tools for a web developer. The sooner you master it, the more time you can save later on. Codeschool’s free course Explore and Master Chrome DevTools does a great job at introducing them.

Git (Version Control)

Ah, Git — the tool I never knew I needed until I discovered what it could do. Git basically it lets you keep a track of the changes you make to your code so that if things go wrong, you can roll back to a previous point in time. It also lets you see your code’s history.

I found CodeSchool’s free Try Github course to be a friendly way to get started. Atlassian’s Git training was superb at covering the more advanced commands available. Codeschool’s Git Learning Path is also great at covering Git’s fundamentals.

It didn’t take long before I learned that having a basic understanding of NodeJS would help me greatly in my quest of becoming a web developer (more on this soon).

I tried Codeschool’s courses on Node, but I found them really lacking in content. I found NodeSchool.io to be a far better teacher at getting the basics right, and it was fun! I loved the hands-on approach it offered, which was similar to Codeschool and Codecademy — with the added improvement that I was really running NodeJS.

Task Runners (Grunt & Gulp)

Grunt and Gulp were quite a big surprise to me in that I had no idea tools like that even existed — but I’m extremely glad they do! Basically, these task runners allow you to automate common tasks. For example, remember Less/Sass? Normally you would have to manually run the CSS compiler every time you make an edit for it to compile the CSS, and then update the browser. Using a task runner, you can set it up to watch your Less/Sass files for changes, and when it detects a change, compile your CSS, and automatically refresh the browser. This is immensely useful at reducing your development time.

There are 2 main task runners right now: Grunt and Gulp. While they do the exact same thing, they work in very different ways, with Grunt being a lot more verbose and configuration oriented, and Gulp being shorter to write and preferring code over configuration.

Knowing NodeJS will help you write better Grunt and Gulp files since both of them run on NodeJS . You can pick whichever you want, but I found Gulp to be far easier to learn and write. I still today prefer it because of its minimalist — yet powerful — pipe-based approach.

I found Scotch.io’s courses on Grunt and Gulp to be among the best out there.

Challenges I faced on my first job

Once I covered the fundamentals of web development, I was ready for my first web development interview for an entry level position. I won’t go into details about the interview since this isn’t this article’s main focus. But I will say that I was told my relatively strong JavaScript knowledge help me secure the position. (Thanks, Eloquent JavaScript!)

I have to say, I was quite nervous on my first project. It involved making reusable web components with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, along with Bootstrap, Sass, Grunt as tooling. T

he two biggest mistakes I found at first were:

  • Fear of failure. Because I was the new guy, I was constantly in fear of my code being wrong or poorly made, so I spent a lot of time double-checking everything and adhered to coding best practices. Because of this, I rarely attempted solutions in creative new ways because of my fear that it might not work correctly at the end. This effectively shut down my drive to learn new things.
  • Doing things because “X” person who knows better than me said so. I did this a lot at first. While not completely wrong, doing things in a certain way only because “X” expert on the matter said so — without knowing why — lead to me not really knowing when to why things were done the way they were. I soon learned that there were exceptions to everything, and that you always should know the reason behind best practices.

Thankfully, I had an understanding team lead during my first project who helped me overcome these issues. He constantly motivated me to try new things, even if things went wrong sometimes. He also told me to question everything — even his teachings.

In time, I learnt my lesson. From then on, I’ve always been a person that looks forward to trying new things. I always try to understand why best practices exist, when they’re right, and when they don’t apply to a situation.

Using AngularJS in an actual project also posed quite a big challenge for me. This was mainly because a lot of the things I did with it, I did without fully understanding why they happened. I thought of it as “angular magic.”

There were many times that I wished I knew how Angular actually worked, but it was scary looking at the documentation.

I eventually stumbled upon an amazing book called Build Your Own AngularJS . I didn’t read all of it, but reading the section on Scopes and Watchers and how they worked really unveiled how the magic behind angular, wasn’t really magic. It was just a clever way of maintaining data-binding using dirty checking and nested scopes. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to fully understand AngularJS.

The other challenge I faced a year later was how fast web development progressed. I had just mastered AngularJS and Grunt, and was feeling all proud and mighty — only to soon find out Gulp and ReactJS were on the horizon. And a year later after learning them, Webpack started gaining ground, and I had to learn that too. As you can imagine, a big part of me was pretty disappointed with how quickly some of my knowledge became obsolete. But a coworker soon enlightened me by telling me something that changed how I viewed libraries and frameworks forever:

“Libraries and Frameworks may become obsolete, but the concepts and solutions they propose often survive the test of time.”

He was right. AngularJS may have become obsolete, but fully understanding the magic behind it helped me better understand React’s web component architecture, which improved upon Angular’s Directives concept. It also helped me understand how ReactJS gained so much popularity, as well as what kind of future awaited.

I don’t recall facing any other major challenges on my subsequent projects. But what I will say is that over the course of the 2 years I’ve been doing web development, the #1 thing that has helped succeed (according to my own coworkers) was my excitement and my powerful drive to always be on the lookout for new things to learn. I soon found out this was a winning combination with web development since things over here change really, really fast, with new frameworks and libraries constantly emerging.

On the flip side of the coin, the other thing that helped me a ton — and something I found out quite recently actually — was understanding what not to learn. This became critical to my process of becoming a better web developer.

It’s not uncommon to see people criticizing the abnormally fast pace of evolution of web technologies, or how a new JavaScript library or framework comes out nearly every day. But in time I saw the light and finally understood:

You don’t have to learn every new library or framework that comes out.

Often it’s a great idea to do a simple hello world example app so you can see what a framework offers. Then you can move on. But usually, you should try to focus on what best suits your project’s needs. This can be hard at first, but thankfully great places like Stack Overflow, Medium and Reddit exist where you can find useful discussions between frameworks, and figure out which ones fit your specific use cases the best.

Going Further

In the upcoming years, I proceeded to continuously improve in the following ways

Once you finish Eloquent JavaScript, it’s rather easy to say and feel like you’ve mastered JavaScript, but then comes You Don’t Know JS and it absolutely destroys you (or at least it did to me). This book series (free by the way) was mentioned to me several times by a few senior web developers in the office as the book to read, and that only until I’ve read it can I say I fully know JavaScript. They were right, since page after page it continuously blew my mind as to how truly complex JavaScript really was, as well as many, many common pitfalls un-experienced & experienced people without a proper JavaScript understanding may have.

Reading that book series really opened my mind, and I also highly recommend it to anyone wanting to call themselves an expert JavaScript developer. Once you got that out of the way, there are 2 extra resources I highly recommend to get an even further, more advanced JavaScript knowledge;

  • JavaScript, The Better Parts : An amazing talk by D. Crockford that talks about JavaScript’s biggest weaknesses, it’s “Foot Guns,” and how to utilize them as its strengths.
  • The Two Pillars of JavaScript : a solid article by recognized JavaScript Medium writer Eric Elliott that talks about the 2 great pillars of JavaScript: Prototypical Inheritance and Functional Programming

Once you have a profound understanding of JavaScript, proceed with ECMASCript 2015 (also known as ES6), the latest, and current JavaScript standard. Smashing Magazine’s article ECMAScript 6 (ES6): What’s New In The Next Version Of JavaScript is a great short review of what’s new in ES6. You can try ES6 in the browser using Babel’s online transpiler .

CSS can get messy and disorganized very, very quickly. There have been quite a few different methodologies proposed to write cleaner CSS, but 2 stand out which I highly recommend you read about ASAP to stay competitive:

  • SMACSS : Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS. A flexible guide to developing sites small and large.
  • BEM : a methodology that helps you to achieve reusable components and code sharing in the front-end.

I personally prefer SMACSS because of it’s cleaner look, but some companies and CSS Frameworks still use BEM, so it’s worth knowing both.

You should also start focusing on your CSS’s performance. Smashing Magazine’s article Managing Mobile Performance Optimization and HTML5 Rocks’s article High Performance Animation did a solid job at providing a head start on this. A quick read through both articles should give you a solid foundation.

