If you’re asking yourself – Can I master web development – Yes, you can because by the end of this article you’ll get your answer.
The good news is that learning web development is not that hard as you may have been made to believe! You don’t need a fancy bachelor’s degree to become a web developer. It’s not only an exciting field, but also on the forefront of digital age, and an evolving one. It’s arguably held that newbies can easily learn it on their own.
Are you wondering how to learn to code and don’t know where to start? I am sure you came to this place to know how to master web development; and this I will tell you how not only to learn it but possibly build a career in it. I will do this without hiding any details from you because I care about you and want you too to be passionate about it as me. This article lays a practical action plan you can follow through to mastering web development in 2021. It will explain what web development is, what skills and education are needed, current market trends, different career paths, and what you can expect as a web developer professionally.
What is Web Development?
This is a broad language which can be defined in different ways and is also known as web programming. The tasks associated with developing websites from the scratch for hosting via intranet or internet is said to be referred to as web development.
Now in an easily understandable definition, web development has to do with the building and maintenance of websites; and this entails the work that happens behind the scenes not only in the creation of a website, but also in making it work fast and perform well so that users can have a seamless experience. A person who builds a website from scratch as well as ensure its maintenance is called a web developer. Web development is also known as website development
According to Techopedia, it defines web development as the coding or programming that enables website functionality, per the owner’s requirements…. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/23889/web-development. A website developer (web dev) takes a web design created by a client or a design team and turns it into a website that contains information about a brand and enables users to know more about it. In a nutshell, both the client or design team works hand-in-hand with a web developer. Web developers achieve success in the creation of websites by writing numerous lines and lines of complicated but learnable code, using a variety of languages. The job of web developers is quite difficult, but this is something they signed up for and find passion in it. They take a language, let’s say English which primarily is understood by most people and translate it into a language that a computer understands.
In a broader sense according to webopedia.com, it is defined as the process of building and maintaining a website for the internet or an intranet that is accessed through a web browser and hosted on a server, either on on-premises hardware or in the cloud. This includes everything from single plain-text webpages up to complex web applications…. https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/web-development/. Web devs build websites by coding through using different web technologies and programming languages which consist of unique vocabularies, syntax and commands that determines the functionality of websites. Some of the most common coding languages include HTML, SQL, CSS, NoSQL, Go, JavaScript, C#, Java, Python, Rust and Perl. All these coding languages fall into front-end and back-end developments.
If you follow the tips in this article, you’re on your way to mastering web development a lot quicker than you can think – but it still takes some hard work and dedication on your own part.
Ready? Let’s start.
1. Be Ready To Learn And Evolve
For you to read up to this point shows how interested and committed you’re about your goal to learning how to master web development. Congratulations to you on this great feat! Your desire to learn must be maintained so you can keep being motivated to achieving your goals of becoming a web developer.
In the past and in comparison, to today’s digital era, most websites were much smaller in scope, neither was there responsive and interactive web design part of development then. But these days, web developers must build responsive websites that can function seamlessly on different screens and browsers. This should tell you the importance of evolving with the internet of things.
2. Patience
One of the basic steps to becoming a web developer is to learn patience. By doing this, you will be ready to spend number of hours in developing an application. Patience is a very important must have when you want to be in this industry.
3. Embrace Simplicity
In your first learning about web development, keep it simple! Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew when you start learning about web. Start simple and do not try to tackle complex projects right off the start just because you’re in a haste to learn fast. Trying to do this will only slow down your progress, disorientate you, and make you lose focus which may lead to total abandonment of what you started. Rest at every interval!
4. Master How to Teach Yourself
You could learn coding or web development by availing yourself of online and offline resources (i.e., eBook, podcasts, videos, blogs, books, etc.) by researching and teaching yourself what is useful to you. A lot of web developers learn programming languages like Python, Java, C#, HTML and CSS by using website editing software to tweak a site template and figuring out their functionalities on their own.
Figure out what teaching methods work best for you and stick to it. As long as you can master how to teach yourself anything – I mean any kind of skill, including programming, it would be less troublesome to learn building and maintaining websites.
However, it’ is advisable to not only rely on this method as you may feel boredom due to learning alone. It takes a long time and sometimes waste of efforts, as you don’t even know what there is to learn. I would recommend learning with a team or having someone to teach you on a one-to-one basis.
5. Create A Practical and Committed Learning Plan
Having a desire to learn is not enough but building a learning schedule would keep your motivation on point. As humans, we tend to forget our goals and simply don’t do the things that we need to do. As you set out on your journey to mastering web development this year, it’s wise that you set aside a certain number of hours per day in each week (it could be 2 hours every day in a week) for your courses, and ensure you set yourself achievable goals within your limits.
6. Develop Technical Skills
Even though you don’t need to have a degree in computer science neither a master’s certificate to mastering web development, it’s a field in which concrete skills are needed when it comes to employment offers from prospective employers. How or where you learnt web skills is secondary to simply being able to carry the task of building and maintaining a site. Companies want employees (full time or remote) who can produce results when given tasks. You should have expertise in the three core programming components such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Furthermore, efforts should be made in learning other programming languages: Ruby, Java, PHP, jQuery and tools such as Oracle and SQL Server.
7. Choose A Development Specialization
The field of web development is a broad one. Prior to starting out, it is advisable to get an understanding on how website works, the type of training you need and the type of web development that seems interesting to you such as front-end development, back-end development, full-stack development, or user interface design to best set yourself for future career.
