What does a web developer do?

The role of a web developer

A web developer is a specialist who creates a functional website from a web design. It does all this with the help of different programming languages, by "coding". It is the web developer's responsibility to ensure that the code he creates results in a fast, error-free, responsive and browser-compatible website.

Web development means a wide range of activities, from the creation of simple static websites to the development of complex web-based applications and web stores.

Although "web development" covers a profession, the companies dealing with it provide complex services, from specification creation to graphic design and programming, all the way to operation.

Web designer or web developer? What is the difference between them?

When it comes to web development, a question that often arises is what do I need? What is the difference between web design and web development? Are the two different? Aren't we talking about the same thing?

The answer is definitely NO, web design and web development are not the same, although the fact is that most people understand the same process, namely the creation of a website.

Web designer

A web designer is the person responsible for designing the appearance of a website. He is the one who draws the "design" of the website's appearance. He decides what colors, fonts, shapes, and layouts he uses. It is his responsibility to ensure that the company's web appearance is consistent with its image.

The web designer works with drawing programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe XD, but does not participate in programming tasks.

What does web designer mean?

• Use of graphics software
• Typography, fonts
• Use of color, color theory
• Image editing, composition
• Design based on user experience

Web developer

The web developer creates a functioning website by coding from the graphic designs received from the web designer. The web developer is not involved in the design of the website, but at the same time he can advise the web designer on the web standards that must be followed during the design.

If you want to be a web designer, you don't need to have programming skills, but you do need to have some insight into things like responsiveness to design websites that stand out on the web. And the web developer does not need to understand Photoshop and drawing, color scales and typography.

Types of Web Developers

The "What does a web developer do?" it is not an easy question to answer. Because, as I wrote before, there are several types of web developers and each of them focuses on a specific area of website creation.

Web developers are divided into three large groups:

1. frontend developers
2. backend developers
3. full stack developers

The frontend developer is responsible for the parts of the website that people see through the browser. The backend developer is responsible for the behind-the-scenes code that enables the creation of dynamic websites supported by databases. Full stack developers cover both areas: frontend and backend.

Frontend developer

The frontend developer is the person who receives the graphic design of the website and writes the code needed to display it on the web. The frontend developer has a high level of understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

HTML allows you to add content to a web page while dividing the page into a header, body, and footer. CSS defines the page structure and style, e.g. colors, shapes, sizes, borders. And JavaScript gives the page interactivity, e.g. the operation of buttons and forms.

The work of the frontend developer therefore includes...

• the web page is a (pixel-accurate) deprogramming of what is defined in the graphic plan.
• the design and control of the responsive (device-independent) operation of the website. It is a fundamental requirement of today's modern websites that they work perfectly on all devices, mobile phones, tablets and desktops.
• programming the links, buttons and navigation of the website. The outgoing links should work, the menu structure should be easy to use and have a logical structure.
• testing the website in all popular browsers and checking that it works flawlessly.

Backend developer

Although it seems that the frontend developer has a difficult task in ensuring that the website looks the same as the design, and also works flawlessly on all devices and browsers, the job of backend developers is even more complex.

While frontend developers deal with client-side programming, backend developers are responsible for server-side coding.

This means that they have to write code and programs that enable database-backed dynamic web pages to run on the web server. It is the responsibility of the backend developer to ensure that the code he writes is well-structured, clean, efficient and secure. Efficiency has become a prominent aspect in recent years, since loading speed plays a key role in the search engine optimization (SEO) of websites. This poses great challenges for backend developers.

Backend developers use many server-side programming languages in their work. Some of the most popular programming languages include PHP, Python, Java, and Ruby. Also, SQL is one of the most popular languages for managing databases.

Since different types of websites have different needs, it is the backend developer's responsibility to choose the most suitable technology and programming language for the given task. To do this, one must have an adequate insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the more popular technologies, among other things in terms of speed, scalability, security and operability.

Full stack developer

If you're looking for a quick answer to the question, "What is a web developer?", full stack developer is probably the closest solution. The full stack developer has insight into both frontend and backend processes and technologies.

In the case of smaller, simpler websites, when a small budget is available, a full stack developer is usually used. He is the one who can perform the frontend and backend tasks, so it is possible to create the entire website without the involvement of additional specialists.

Learning full stack development techniques has huge benefits. Among other things...

• you will be able to develop an entire website in one person.
• you will be able to understand the frontend and backend areas, so you can stand in both, depending on the needs of the given project.
• full stack developers usually earn more and, due to their qualifications, can hold their own in several fields.
• full stack developers are more popular in the labor market than frontend or backend positions.

Even though most programmers start out in the frontend or backend field, there are countless benefits to having an understanding of both. As a full stack developer, you can find a job more easily and have a better view of the entire web development spectrum, so you will be in an easier position when starting your own business.