JavaScript Bundlers

By now you should have strong understanding of Grunt or Gulp. The next step is adding a JavaScript bundler to your task runner, which will allow for a more modular organization of your JavaScript application.

The two biggest players right now are:

  • Browserify : lets you require modules in the browser by bundling up all of your dependencies.
  • Webpack : basically Browserify on steroids. Harder to configure and set up.

Scotch.io’s mini-course Getting Started with Browserify can provide you a jump-start with browserify, while David Fox Powell article Why Can’t Anyone Write a Simple Webpack Tutorial ? is a great, fun to read introduction to webpack.

Personally I haven’t spent a lot of time using webpack, but in my time with it, I have to say it’s been amazing — even if it’s slightly harder to set up. If you are just getting started, I’d go for Browserify since it’s a lot simpler to set up. Just be aware that webpack is the future, and what bigger projects are starting to use.

ReactJS is quickly gaining popularity, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down — to the extent that people are asking “Is React killing Angular?”

Scotch.io’s Learning React.js: Getting Started and Concepts provides a solid overview of React. Once you got that out of the way, continue with Egghead.io’s course on React Fundamentals where you will build a fully working ReactJS app and then migrate it to ES6 syntax. You can follow up with the official ReactJS documentation which is very well made and will allow you to fully master it.

Since React is only the view, it’s highly recommended you learn Redux. Most courses on Redux are a bit complex in my opinion, but CSS Tricks Leveling Up with React: Redux does score a great balance between simplicity and being informative at getting started with Redux.

You might have also heard of Flux at this point, but if you’re wondering why you should use Redux over Flux, check out the question on Stack Overflow Why use Redux over Facebook Flux? which was answered by Redux’s creator!

Looking back on my mistakes and what I learned

I made a lot of mistakes in my 2 years of learning web development. Overall, I think my biggest mistake was not mastering the basics before moving on to libraries and frameworks. I guess this applies to almost every programming language out there, but in my opinion it applies even more to JavaScript. This is because in many ways, JavaScript is a broken language and contains a lot of “Foot Guns” (you should have heard of this if you watched D. Crockford’s talk on “JavaScript, the better parts” I mentioned earlier). These can make life insufferably hard if you don’t fully understand them.

I recall once having gotten stuck in an AngularJS issue with $scope which took me 3 days to debug, only to find it wasn’t even an AngularJS issue, but a JavaScript issue that I caused myself because of failing to understand how this works.

It’s strange that I don’t see this talked about as often. I didn’t always care for writing clean code, but honestly it’s one of the things I’m most proud of having learned. This is because everyone loves to complain how their last place had one of the worst, ugliest code base in the world. So why can’t anyone talk about how great their last one was? How their code ended up so clean and well made they were proud of it?

This is a trend I’d like to change, and I believe a difference can be made if enough people push for it. Strive to make variable and function names understandable in English, even if you have to write a bit more. Not doing so will only lead to you having to manually document it sometime in the future to make it clearer. This will also cause your overall codebase to become harder to understand by new developers and yourself. Yes, yourself. Why yourself? Because if you’re not enforcing clean code, what makes you think your coworkers should enforce it and write clean code for you to easily understand? Let’s lead by example.

And if that isn’t a good enough incentive, people very often recognize and value clean code writers. You’ll find that by writing clean code your coworkers and friends will enjoy working with you even more, and in turn, you’ll live a happier life.

Some of you might notice I also didn’t make much of an emphasis on jQuery. This is because in my experience, I found jQuery did me more harm than good at first. Some of you may not agree, but please let me explain: When I first learned it, the general idea I understood was that jQuery was everywhere and that you could use it for pretty much everything. Because of this, I got used to using jQuery for pretty much anything, and for any problem I encountered, I looked for a solution for it that used jQuery.

Don’t get me wrong, jQuery was awesome in my time using it, so awesome in fact, that I blindly ignored that 90% of what I did with jQuery could be done natively in modern browsers in a similarly easy syntax.

You may now be thinking: “So what’s wrong with that? jQuery doesn’t weight all that much anyway and using it you still end up writing less code than if you did things natively.” But using jQuery over native APIs wasn’t the problem. The problem was that my entire way of thinking and all the solutions to common problems I knew up until that point required jQuery to work. And this became a huge problem when I got my first project and was told jQuery wasn’t a dependency.

Using jQuery made me useless without it, and made me completely ignore the native methods and solutions that have always existed. It made all my solutions less portable too, since using them required jQuery.

Since then, I’ve strived to not use jQuery unless it is absolutely necessary and truly provides big improvement in efficiency and readability to our codebase (for example, heavy DOM manipulation).

Once again, don’t get me wrong, jQuery is great, but if I could go back in time and meet my past self that was just learning web development, I’d heavily advise myself against learning jQuery altogether until I’ve learned how to do things without it. If you are having trouble doing the switch like I did, check out You Might Not Need jQuery .

As for course material; while a lot of CodeSchool’s courses were outstanding (The HTML & CSS branch was specially fantastic), even if a few of their courses on frameworks fell flat a bit flat (AngularJS, BackboneJS, etc.).

I also took quite a lot of Pluralsight courses, which I didn’t mention because after all this time, I’ve reached the conclusion that picking their learning path is overall a bad idea and unreliable . Since their courses are made by teachers who aren’t always (in my opinion) very good at teaching, I found their course quality fluctuates wildly since their course quality standards are non-existent. I’ve had courses where even the person giving the course sounded like he was falling asleep. And I honestly don’t have the attention span to keep paying attention on a 6–10 hour course — and a lot of them last that long, if not longer.

I spent a good 80–100 hours of training in Pluralsight, and I honestly want a good part of it back. Don’t get me wrong, I had a few amazing courses on Pluralsight, but their focus on quantity over quality really made me waste my time. I could have learnt so much more if I had taken courses from better sources like Egghead.io and CodeSchool, where they value more quality of quantity.

The only reason I could ever think of someone using Pluralsight is to take a course that no other website has in some more obscure technology (like Installshield, or Xamarin), or to take a few very specific courses that they know were very well received and reviewed (For example, John Papa’s Angular Fundamentals).

Overall, if you want to use Pluralsight, be sure that you are taking courses hand-picked by someone that took them first and that are recognized as high quality and useful.

I also recently tried Team Treehouse training and I’ve got to say, I’m amazed at the quality that went into their courses, even rivaling that of CodeSchool, and their course material is highly extensive.

After skimming through the HTML, CSS and JavaScript learning paths there, I see you could easily acquire the foundation of pretty much everything. Don’t believe me? Just look at their learning tracks and tell me it’s not amazing. Sure, it’s a bit expensive at $30 USD a month, but in my opinion it’s incredibly worth it. (I’m paying for it right now to learn WordPress since I need it for a freelance project and the material is great).

A word on paid courses

I felt a need to speak about this since I’ve noticed the general consensus that you can learn programming without paying a dime and be as competitive as one that paid for a course. While true, I cannot stress enough the value paying for the right course has. Sure, quite a lot of the most valuable course material I’ve written about is free, but a lot of it is also paid. Mainly because sometimes you just can’t beat having someone carefully explain things to you in a visual way.

Yes, there are terrible learning paid courses which I would advise against since their value proposition is questionable (see Pluralsight), but others like Egghead.io, CodeSchool, and Team Treehouse offer outstanding bang-for-your-buck, despite their relatively costly monthly subscription ($25-$30 a month). Plus, they all have free 7–15 day trials so you can see which one works best for you.

If you play your cards right, paying 1–2 months of either of them can easily net you knowledge you would only otherwise get after stumbling upon countless of articles and blog posts over a year. They’re honestly that good.

So yes, they are not necessary, but if you can afford at least one month, you can be sure it will give you a strong edge.

