Have you ever wondered how great a website looked and how complicated that is in the backend to look that way? Well, it’s the gameplay of front-end development. When we talk about web development, it constitutes two parts; a web design that determines how a website looks and, on the other hand, front-end development that executes the process & implements the design on the web.
Let’s dive deeper and understand what front-end development is and how it works.
What is Front-End Development?
So, when you visit a website, what do you see? It may be a logo, search bar, buttons, or the complete web layout, in short, whatever you see and interact with, it’s everything created by a front-end web developer. It makes it pretty clear that front-end developers are the main ones in charge and are responsible for the look and feel of a website. The ultimate goal of designing a website is to enhance the user experience and ensure that whatever information they’re fed is valuable and relevant whenever the user opens the website.
In a nutshell, the process or practice of writing or producing codes in specific languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) to create a website or a web application to enhance the user experience & facilitate easy interaction at both ends is known as front-end development.
Key Skills Required
A basic-level Front-End Developer must be proficient in three languages:
HTML
It stands for HyperText Markup Language. The content we see on a web page, buttons, links, paragraphs, headings, lists, and so on, is displayed through HTML code. Thus, this language is the most basic and necessary skill to become a web developer.
CSS
Stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It’s responsible for styling your website, constituting colors, layouts, animations, and so on, thereby creating a responsive web design with easy accessibility. Just like HTML, CSS is also a basic and must needed language to learn for a web developer.
JavaScript
Both languages (HTML & CSS) are responsible for the content and styling of the website, but a website without being able to user interactivity is of no use. Thus, JavaScript enters here. It allows the users to interact with a particular web page. For example, when you click on a menu button on any web page and find a dropdown menu with multiple options, the magic of JavaScript makes the web page functional by adding the element of interactivity to it.
Frameworks: Angular vs. React vs. Vue
A software framework constitutes standardized pre-written code that makes the development of any specific functionality faster and easier. Choosing an ideal framework is never easy, as one needs to consider many factors and select the most appropriate one. When building web applications, we can find three major frameworks used proactively in front-end development: React, Vue, and Angular. Let’s discuss the functionality of each one by one.
Angular
One of the most popular and widely used frontend frameworks, Angular, was launched by Google in 2010. With further development and advanced features, Angular 2 came into the market, which arrived as a complete upgrade version of Angular. Later on, several new versions also came into the market simultaneously.
Top Areas to Use Angular:
Cross-platform web development
Enterprise software best suited for applications with complex architecture
Progressive Web apps and Hybrid Mobile apps development
- Model-View-Controller (MVC) Framework
Angular is a Model-View-Whatever(MVW) framework that’s traditionally used as an MVC. Consequently, the application is constituted into three interconnected components that enable the developers to write a perfectly-structured code & simplify complex projects.
- Templates
The other promising thing about angular templates is that these are readable due to the use of standard HTML tags.
- Two-way Data Binding - Simple Implementation
Any changes to the model affect the view, referred to as two-way data binding. The vice versa of same is also true, it implies that the model will immediately change when the view changes. Thus, Angular lets you go for two-way data binding, making it beneficial for simple apps. However, for complex apps, one-way data binding works better.
- Large Community
No doubt, since the first release of Angular, it has grown stronger and has become even more robust since Angular 2 was released. Its popularity is due to its compatibility with different solutions, and developers are proactive in well-versing the framework.
React
The core technology is a JavaScript library created to build user interfaces. Also, as part of the JS library, React has a limited sphere of usage, but when it collaborates with other libraries, it becomes a powerful solution. Thus, it emerges as the main competitor of Angular due to its great features.
Top Areas to Use React:
Dynamic application;
Single Page apps;
Native mobile apps.
- No Use of Templates
Surprisingly, React does not use any templates. Instead, the entire component logic is written in JS, which makes it more flexible and thus enables a large amount of data to pass through the app easily. Also, React was the first to introduce a component model. Thus, this approach is commonly used in every frontend framework.
- Virtual DOM
Virtual DOM is responsible for enabling a simplified copy of DOM to be created and all the required changes to be implemented are made in the virtual DOM only. Both the DOMs are compared, and after identifying the differences, the real DOM will re-render the changed part only, making the process much faster and more efficient.
- Data binding: One-Way
Two-way binding is an advantage for Angular, and React’s one-way data binding offers an advantage. This approach makes the view react to the changes made to the model. However, the changes in the view can’t affect the model, which enables the data to flow in one direction only. Therefore, it reduces the possibility of any leakages.