8. Start By Deciding What Sort Of Web Development You Want To Learn And Carry It Out
The type of languages and techniques you learn will determine what you will focus on later; whether it’s a focus on front or back-end development, or full-stack development. Front-end developers also known as client-side development make use of a variety of programming languages and web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build the external layout and interactivity (exterior) look and features of a website.
Back-end developers use programming languages such as Python and Ruby to design, build and integrate applications from front-end development into the back-end. A back-end or server-side developer builds the digital behind the scenes functionality and infrastructure of a site to ensure it runs seamlessly.
Full-stack developers are professionals with skills in both front-end and back-end development of a website. These developers understand both front and back-end strategies and processes to perfectly position themselves to oversee the entire process in site building.
9. Choose A Decent Course
Here, you need to decide on the best course or couple of courses out there that will teach you the basics and even expertise of web development. There are many platforms and online resources that feature courses on web development that you can avail yourself of.
10. Start Learning HTML: Learn from Scratch
As someone who want to become a web developer, you need to understand that Hyperlink Markup Language (HTML) is an essential language and is very easy to learn. It’s usually the first one learned by newbies into the world of programming. It defines the essential framework of a site – the foundation upon which every other thing concerning the site is built upon. Although, it’s possible for a web developer to code website on HTML only, it will just be barebone with no functionality unless it’s loaded with enriched CSS and JavaScript.
11. CSS
Next, learn CSS. A front-end developer must be fluent in this language as it the second most essential front-end languages. The CSS code is used jointly with HTML.
While the function of HTML is to tell the webpage what content to display or/and add images and videos to your webpage, the CSS tells the webpage how to display the content or/and lets you tell the browser how big to make and how to display your content, images, and videos. One of the most essential benefits of learning CSS is that you will be able to position elements or arrange everything you see on the website.
12. JavaScript
JavaScript developers work on the front-end of site. They can build a small snippets of JavaScript code that make your site not only responsive but as well as interactive, and attractive to your site visitors. These days, JavaScript is becoming increasingly popular and important for front and back-end development as well. With a good knowledge in JavaScript, you can either work as a back or front-end to a full-stack developer depending on your choice.
13. Create Your First Website Using HTML + CSS + jQuery
At this point, you’ve learnt enough and ready to put what you have learnt in practice. Set a goal of building a complete website and make you sure you do it. Choose any topic of your choice for your site as this will motivate you.
Remember you have learnt about HTML, and CSS, so start building. Besides, HTML and CSS are basic building blocks to build your site and by far the easiest coding languages to learn. From here, you can then proceed to learning other web languages to fit in the category of web development you’re interested in. To make your site look a bit fancier, you might need to learn jQuery and incorporate the knowledge into creating things such as interactive and responsive galleries, animations, and effects, etc.
14. Take a Time Out and Relax
Yes, it is good to read and build but there are times you may feel fatigued, distressed, and worn-out. This is the best time for you to stop reading or building and just take out a time off to refill yourself before getting back to the field again. By so doing, your spirit will become high! Mood relaxed and you’re ready to keep the fire burning once again.
15. Familiarize Yourself With Screen Sizes
Knowing how your website or app would look on different screens and browsers is a vital tip to learning web development. Think about how your site and will look on a desktop or mobile devices and then launch out to continuous learning.
16. Touch Off On Frameworks by Discovering Them
Once you have learnt enough on how to build a basic site, as well as complex ones, using frameworks to build will make everything easier and more interesting. At this stage, you don’t need to start coding from scratch, instead the application of frameworks enriched with basic template will make things easy for you in your journey. Examples of some frameworks are Ruby on Rails (Ruby) and Django for Python.
17. Launch An Online Portfolio
After you have gathered enough knowledge in the field, build a portfolio and launch it online because clients or employers want to see results that detail examples of successful site and applications you have built. With a portfolio, you can clear that important step to landing a job interview.
18. Build Credibility
One of the most encouraging part in our field is that you don’t need anything like degree to build credibility even though some might see you as lacking a university degree. Does it matter? Should it matter to you? No. This is because it’s not about your lack of certificate, but what you can bring on the table in terms of ‘results’ from stuff you have done. Set up a personal portfolio as earlier discussed and publish your code on your website or on a platform like Github in other for others to see you.
19. Continuous Practicing of Your Coding Skills
Going by the common cliché saying … “Practice Makes Perfect”. Web developers learn by doing what they have being taught. Practicing what you have learnt prepares you as a developer to work as part of a team, as well as build applications, and manage sites that are complicated.
20. Don’t Give Up On Reading and Building
To ensure that you’re on a good track and always motivated, it’s wise that you keep building on the knowledge you have acquired already. From knowing what works best for you to learning how to build complex apps and websites, keep improving yourself. Follow up online tutorials and join forums or community. Continue reading and building!
Conclusion
A lot of people learn coding because they want to create the next Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or find a job in the industry. However, it’s a good choice too if you want to have a general introduction to knowledge of web development. No matter your reason, learning how to develop a site or app either for career or just to enable you build one for your business, it’s one of the smartest decisions you will ever make! You are on your way to becoming a front – back-end developer or full-stack developer.
As you can see, it’s not hard to master web development and neither is it something you can’t achieve. Yes, it’s a hard work and demands your dedication, but you can do it.
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