The secret sauce for success

I’ve met a lot of developers over the past 2 years I’ve been a web developer. Along my journey, I’ve met a few developers who really stood out — developers who were clearly in a league of their own, and to whom me and everyone else looked up to. I found these individuals shared quite a few characteristics, which I’d like to share with you right now. These are in my opinion the secret sauce to being a successful web developer:

  • Love what you do. This is simply the most important characteristic of them all. If you don’t love what you do (be it CSS Styling or JavaScript), it will truly show in what you do. Those who are passionate about what they do often clearly stand out from the crowd.
  • Be generous and share your knowledge . It’s very easy to want to keep that new CSS/JavaScript hack you found that solves the project’s issues a secret, but please don’t. The people who share their knowledge the most are often the most valuable, since they can be placed in any kind of team and improve it’s quality by a huge margin.
  • Always be on the lookout for new things . Most of the successful developers I’ve met share this common trait. Whether it be by reading blogs, spending lots of time in programming related discussions, or even talking about what’s new in web development during lunch breaks. Being on the lookout for new things all the time allows the best developers to always stay ahead of the curve.

The shortest route

Whew, this article took a while to finish (6 hours and counting). We’re almost done! You may be wondering: “Ok, cool story, but what’s the quickest route?” And so, here it is.

I’ve organized this in the way that I would take it if I could go back and do things right. I also added a few bonuses, which I would have loved to have had back then. Enjoy!

  • CodeSchool or Treehouse’s Javascript learning path (paid) OR Codecademy’s Javascript course
  • Eloquent JavaScript
  • You Don’t Know JS
  • JS: The Right Way
  • Learn ES6 by Egghead.io
  • CodeSchool or Treehouse’s HTML & CSS learning path(Paid) OR HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites by John Ducket OR Codecademy’s HTML & CSS course .
  • Specifics on CSS Specifity by CSS Tricks
  • Learn CSS Layout
  • 9 basic principles of responsive web design by Front
  • Responsive Web Design Fundamentals by Google on Udacity (Take if you didn’t use CodeSchool or Treehouse learning path)
  • Managing Mobile Performance Optimization by Smashing Magazine OR Browser Rendering Optimization and Website Performance Optimization by Google on Udacity
  • Web fundamentals by Google

Developer Tools

  • Explore and Master DevTools by CodeSchool
  • Learn Git by Codecademy and Try Github by Codeschool
  • Introduction to Linux Commands by Smashing Magazine
  • Automate Your Tasks Easily with Gulp.js by Scotch.io
  • Design Decisions in AngularJS by Google Developers (Intro to AngularJS)
  • AngularJS fundamentals by Egghead.io
  • John Papa’s Angular Styleguide
  • Creating a Single Page Todo App with Node and Angular (MEAN) by Scotch.io
  • AngularJS application structure by Egghead.io (Paid) OR Scotch.io’s Angular Courses
  • Learning React.js: Getting Started and Concepts by Scotch.io
  • Intro to webpack by Egghead.io
  • React Fundamentals by Egghead.io
  • Leveling Up with React: Redux by CSS Tricks
  • NodeJS tutorials by NodeSchool.io
  • How I explained REST to my Wife
  • Creating a Single Page Todo App with Node and Angular by Scotch.io (Node, ExpressJS, MongoDB, Angular, REST)

Bonus: Resources

Completely optional, but some of my favorite articles and resources which I’ve found over the years which you will probably love if you are interested in their respective topic.

  • Web Design in 4 minutes . A very creative and original interactive tutorial that teaches you the fundamentals of web design.
  • Awwards . Looking for web design inspiration? Look no further.
  • Why Hiring is so hard in tech by Eric Elliott. Here Eric is does an amazing job at summarizing how it’s surprisingly hard to find great developers, and how to become one.
  • NoSQL database systems mega comparison by Kristof Kovacs. This is a superb comparison between the most popular NoSQL database systems out there. MongoDB, Redis, CouchDB, Cassandra, ElasticSearch, they and more are all here.
  • XSS Game . Cross-site scripting (XSS) bugs are one of the most common and dangerous types of vulnerabilities in Web applications. Using this awesome resource you can learn how to find and exploit XSS bugs, and how to prevent them from happening to your web application.
  • How To Write Unmaintainable Code . Hilarious article on how not to write maintainable, clean code.

Bonus: My tools

I thought it’d also be nice to share some of the tools I discovered (some well known, some not so much) that have made my life easier as web developer so here they are.

  • Jetbrains Webstorm : Full featured Web Development IDE. (My editor of choice) Paid, but offers a 1 year free license for students.
  • Atom.io : Highly extensible text editor with IDE like features rivaling Webstorm. Free.
  • Sublime Text : Lightning fast text editor with plugins support and an aesthetically pleasing look. (I normally keep Webstorm/Atom installed as IDE for serious work, and Sublime Text installed for quick edits to files.)
  • caniuse.com : Browser support is critical for websites, and this is the #1 resource at figuring out what features are supported by which browser version and which are.
  • Cloud 9 : Cloud based development environment and IDE with Git support that runs on Linux. Great for programming remotely and testing out NodeJS or other server side things without needing to install anything on your machine
  • CodePen , Plunker and JSFiddle : Great cloud based front end playgrounds that let you do quick HTML/CSS/JS demos you can share, or work on later on if you create a free account. CodePen is often best for CSS related things because of it’s minimalistic interface and plethora of CSS related features, Plunker for JavaScript demos because of it’s powerful JS features, and JSFiddle for demos that you wish to collaborate with others in real time thanks to it’s live editor sharing collaboration feature.
  • Vanilla List : A repository of JavaScript plugins and libraries using only vanilla JavaScript (meaning they require no libraries to work, like jQuery)
  • YouMightNotNeedjQuery : You probably don’t. See for yourself.
  • PublicAPIs : Ever wondered what public APIs exist? Look no further!
  • Gravit.io : Cloud based design application rivaling adobe illustrator. (Free!) Useful for quick mockups and web design.
  • Adobe Kuler : Webapp to help you create harmonious color combinations for any website. Also has an “Explore” showcase of color palettes built by other designers as well as a ranking system to help inspire you.
  • Name that color : Stop spending lots of time figuring out how to name your color variables in less/sass and just use their rightful name with this webapp

I’d just like to say I really enjoyed writing this, and it makes me really happy to have been finally able to give something back to the incredibly supportive programming community everywhere.

As some of you already noticed, this is my first blog post, but you can be sure I plan to write more. Just don’t expect one every week. Remember: quality over quantity!

If any of you have any questions left, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to get back to you ASAP.

I hope this was useful to you guys, until next time, Best!

March ’18 Update : For those curious as to what I’ve been up to, here’s a quick status update!

https://medium.com/@sgarcia.dev/status-update-im-still-here-with-cool-stuff-incoming-f031bab49eca

If this article was helpful, share it .

Learn to code for free. freeCodeCamp's open source curriculum has helped more than 40,000 people get jobs as developers. Get started

  • Top Courses
  • Online Degrees
  • Find your New Career
  • Join for Free

What Does a Web Developer Do (and How Do I Become One)?

Web developers build websites and ensure they perform reliably and efficiently. Learn more about this critical role in the tech industry and how to get started.

[Featured image] A web designer is at the office working.

What is web development?

A web developer’s job is to create websites. While their primary role is to ensure the website is visually appealing and easy to navigate, many web developers are also responsible for the website’s performance and capacity. 

Types of web developers

Web developers usually fall under one of three categories: back-end developers , front-end developers , and full-stack developers . Some web developers also work as webmasters. Let’s take a closer look at each of these roles.

Back-end web developers create the website’s structure, write code, and verify the code works. Their responsibilities also may include managing access points for others who need to manage a website’s content.

Consider Meta's Back-End Developer courses to build your skill set:

Front-end web developers work on the visual part of the website—the pages visitors see and interact with (also known as the user interface). They design the physical layout of each page, integrate graphics, and use HTML and JavaScript to enhance the site. You can gain essential front-end web development skills with Meta's Front-End Developer Professional Certificate .

Advance your front-end web developer skills with Meta's series of courses:

Full-stack developers do the work of both back-end and front-end developers. These developers have the knowledge to build a complete website and may work for organizations that don’t have the budget for a large website team. If you're interested in full-stack web development, consider earning IBM's Full-Stack Developer Professional Certificate .

Learn how to deliver both back-end and front-end web development with IBM:

Webmasters are essentially website managers. Their primary responsibility is to keep the website updated, ensuring that the links and applications on each page work properly.