- Large Community
No doubt, React framework has great popularity across the globe, with millions of users worldwide. Recently, it was found that GitHub React has attained over 122 thousand stars, and the framework is downloaded more than 5 Million times every week. Such a great score!
Vue.js
Another quite popular alternative to Angular and React, Vue, is seen as a progressive framework for UI building. It first became popular in China and has now entered the market worldwide.
Top areas to use Vue.js:
Dynamic high-performance applications;
Single-page apps.
- Model-View-Controller(MVC) Framework
Vue is, again, an MVC framework, just like Angular. The reason is pretty simple, it enables one to write well-structured code that helps develop complex applications.
- Lightweight Solution
Another good thing about this framework is its small size, which makes it easy to extend its functionality with third-party solutions. So, Vue.js is a good choice for those concerned about the application's size and performance speed.
- Declarative Templates
VueJS templates are written in HTML and readable without using any other programming language.
- Pure JavaScript
Vue.js also uses JavaScript, which eliminates the need for developers to get well-versed in any other programming language.
- Global Popularity
With over 800,000 weekly downloads, Vue.js has great popularity worldwide. It’s due to good compatibility and ease of adapting. Also, Vue.js is considered the easiest frontend technology to learn from the developers' perspective.
How is Hiring a Remote Front-End Development Team Beneficial?
Gone are when businesses used to rely on in-house teams for complete development needs. Just like technology has advanced in every way, the working mechanism has also turned into a better way, and remote hiring is the perfect example of it.
Surprisingly, remote or offshore development is growing at a breakneck pace. Also, recent reports and experts believe that the offshore development model market size will grow at an approximate rate of 10.13% and is predicted to reach $283257.5 Million by the end of 2030.
Suppose we focus on the reasons driving the trend toward offshore development mechanisms. In that case, we will highlight numerous points like increasing costs and other bottlenecks of hiring an in-house development team or a full-time developer. Moreover, there are two primary reasons behind the companies shifting to the remote web development team:
The variations and the tech talent pool are much more comprehensive regarding remote hiring than in-house team hiring.
Local front-end developers charge higher rates as compared to remote developers. Thus remote hiring is cost-effective.
Project Patterns and Feasibility of Remote Front-End Development Team
Well, there can be different kinds of projects; hence, the need for every stack setup is different, specifically regarding the development feasibility. Let’s discuss some of the most common business models.
A Freshly Established New Startup
A new startup probably finds hiring an in-house team costly because it takes time and high-quality recruiters, Hrs, project managers, and accountants to support the software development team.
So, it’s pretty unlikely for the new digital company to hire a full-time web developer for a one-time web development project. Thus, startups hiring for a remote web development team are usually recommended.
Streamlining the Digital Needs of the Existing SME
Next, the remote hiring model is also beneficial for your existing SME if you’re looking to streamline and scale up the technology and other parameters.
A Project that Requires Cross-Functional Talents
Sometimes, the project is quite complicated, and thus it requires cross-functional talents to tackle such complex projects. You might need full-stack developers, QA, a dedicated development team, or a manager. You can delegate the responsibility to a dedicated remote partner who will set up everything for you.
Tips for Hiring the Right Remote Front-End Developer for Your Project
Technology is undoubtedly at its peak, and thus it has made it possible for everyone to learn anything, anywhere.
Numerous development courses and tools in the market facilitate self-learning, but that's not enough to be called a professional and well-proficient front-end developer.
Below are some tips to help you analyze the right candidate and hire qualified talents:
Determine what’s your project’s necessity;
Try to capture whether the candidate understands the architecture of front-end development;
Do Not just rely on the CV. Ask for a Work Portfolio;
Ask for Client testimonials and feedback;
Tech-savvy interview questions.
7 Simple Steps to Hire Front-End Developers Remotely
The above-mentioned tips will help you in getting the right candidate on board. However, we’ve tried to simplify the process to make it more easy and convenient for you to hire front-end specialists:
Select the hiring location or the platform you would like to outsource the hiring responsibility (Global Teams);
Through advertisements about vacant positions with complete job descriptions and requirements;
Shortlist and segment the qualified and relevant candidates list;
Proceed with the soft skills interview round;
Conduct a hard skills interview round;
Assign a test task;
Final onboarding of the right front-end developer into the development team.