What programming languages do web developers use?

We use many different technologies and programming languages for web development. As I indicated earlier, frontend and backend developers use different languages, while full stack developers have an overview of all of them.

Below, I would list the most important technologies and languages that we use for web development and describe what they are used for and how to learn them.

HTML

HTML is an essential language if you want to become a frontend developer. If you right-click in your browser and select the "View Source" menu item, you will see the HTML code responsible for the display of the given website.

HTML is used to tell a web page what content to display and, to some extent, how to display it.

The HTML code of a web page begins with the line "DOCTYPE html", which indicates to the browser that it is an HTML document.

If you scroll down a bit in the HTML source code, you will find the parts responsible for displaying a paragraph, a link, an image or a video. These are the commands that tell the browser from what source, what content and how to display it.

HTML is an easy language to learn and is usually the first language that web developers encounter. If you are interested in learning the HTML language, you will find countless online courses, tutorials, and videos about it on the web.

CSS

CSS is the second most important language after HTML that a frontend developer should know at a high level. CSS code is used together with HTML. While HTML tells the website what content to display, CSS describes the way and style of displaying the content.

Once you've mastered CSS, you'll be able to do the following things with it:

• Changing colors. CSS allows you to change the color of almost any content on a website. Let these be e.g. texts, shapes, lines, shapes...etc.
• Change font. CSS allows you to give a unique style to the texts of the website. This means not only the font, but the line height, alignment, font size and many other parameters.
• Positioning of elements. With the help of CSS, the web developer will be able to arrange the content on the website. With the help of HTML, you can add text, images, and videos to the page, and CSS "tells" the browser exactly where and in what layout these contents should appear. CSS is responsible not only for the layout, but also, for example, for determining the distances between elements, external and internal margins.

It is clear that CSS plays a key role in web development, especially in front-end development. If you want to learn CSS, there are many online courses, YouTube channels and text tutorials available on the web.

JavaScript

JavaScript is also one of the tools for frontend developers. JavaScript can be used to create small scripts (code details) that play a role in the website's responsive operation, interactivity, and animation.

These smaller JavaScript code snippets and scripts are usually embedded in the HTML code of the website and are activated when the page is loaded.

Even though JavaScript is a traditional frontend language, it is also becoming increasingly popular in backend development. Thanks to their knowledge of JavaScript, many frontend developers can move towards the full stack, where they will be able to master the backend programming area as well.

PHP

PHP is one of the most widespread and popular programming languages among web developers. More than 80% of websites use PHP. Even though its popularity has decreased a bit in recent years, it is still unavoidable when it comes to web development.

PHP is easy to learn and relatively simple to use, which is why many novice backend developers start their acquaintance with this language. PHP is especially popular with open source WordPress, Joomla and Drupal websites, so competent professionals will always be in demand.

Java

The last item on my list is Java, which has played a huge role in web development for many years. Java is not a young language, yet it is used in countless areas of web development. With the help of Java, fast, responsive, scalable web applications can be created to serve high-load, complex web tasks.

Java is the default language for many backend developers. It is relatively easy to learn, which is especially beneficial for beginners. It is extremely scalable, which enables the development of large, highly visited websites, such as e.g. eBay or Amazon.

There are countless online courses available on the web for learning Java, but you can also choose from traditional classroom courses.

The 20 most common web development mistakes

In the list below, I have collected the most common mistakes made by lay web developers, which not only jeopardize the success of the entire project, but also cause the company to lose customers and revenue.

1. No competitor analysis is prepared, it is not known what the competitors' strengths and weaknesses are.
2. The web development company does not give advice on the appearance and functionality of the site.
3. No specification is being prepared. It is not written down exactly what tasks the project involves.
4. There are no specific marketing goals. The website doesn't fit into the company's marketing strategy, it doesn't have precise goals or tasks, "it's just the way it is."
5. No itemized quotation is prepared, the customer is not aware of what is included in the task and what is not.
6. No contract is drawn up, no deadlines or milestones are set.
7. Incoherent graphic appearance resulting from the choice of dozens of templates.
8. Poorly designed, chaotic, difficult-to-use navigation.
9. The text and image content inserted into the website is inaccurate and inconsistent.
10. Inappropriate choice of content management system.
11. The website's coding (source code) is confusing and difficult to recognize.
12. The images on the website are of poor quality, poorly cut, and not related to the topic.
13. Missing (or incorrect) call-to-action buttons.
14. Faulty responsive operation.
15. Missing translations on the site.
16. Lack of cross-browser testing. The website performs incorrectly in some browsers.
17. Slow loading.
18. Missing post arming actions. Due to the lack of URL redirections, the page is dropped in the search engines.
19. Lack of connection of analytical software.
20. No follow-up, no maintenance.

I have explained the web developer mistakes listed here in more detail in this article, it is worth reading!