Web developer tasks and responsibilities

As a web developer, you could work for a company or agency, or as a freelancer taking on projects for individual clients. Your tasks will vary depending on your work situation, but day-to-day responsibilities might generally include:

Designing user interfaces and navigation menus

Writing and reviewing code for sites, typically HTML, XML, or JavaScript

Integrating multimedia content onto a site

Testing web applications

Troubleshooting problems with performance or user experience

Collaborating with designers, developers, and stakeholders

Web developer career path

Many web developers start their careers with a single focus, usually front-end or back-end development. They may move on to be full-stack developers or explore careers in related fields, including project management, computer programming, or graphic design. 

How much do web developers make?

The median annual salary for web developers in the US is $80,730, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) [ 1 ]. However, web developers in the US can earn up to $122,000, according to Glassdoor salary insights [ 2 ]. How much you earn will depend on many factors, including where you work, what industry you work in, and how much experience you have.

BLS estimates 16 percent industry growth for web developers between 2022 and 2032, a faster-than-average rate compared to other occupations. One of the driving forces behind this increase in web development jobs is the growth of e-commerce. Companies are becoming more reliant on functioning websites that operate on multiple devices to do business.

How to become a web developer

A formal education isn’t always necessary to become an entry-level web developer. Some web developers have an associate or bachelor’s degree in website design or computer science , but others teach themselves how to code and design websites. While earning a degree can make you a more competitive candidate, a strong portfolio can go a long way toward validating your skills to potential employers.

If you’re interested in becoming a web developer, here are some steps you can take.

1. Build web developer skills.

Employers and clients usually expect web developers to have certain skills that demonstrate their ability to deliver on website requirements. If you’re interested in a career as a web developer, these are some skills you can focus on to build a foundation for success.

Technical skills

Coding: Common programming languages include HTML, PHP, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript for front-end design. Consider learning Python, Java, or Ruby if you want to do back-end development.

Responsive design: People use a variety of devices to view websites. Developers should be able to create sites that look as good on smartphones and tablets as they do on computer screens.

Technical SEO: Many factors of website design can affect the site’s search engine ranking. Understanding how search engines rank sites is useful in a developer’s work.

Version control: This lets you track and control changes to the source code without starting over from the beginning each time you run into a problem.

Visual design: Understanding basic design principles, such as how to use white space, choose fonts, and incorporate images, could boost your marketability.

Workplace skills

Communication: Web developers spend time discussing design ideas with their clients and team members through each step of the project.

Customer service: A web developer creates websites for the client to use and should remain client-focused to achieve the best results.

Detail-oriented: Little details, like a small change in code, can make a big difference in how a website performs.

Organization: Keeping track of deadlines, project tasks, workflow, and budgets is helpful if you want to complete a website design on time.

Problem-solving: Web developers often run into issues when designing websites. They should have the patience and ability to identify problems in the design or coding and solve them in a methodical way.

2. Consider a degree in computer science or web design.

While you don’t always need a degree to get a job in web development, it can certainly help. If you’re already in school (or considering earning a degree), some majors might be a better fit for your career goals than others. If you’re more interested in back-end web development, consider a degree program in computer science. If you feel more drawn to front-end development, you might opt for a degree in web design or user experience (UX) .

3. Take a course in web development.

You don’t necessarily need formal training to work as a web developer. It’s possible to acquire the skills you need on your own. For example, you can take a course to learn programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, or CSS, and then put what you learn into practice on your own website.

By completing an online course in web development, like Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding from the University of Michigan, you can build skills while completing development projects for your portfolio.

Get a feel for the course by watching this video on interactivity with JavaScript:

4. Build a portfolio of web development work.

As a web developer, your portfolio is often one of the most important parts of your resume. This collection of projects shows potential employers what you’re capable of creating. Include the types of projects that represent the work you’d like to do. If you’re including code, be sure to annotate it to show your thought process.

5. Get certified.

Earning a certification can validate your skill set to potential employers. You’ll find a range of general and vendor-specific options, including:

Adobe Certified Expert (ACE)

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSD)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Developer

Zend Certified PHP Engineer

Start advancing your web developer skills today

Get an overview of web development from industry leader, Meta with Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate or Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding from the University of Michigan.

If your career goals include a role as a web developer, learn more about how a degree in computer science can help create new opportunities.

Article sources

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Web Developers and Digital Designers , https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm." Accessed March 21, 2024.

Glassdoor. " How much does a Web Developer make? https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/web-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,13.htm." Accessed March 21, 2024.

Keep reading

Coursera staff.

Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to search
  • Skip to select language
  • Sign up for free
  • English (US)

Common questions

This section of the Learning Area is designed to provide answers to common questions that may come up, which are not necessarily part of the structured core learning pathways (e.g. the HTML or CSS learning articles.) These articles are designed to work on their own.

  • HTML questions
  • CSS questions
  • JavaScript questions
  • Web mechanics
  • Tools and setup
  • Design and accessibility

We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.

  • Essay Database >
  • Essay Examples >
  • Essays Topics >
  • Essay on Website

Web Development Research Paper

Type of paper: Research Paper

Topic: Website , Education , Architecture , Students , Technology , Internet , Development , Computers

Words: 1900

Published: 11/27/2019

ORDER PAPER LIKE THIS

Introduction

Web development is a term used in developing web sites for the internet. The internet is a system that involves a system of computer networks using Internet Protocol Suite (Loughan, 2004, p. 12-39). Web development involves the history of internet, the internet applications and architecture, and the design principles used in creating accessible and usable web sites.

Internet history

Internet started in the early 1960s when certain technologists acted on an idea that computers could be used to share information on research and development. As indicated by Howe (2010), the fields that mostly needed the internet connection for information research are science and military. Among the people who started the internet is Licklider in 1962 when he proposed the global network of computers, Lawrence Roberts who was involved in connecting the California computer and Massachusetts computers in 1965 and Leonard Kleinrock who developed the packet switching, which made it possible for internet connections (Loughan, 2004, p. 12-39).

The first internet connection known as ARPANET in 1969 had the application of connecting four major computers (Howe, 2010). The connected computers were from universities such as university of Utah, Stanford Research Institute, UCLA, and UCSB. Many more university computers connected to the internet within a few months. By that time, only librarians, scientists, experts, and engineers had access to internet. The system was complex and was not common because there was no office or home computers. Personal computers were not there and so there was nothing exciting in the use of internet and the few people who used it had to receive complex training on how to use it.

In the history of internet, Ray Tomlinson adapted e-mail in 1972. He decided to use @ as a symbol to connect the address and the . E-mails enabled the people connected to the internet to transfer files from one location to another between the internet sites. There were great changes in the internet in 1970s because of the introduction of TCP/IP, proposed by Bob Kahn. According to Howe (2010), the DoD (Department of Defense) in 1980 adopted the TCP/IP architecture and they replaced the Network Control Protocol. In 1983, the architecture was adopted universally and it became common compared to the 1960s and in the 1970s. In 1986, National Science Foundation founded NSFNet, which formed the foundation of the internet. The non-commercial government used the internet sponsored by the National Science foundation for research and other uses for approximately ten years. The rules set by the National Science Foundation during the decade led to standardization of the telnet, FTP, and e-mail. This made it a lot easier for people lacking technical background to learn how to use the internet. Although by then the use of internet was not as easy as it is today, at least other people in the universities got a chance to use internet (Loughan, 2004, p. 12-39). The main use of the internet by this time was in the libraries, engineering, physics, and computer departments. The setting of rules allowed other departments to make good use of the internet and they were able to share resources and files and to communicate with other people in the world.

In the 1980s, the number of internet sites was small which made it easy to manage and keep track of the available resources. It became hard to manage the internet resources after many universities became connected. This saw the development of the internet and there was need of more tools for indexing the available resources. In 1991, the University of Minnesota developed a friendly interface in the effort to have a simple menu system that could help in retrieving information and files on local network (Loughan, 2004, p. 12-39). The gopher demonstration system became successful and within some few years, it had spread globally covering more than 10,000 gophers (Howe, 2010). Its prolific spread was mostly due to the simplicity in use where the user was only required to type on a number and get to what they want. Since then, the internet has grown rapidly with the advancement in high-speed connectivity. The internet became useful and accessible to every person in the world and it became cheaper to connect.

