Front end development is one of the most important parts of web design. Although getting the nuts and bolts of a webpage is extremely important, if the site looks rubbish and is impossible to navigate, you are very unlikely to drive much traffic. Making a page user friendly and eye-catching is thus very important. This is where front-end developers come in.
Working in front-end development is a tough profession. Not only are you responsible for the look and feel of a website, you also have to keep on top of the ever changing landscape of the industry. Companies are constantly bringing out new web development tools to make the process easier. Here are five of the very best.
AngularJS
AngularJS is one of the most well known and well used web development tools on the market. It is an open-source JavaScript based front-end web framework. It is used solely for the development of single page apps and is maintained by Google and its community of users. Angular makes it easier for developers to test their pages and iron out any problems before making any final decisions.
React
React is another great tool that front-end developers will likely be familiar with. It can be used to build world class user interfaces and UI components for either single-page web or mobile applications. It’s actually maintained by Facebook and is generally considered one of the easiest tools to learn.
Ionic 2
Hitting the market in 2013, Ionic has already made quite a name for itself in the web development industry. It is known for its use in developing some of the faster and most user friendly web and mobile apps on the market. However, many developers also use it when crafting websites. It features web technologies such as CCS, Sass and HTML5 and is extremely efficient.
Meteor
Meteor plummeted on to the Earth in 2011, although it was originally known as Skybreak. Since then, it’s earned plenty of plaudits for its ability to provide rapid prototyping and excellent cross-platform code. The project was funded by two waves of funding sourced from venture capitalists. Meteor Software is a company to watch in the future with plenty of plans in the works.
Bootstrap
Bootstrap declares itself to be the most popular HTML, CSS and JS library in the world and it’s hard to argue against this claim. It specialises in JavaScript-based design templates for fonts, buttons and other interface components. Chances are, if you’ve seen a cool design feature recently, it is likely to have been coded using Bootstrap.
GitHub
Ignore its slightly strange name, GitHub is one of the most well known web development tools on the market. It is a subsidiary of Microsoft and hosts software development and version control. Most of its features are completely free. Result. However, its more high-end features are reserved for commercial clients, of which there are many. IBM, SAP and many more are all part of the GitHub community with many more set to join in the next few years.