Internet architecture and applications

Internet technologies globally are associated with diverse architectural types. It is not hard to access the internet because anybody in the world can connect to your internet (Standley, 2005). To enable this, the priority in internet architecture is to satisfy a static content that is simple and needs a free HTTP server and a PC. The only limitation of the application architecture is that it cannot standardize the HTML templates and to set up useful directory structures.

Internet architecture has seen the use of Common Gateway Interface that offers dynamic data such as goods availability, scores in sports, weather, and prices. As stated by Standley (2005, p. 2), “the CGI make use of the HTTP server, which recognizes applications and refers it to the program standard, which has an input and an output.” The program enables the user to get the reply in the desired HTML. The Common Gateway Interface is available in every modern language and the only limitation is that it is a very expensive proposition (Standley, 2005). To get scripting solutions, the Active Server Page technology helps to mix scripts with HTML. The ASP interprets the script part after returning the HTML parts in the page.

Another step in the network architecture and application after scripting is the N-Tiered computing. “It contains a serious application server that turns into conventional N-Tiered deployment with a HTTP server that connects the client (Stadley, 2005, p. 2).” The internet application has scalability needs, which is not like the corporate setting where it is possible to know the number of users who can access the system. With scalability, it is not possible to control or predict the quantity of users obtained. One strategy in the architecture is to build many machines that run with the same code. The machines will act as redundant servers through various software and hardware. This will make it possible for the operation staff to divide requests and add new servers to handle any excess requests. The redundant machines used for scalability are reliable because in case of failure of one machine, the load-balancing router ensures that the work is sent to the other machines. This ensures reliability because the users have nothing to loose and they may not know there was a problem with one of the machines. It also ensures availability because if there is a regional network failure, the sites duplicate their structure and addresses the risk.

The internet architecture has allowed many people to access web services, which has become a big business. This makes it possible for different people to communicate and call from anywhere in the world without the need of knowing the language on the other end. According to Marlowe (2009), the current internet architecture solves the limitations of Common Gateway Interface. It allows the deployment and development of the industrial applications by having an application server and APIs (Application Program Interfaces). The application servers introduced avoid CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and instead provides the use of Application Program Interfaces. The architecture supports the use of HTML pages and minimizes cookie technology that avoids privacy and security concerns (Marlowe, 2009). It increases the ability and availability of handling many users and enables the off-shelf business objects. The current internet architecture that uses the API is particular to a Web server hence solving limitations of CGI programs. The programs enable separate browser requests making it possible to start a new program every time.

Principles for creating usable and accessible web sites

One of the principles for creating a usable and accessible web site is to include redundant modalities. This will allow flexibility in the systems because the users will have different preferences. To achieve the redundant modalities, the users can have several ways to enter, display, or represent data. As McPartland (2007, p. 20-22), puts it, some of the ways that can be used include the use of text to label images, the use of a menu bar flash and a beep to notify someone of an error or allowing a user to issue a command by using a pointer or typing.

Another principle that used to provide usable and accessible web site is to be simple and intuitive. Designed websites should be able to provide feedback for users. Furthermore, to be simple for everyone, the website design should not have unnecessary complexity. Non-complex designs make it easy for the users and they are able to access the website (Usability first, 2011). The design should not be different from the user’s expectations because it is likely that they will not use it. The needs of the users and their expectations are considered in web site designs to promote uniqueness.

Allowing flexibility is another important principle in having accessible and usable web site. To have flexibility, the web site must accommodate both left-handed and the right-handed people (McPartland, 2007, p. 20-22). The user must also be allowed to use adaptive technologies to serve their needs in the website. This will make them feel the flexibility and freedom as they access the web site. The design of the website should not limit the users to customize settings (Usability first, 2011). An accessible and usable website must provide choices to accomplish tasks by giving different ways and features.

The internet started in the early 1960s when the users used very complex systems to operate the internet. As the years went by, the internet was developed and the universities were the first institutions to use the internet. In the 1990s, the internet was widely used and many people started using it as it developed to current web sites. The architecture and application has seen the internet develop from the use of Common Gateway Interface to Application Program Interfaces that is easier for the users of internet. The principles for creating usable and accessible websites are important because they allow the users of any kind to access the internet and use it is a simple way.

Howe, W, (2010). A Brief History of the Internet. [Online] Available from http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html. Viewed on 12 September 2011. Loughan, D, (2004). Internet History. Google book.United Kingdom: Garden Books. Marlowe, D.K. (2009). Third generation Internet architecture. [Online] Available from http://www.articleinput.com/e/a/title/Internet-architecture-overcomes-CGI-and-enables-application-development/. Viewed on 12 September 2011. McPartland, A. (2007). The ABCs of Creating a Web Site. Home-Based Travel Agent, 2(7), 20-22. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Standley, J. (2005). Internet Architecture. [Online]. Available from http://www.surfscranton.com/architecture/InternetArchitecture.htm. Viewed on 12 September 2011. Usability first, (2011). Principles of Accessible and Universal Design. [Online] Available from http://www.usabilityfirst.com/about-usability/accessibility/principles-of-accessible-and-universal-design/. Viewed on 12 September 2011.

double-banner

Cite this page

Share with friends using:

Removal Request

Removal Request

Finished papers: 2162

This paper is created by writer with

ID 281464499

If you want your paper to be:

Well-researched, fact-checked, and accurate

Original, fresh, based on current data

Eloquently written and immaculately formatted

275 words = 1 page double-spaced

submit your paper

Get your papers done by pros!

Other Pages

Sympathy reports, estrogen reports, nut reports, curtain reports, salesman reports, mosquito reports, salon reports, ulcer reports, counterpart reports, nose reports, drugs and alcohol argumentative essays, example of essay on symbolism, free technology globalization sustainable development essay example, hegemony course work, u s farm bill and the dairy industry essay samples, good essay on children need to play not compete jessica statsky, free research paper about risk assessment of lockheed martin in gaithersburg md, essay on transgression vs conformity a study in gendered power relations in euripedes, example of research paper on research and discussion paper, health people 2020 health indicators essay samples, free report about policy and procedure, young modulus of elasticity of various steel compositions atdifferenttemperatures essay, good article review about the immorality of illegal downloading, example of research paper on oral history research project, sample essay on 1001 nights versus bhagavad gita, how to become a probation supervisor term paper sample, free essay about history homer, west tankers litigation course work example, free essay about industrialization after the civil war, free a raisin in the sun book review example, the tell tale heart essay examples, knidos essays, zappos com essays, palm wine essays, cole haan essays, sexual deviance essays, the hudson essays, radical views essays, court cases essays, spatial intelligence essays, depression economics essays, company overview essays, network switch essays.

Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]

Use your new password to log in

You are not register!

By clicking Register, you agree to our Terms of Service and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

Now you can download documents directly to your device!

Check your email! An email with your password has already been sent to you! Now you can download documents directly to your device.

or Use the QR code to Save this Paper to Your Phone

The sample is NOT original!

Short on a deadline?

Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED

No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline

Web Development

Web development roadmaps, front-end roadmap, to become a web developer, start with the subjects below, in the following order:, 1. create your first web page.

The first thing you have to learn, is HTML, which is the standard markup language for creating web pages.

It is used to format text, create links, tables, lists, forms, display images and more.

2. Style your web page

The next step is to learn CSS, to set the layout of your web page with beautiful colors, fonts, and much more.

How to use CSS to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site.

3. Make your web page interactive

After studying HTML and CSS, you should learn JavaScript to create dynamic and interactive web pages for your users.

What's Next?

Now you know how to use html, css, and javascript to create, style, and make interactive web pages., the next step is to publish your website, so that the rest of the world can see your work., there are tons of hosting services to choose from. we have made one for you, for free:, w3schools spaces, build your own website with w3schools spaces..

essay on web development

Hello, Front-End Developer!

People who create websites and web applications for a living, are called front-end developers ., tip: many front-end developers also have basic knowledge of different css and javascript frameworks and libraries, like bootstrap , sass (css pre-processor) , jquery and react , and the popular version control system, git ., what about back-end, front-end development refers to the client -side (how a web page looks ). back-end development refers to the server -side (how a web page works )., front-end code is used to create static websites, where the purpose is to display the web page. however, if you want to make your website dynamic (manage files and databases, add contact forms, control user-access, etc.), you need to learn a back-end programming language, like php or python , and use sql to communicate with databases., a list of other popular languages can be found on our homepage ..

Get Certified

COLOR PICKER

colorpicker

Report Error

If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, do not hesitate to send us an e-mail:

[email protected]

Top Tutorials

Top references, top examples, get certified.

web development Recently Published Documents

Total documents.

  • Latest Documents
  • Most Cited Documents
  • Contributed Authors
  • Related Sources
  • Related Keywords

Website Developmemt Technologies: A Review

Abstract: Service Science is that the basis of knowledge system and net services that judge to the provider/client model. This paper developments a technique which will be utilized in the event of net services like websites, net applications and eCommerce. The goal is to development a technique that may add structure to a extremely unstructured drawback to help within the development and success of net services. The new methodology projected are going to be referred to as {the net|the online|the net} Development Life Cycle (WDLC) and tailored from existing methodologies and applied to the context of web development. This paper can define well the projected phases of the WDLC. Keywords: Web Development, Application Development, Technologies, eCommerce.

Analysis of Russian Segment of the Web Development Market Operating Online on Upwork

The Russian segment of the web services market in the online environment, on the platform of the Upwork freelance exchange, is considered, its key characteristics, the composition of participants, development trends are highlighted, and the market structure is identified. It is found that despite the low barriers to entry, the web development market is very stable, since the composition of entrenched firms that have been operating for more than six years remains. The pricing policy of most Russian companies indicates that they work in the middle price segment and have low budgets, which is due to the specifics of the foreign market and high competition.

Farming Assistant Web Services: Agricultor

Abstract: Our farming assistant web services provides assistance to new as well as establish farmers to get the solutions to dayto-day problems faced in the field. A farmer gets to connect with other farmers throughout India to get more information about a particular crop which is popular in other states. Keywords: Farmers, Assistance, Web Development

Tradução de ementas e histórico escolar para o inglês: contribuição para participação de discentes do curso técnico em informática para internet integrado ao ensino médio em programas de mobilidade acadêmica / Translation of summary and school records into english: contribution to the participation of high school with associate technical degree on web development students in academic mobility programs

Coded websites vs wordpress websites.

This document gives multiple instructions related to web developers using older as well as newer technology. Websites are being created using newer technologies like wordpress whereas on the other hand many people prefer making websites using the traditional way. This document will clear the doubt whether an individual should use wordpress websites or coded websites according to the users convenience. The Responsiveness of the websites, the use of CMS nowadays, more and more up gradation of technologies with SEO, themes, templates, etc. make things like web development much much easier. The aesthetics, the culture, the expressions, the features all together add up in order make the designing and development a lot more efficient and effective. Digital Marketing has a tremendous growth over the last two years and yet shows no signs of stopping, is closely related with the web development environment. Nowadays all businesses are going online due to which the impact of web development has become such that it has become an integral part of any online business.

Cognitive disabilities and web accessibility: a survey into the Brazilian web development community

Cognitive disabilities include a diversity of conditions related to cognitive functions, such as reading, understanding, learning, solving problems, memorization and speaking. They differ largely from each other, making them a heterogeneous complex set of disabilities. Although the awareness about cognitive disabilities has been increasing in the last few years, it is still less than necessary compared to other disabilities. The need for an investigation about this issue is part of the agenda of the Challenge 2 (Accessibility and Digital Inclusion) from GranDIHC-Br. This paper describes the results of an online exploratory survey conducted with 105 web development professionals from different sectors to understand their knowledge and barriers regarding accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities. The results evidenced three biases that potentially prevent those professionals from approaching cogni-tive disabilities: strong organizational barriers; difficulty to understand user needs related to cognitive disabilities; a knowledge gap about web accessibility principles and guidelines. Our results confirmed that web development professionals are unaware about cognitive disabilities mostly by a lack of knowledge about them, even if they understand web accessibility in a technical level. Therefore, we suggest that applied research studies focus on how to fill this knowledge gap before providing tools, artifacts or frameworks.

PERANCANGAN WEB RESPONSIVE UNTUK SISTEM INFORMASI OBAT-OBATAN

A good information system must not only be neat, effective, and resilient, but also must be user friendly and up to date. In a sense, it is able to be applied to various types of electronic devices, easily accessible at any whereand time (real time), and can be modified according to user needs in a relatively easy and simple way. Information systems are now needed by various parties, especially in the field of administration and sale of medicines for Cut Nyak Dhien Hospital. During this time, recording in books has been very ineffective and caused many problems, such as difficulty in accessing old data, asa well as the information obtained was not real time. To solve it, this research raises the theme of the appropriate information system design for the hospital concerned, by utilizing CSS Bootstrap framework and research methodology for web development, namely Web Development Life Cycle. This research resulted in a responsive system by providing easy access through desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones so that it would help the hospital in the data processing process in real time.

Web Development and performance comparison of Web Development Technologies in Node.js and Python

“tom had us all doing front-end web development”: a nostalgic (re)imagining of myspace, assessment of site classifications according to layout type in web development, export citation format, share document.

Web design — Past, present and future

Ieee account.

  • Change Username/Password
  • Update Address

Purchase Details

  • Payment Options
  • Order History
  • View Purchased Documents

Profile Information

  • Communications Preferences
  • Profession and Education
  • Technical Interests
  • US & Canada: +1 800 678 4333
  • Worldwide: +1 732 981 0060
  • Contact & Support
  • About IEEE Xplore
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Nondiscrimination Policy
  • Privacy & Opting Out of Cookies

A not-for-profit organization, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. © Copyright 2024 IEEE - All rights reserved. Use of this web site signifies your agreement to the terms and conditions.

Institute of Entrepreneurship Development

The Importance of Web Design and Development in Business

  • Entrepreneurship
  • Innovation & Digital Transformation
  • Sustainability
  • Education & Training
  • Culture & Creativity
  • Social Inclusion & Human Rights
  • Health & Wellbeing

essay on web development

Poor website design can lead to several challenges for businesses. These include low conversion rates, low engagement rates, and more.

Many challenges come with poor web design. Poor web design can lead to a difficult to navigate and understand website. Poor web design can also lead to a website that is difficult to use, leading to a negative user experience.

Poor web design can also hinder the business’s ability to reach its target audience or customers. You may not optimize the website for mobile devices and thus will not be as accessible as it could be.

Poor web design affects the business’s overall success by limiting its ability to grow in both size and reputation.

That’s why businesses need to invest more in web design and development for their business.

What is web design and development?

Before we figure out the importance of proper web design and development, let’s first define them.

Web design and development create websites and applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and accessible to a wide range of devices.

Web design is the visual aspect of a website or application. It includes everything from the layout, colors, graphics, and images to the site’s typography. Web developers are responsible for designing these aspects. A web developer will also create a site map for the website or application before it goes live. Here’s a helpful guide on how to find web developers for your business.

Web development makes a site or application work in the first place. It includes programming scripts, server configuration, database management, and more. Web developers do not need to know about graphic design. Still, they need to understand how to create an intuitive user interface that is responsive across devices such as smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Utilizing a graphic design tool can aid in creating visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces without the need for in-depth graphic design expertise.

Another great alternative is Web flow development , which allows designers to construct websites visually without programming skills. A Webflow developmen t agency designs a professional website for you using its in-built visual design editor, but the website gets developed in Webflow’s own semantic code. Thus, there’s less chance that construction claims can occur, and the design is smoother from the get-go.

8 benefits of web design and development in your business

Now that you know more about web design and web development for your business let’s discuss precisely the benefits that your business can get from investing more into better web design and development.

1. Sales growth

Web design and web development are the keys to a good website. A well-designed website will provide your business with sales growth and improve sales. Whether you want to learn how to make a website on your own or hire a professional, keep this factor in mind.

Web design is the process of developing a website, including its interface and how it looks visually. Web development is designing and coding a functional layout for your site, making sure it’s compatible with all browsers, mobile devices, and other devices that might access the site.

A well-designed website will provide your business with sales growth and improve sales. You can do this by attracting more visitors to your site through good web design and web development practices like using effective headlines that entice people to click on them.

2. Competitive SEO

The internet has become an integral part of the way we do business. It’s a public arena where we have to compete with the best of them. And web design and web development are among the most critical factors in your business’s success on the internet.

The key to having a competitive SEO is a website that is up-to-date with all of the latest trends , easy to navigate, and looks great. But this isn’t as easy as it sounds.

You need to consider many things when designing or developing your website, like how fast it loads, how much data it uses, whether or not it’s mobile-friendly, and if the content is relevant and engaging for your customers.

Technical SEO which comes from web development and design, can help your website be more SEO-friendly.

3. User-friendly website

According to Sytian Productions web design Philippines , a user-friendly website can make the visitors to your website stay for a longer time.

A website is the most critical marketing tool for any business that wants to succeed in today’s digital environment. It is the first thing potential customers see, and it will make or break their decision to buy from you.

If you don’t have a user-friendly website, you make it difficult for your customers to navigate through your site, find what they’re looking for and complete a purchase. On the other hand, to make things easier for you, consider using the best Figma mockup plugin to easily edit and improve your designs.

A user-friendly website should be simple, easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, and have a great user experience. And an online mockup generator makes it an easier task.

4. Well-maintained consistency

Web design and web development are two different fields of expertise. One is about how your website looks, and the other is about how it functions. These two fields are inextricably linked because a website that performs poorly will not get much traffic . Also, a website that looks bad is not a website that many people will use often.

Both web design and web development aim to make sure your business stays consistent across all platforms.

5. Generates long-term customer relationships

Web design and development can help you generate long-term customer relationships because it provides a platform to connect with your customers.

Without a good website, you will not be able to generate the long-term relationships with your customers that you want.

The design and development of your website are what sets you apart from other businesses in your industry. No matter how great your product or service is, if customers can’t find it on your website, they will not convert into paying customers.

6. Accessibility to larger audiences

The web is a place where people can find information. But sometimes, it can be hard to read on the screen, or the site may not have an easy-to-use interface. If you want your website to be accessible to more people , you might need to work with a web developer and a web designer.

Web design and development help make websites more accessible for users with disabilities, such as blindness or low vision, deafness or hearing loss, learning disabilities, limited movement or dexterity problems (such as arthritis), speech disabilities, and combinations of these. This step means that there are many ways that they can help you get in touch with larger audiences.

7. Up-to-date marketing strategies

Web design and development are the two fundamental pillars of any marketing strategy. Web design is an art that can make or break your marketing, while web development is a science that can help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends in marketing.

A website is like an e-business card . It has to be well designed and developed to attract potential customers. A website is also a way to showcase your products and services, which will help you generate revenue.

8. Branding authenticity

A website is the first thing that prospective clients see of your business. It’s a reflection of your company’s identity and professionalism.

The design and development of your website can make or break the authenticity of your brand.

Web design is about how the website looks, while web development is about its functions. Web designers should remember that simple layouts and designs can achieve a good user experience. In contrast, web developers should consider security features like encryption and backups to ensure data safety.

Final thoughts

Web design and web development have changed how many businesses work, so whether you’re a solopreneur or a small business looking to leave a mark, a decent website will be at the heart of it. Therefore, you will need to have proper web design and web development to ensure the betterment of your business through your website’s performance overall.

Do you want to write for us? Read our guest post guidelines here !

essay on web development

VIEW ALL POSTS

A quick and easy guide to market research for your startup, most effective email marketing tools to boost small businesses, subscribe to our mail list.

Receive our newsletter to stay on top of iEDs latest posts.

Related Posts

What is ied.

essay on web development

Privacy Overview

Development Of Web Programming essay

Web programming languages have evolved from one technology to another. This evolution has been aided by the increased affinity and inclination of most people to the internet. The internet constitutes a global platform where different people and organizations converge to share ideas, information and resources. Programming languages are the enabling technologies behind the internet wave and most technological application used in numerous organizations across the world. The needs, complexities and functionalities of websites have expanded with the demands of internet users and expanding business objectives.

This study examines the evolution of web programming languages, the major types, their functionalities, the future of web-enabled applications and the programming languages/technologies that drive them. The major types of web programming languages include Ada, HTML, Basic, C++ DHTML, JavaScript, . NET, Java, Lisp, Ajax ,Java web 2. 0. Perl, Visual Basic and so on. Web Programming & Development The basic programming language that was first used in building most websites is the Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML). It is still in use today but different versions have been developed to increase its capabilities.

This language allows web developers to edit the look and feel of their web pages to suit their needs. A modification to HTML is the Extensible Hyper Text Mark-up Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). HTML is easy to learn and its codes are executed through the incorporation of commands known as tags. CSS is a lot easier because it creates a distinction between the style, presentation controls and the content of the web pages. It makes programming easier by preventing a lot of HTML Coding. HTML can be described as a Markup language that comprises a set of tags which are used to describe web pages that are under construction.

These tags usually come in pairs that are capable of giving functionality to the web pages. HTML can enclose scripting languages such as JavaScript and is easily compatible with other web programming languages (Moller & Schwartzbach, 2006). The first programming language that serves as the basis of all other programming languages was created by Ada Lovelace and Babbage who wrote programs for the “difference engine” and the “analytical engine” (Sureau, 2008). By 1954, Fortran was created. It was the first high-level language to make use of a compiler.

Related essays:

  • NAVAL essay
  • Hacking In Ethical Way essay
  • Political problem essay
  • Web Programming essay

Fortran is the acronym for formula translation and it was invented by John Backus and researchers at IBM. The main purpose of Fortran was the translation of mathematical formulas and functions into computer code. Functions, Sub-routines and loops were introduced with Fortran II. In 1958, Lisp was invented by John McCarthy as a form of list processing programming language. It was well known for its use in meta-programming applications. It can also be described as a programmable programming language used most in artificial intelligence applications (Sureau, 2008).

Basic, an acronym for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code was designed in 1963 as an interactive code that could be interpreted. Basic has been used largely in the design of most PCs. Statistics reveal that by 2006, over half of the total number of developers for . NET platform used mostly Visual Basic. Microsoft still uses Basic today; Visual Basic is a flavour of Basic that is used in developing applications for daily use which is significantly influenced by the original BASIC. ASP is another programming language used for developing web applications.

Other flavors of BASIC include Microsoft Basic, Apple Basic, TI-Basic and so on (Sureau, 2008). Structured Query Language (SQL) is another programming language that is used in web programming. Most websites are database-driven and have the capability to supply information based on the users’ requirements. SQL is a database programming language that has a robust set of features for executing commands such as sorting, listing, backing up data and general management of data. SQL is used in the query of relational database management systems (RDBMS).

MySQL is another query tool used for relational databases and has the same functions as the SQL programming language but it is an open source technology. This means that anyone can add to it and modify the code according to their needs (Moller & Schwartzbach, 2006). Java is an object-oriented web programming tool developed by James Gosling and notable programmers at Sun Microsystems. It was initially released into the market as an interactive language known as oak in 1991. In 1994, it was rewritten, customized for the internet and became known as Java.

Java programming language derives its structure and syntax from elements of C and C++ programming languages. Java applications are compiled to structures known as byte code and can run seamlessly on interpreters known as Java Virtual Machines. Java is a free software application and is used rampantly in the development of numerous web and mobile applications (Sureau, 2008). Another interesting web programming tool is PHP, an acronym for Personal Home Pages Hypertext Processor that was introduced by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995.

It is a scripting language that can be used in conjunction with HTML and other web programming languages. It allows web developers to build dynamic pages and it can produce a pure HTML page. PHP is a general-purpose, open-source scripting language that is suited for web development. It is implemented via the use of a web server and is very popular with web developers. It receives PHP code as input and produces web pages as output. It can easily be installed on any operating system and it is presently deployed at over 20 million websites all over the world.

PHP can perform server-side scripting and is in the league of operating systems such as Java Server Pages (JSP) invented by Sun Microsystems’, Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP), and mod_perl (Sureau, 2008). JavaScript Programming Language, now officially known as ECMA Script was introduced in 1995 by Brendan Eich of Netscape. It is a dynamic programming language that has significant linkage to web browsers. It is extremely popular and quite easy to use when compared with other languages.

The main objective of JavaScript is to add interactivity to pages coded in simple HTML. It is a scripting language that is usually encoded into HTML code. It acts as an interpreted language and does not require a compiler (w3schools, 2009). AJAX is not a new programming language and is a combination of XML and JavaScript. It was made popular by Google when it was implemented in Google Suggest. AJAX is centered on JavaScript and HTTP requests and can be used to create faster and easy-to-navigate web-enabled applications (Moller & Schwartzbach, 2006).

essay on web development

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

  •  We're Hiring!
  •  Help Center

Web Development

  • Most Cited Papers
  • Most Downloaded Papers
  • Newest Papers
  • Save to Library
  • Last »
  • Web Technologies Follow Following
  • Web Design Follow Following
  • Web Applications Follow Following
  • WEB DEVELOPMENT Follow Following
  • Computer Science Follow Following
  • Information Technology Follow Following
  • Web 2.0 Follow Following
  • Software Engineering Follow Following
  • Java Programming Follow Following
  • Computer Networks Follow Following

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

  • Academia.edu Publishing
  •   We're Hiring!
  •   Help Center
  • Find new research papers in:
  • Health Sciences
  • Earth Sciences
  • Cognitive Science
  • Mathematics
  • Computer Science
  • Academia ©2024

IMAGES

  1. Pin on BTEC

    essay on web development

  2. Learn web development as an absolute beginner (2021)

    essay on web development

  3. Web application development research paper

    essay on web development

  4. Web Development of Sixtiespress Website Essay Example

    essay on web development

  5. (PDF) web development

    essay on web development

  6. 012 Informative Essay Graphic Organizer Example Expository Web ~ Thatsnotus

    essay on web development

VIDEO

  1. G.C.E (A/L) ICT

  2. Condition of Worth in Fully Functioning Person Theory

  3. Internet Use and Well-Being Among College Students

  4. Crash Course: Web development in less than 5 minutes

  5. Fastest Way to Learn Web Development

  6. Electronic Portfolios in Career Development

COMMENTS

  1. Essay on Web Development

    Importance of Web Development: Essay Introduction. At the outset, web designing emerged as an easier and simple way of exchanging information. It was a better means of communication and had better networking benefits compared to the commercial reasons. Later on, the Web became an avenue for making profits, and the information space that was ...

  2. PDF Introduction to Web Development

    Introduction to Web Development 1 About this Course Material Introduction to Web Development has been produced by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in collaboration with Commonwealth of Learning. This Course Material is structured as outlined below: How this Course Material is structured? The Course Overview

  3. What Is Web Development?

    In a few words, web development involves the creation and maintenance of websites. By "website," we mean a collection of web pages that are publicly accessible on the internet, such as: The Codecademy website. A closed, private network, such as your company or school intranet website.

  4. Web Development

    Web Development. Web development refers to the creating, building, and maintaining of websites. It includes aspects such as web design, web publishing, web programming, and database management. It is the creation of an application that works over the internet i.e. websites. Web Development. The word Web Development is made up of two words, that is:

  5. 11 Reasons Why You Should Become a Web Developer

    From self-driving cars and Chat-GPT to the "Internet of Things," developers are changing the way technology and the world works. 11. Web developers are empowered to make a difference. Job Satisfaction: As a software engineer, you have the satisfaction of seeing your work come to life and have a tangible impact.

  6. 7 Reasons You Should Learn Web Development

    7 It's Creative and Fun. Web development gives you the opportunity to express yourself creatively on the internet. If you have an idea you would like to try as you discover your web dev skills, try it out. Web dev is a fun, creative experience. Deciding a career will always be a difficult decision, especially when you're unsure of what the ...

  7. What is Web Development?

    Updated on 26th Mar, 24 9.4K Views. Web development is a process of building and maintaining websites that work over the internet and can be accessed in a web browser. Other aspects that web development includes are web designing, web programming, server-side scripting, client-side scripting, network configurations, and database management.

  8. My journey to becoming a web developer from scratch without a CS degree

    Once I covered the fundamentals of web development, I was ready for my first web development interview for an entry level position. I won't go into details about the interview since this isn't this article's main focus. But I will say that I was told my relatively strong JavaScript knowledge help me secure the position.

  9. What Does a Web Developer Do (and How Do I Become One)?

    Get an overview of web development from industry leader, Meta with Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate or Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding from the University of Michigan. If your career goals include a role as a web developer, learn more about how a degree in computer science can help create new ...

  10. Common questions

    Common questions. This section of the Learning Area is designed to provide answers to common questions that may come up, which are not necessarily part of the structured core learning pathways (e.g. the HTML or CSS learning articles.) These articles are designed to work on their own.

  11. Research Paper On Web Development

    Introduction. Web development is a term used in developing web sites for the internet. The internet is a system that involves a system of computer networks using Internet Protocol Suite (Loughan, 2004, p. 12-39). Web development involves the history of internet, the internet applications and architecture, and the design principles used in ...

  12. My experiences as a first time Web developer

    In conclusion, my first year as a web developer has been full of training and learning new things, and I'm loving every part of it. One of the best moments for me is the 'aha' moment, that ...

  13. Web Development

    Back-end development refers to the server -side (how a web page works ). Front-end code is used to create static websites, where the purpose is to display the web page. However, if you want to make your website dynamic (manage files and databases, add contact forms, control user-access, etc.), you need to learn a back-end programming language ...

  14. A Short Note On Becoming A Web Developer Essay

    A Short Note On Becoming A Web Developer Essay. Good Essays. 1589 Words. 7 Pages. Open Document. Becoming a Web Developer A web developer is a programmer that specializes in creating programs, applications, and websites that are implemented on the World Wide Web. They are the technical specialists that are able to apply innovative design and ...

  15. Web Development in Society Essay

    Web development has also had a profound impact on the economy, creating new job opportunities and industries. The rise of the internet and the world wide web has created new industries, such as e-commerce, online advertising, and social media, which have created millions of new jobs and contributed to the growth of the global economy.

  16. web development Latest Research Papers

    Website Developmemt Technologies: A Review. Abstract: Service Science is that the basis of knowledge system and net services that judge to the provider/client model. This paper developments a technique which will be utilized in the event of net services like websites, net applications and eCommerce. The goal is to development a technique that ...

  17. 695 PDFs

    Explore the latest full-text research PDFs, articles, conference papers, preprints and more on WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT. Find methods information, sources, references or conduct a literature ...

  18. Web design

    Nowadays there is a wide prevalence of various devices that can be connected online for different kind of activities, and among others, for browsing web pages. Web design is constantly changing and adjusting due to the appearance of different sizes and types of devices. Web design from the 1990s is greatly different from current web pages. The main goal of the design, is not the design itself ...

  19. The Importance of Web Design and Development in Business

    Web design and development create websites and applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and accessible to a wide range of devices. Web design is the visual aspect of a website or application. It includes everything from the layout, colors, graphics, and images to the site's typography. Web developers are responsible for ...

  20. Development Of Web Programming essay

    Development Of Web Programming essay Read More » ... PHP is a general-purpose, open-source scripting language that is suited for web development. It is implemented via the use of a web server and is very popular with web developers. It receives PHP code as input and produces web pages as output. It can easily be installed on any operating ...

  21. Web Development Research Papers

    An Evaluation Support Framework for Internet Technologies and Tools. In several stages of Web development, Web Engineers have to study, evaluate, compare and finally select one, among many, similar software systems/tools and theoretical Web resources, i.e. processes, methodologies, technologies and... more. Download. by Sotiris Christodoulou.