Tech Boosters

Category: UI/UX

Tech Boosters

Category: UI/UX

Blogs04
December 10, 2021

Top Skills for Front End Developers

With new technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap, front-end developers can create interactive web applications that look and feel like native apps. They’re able to build responsive websites that adapt their design to fit smaller screens, making your website more user-friendly.

Front-end developers have a crucial role in today’s fast-paced digital marketing industry. They can do so much more than just coding a website. Make sure they’re doing it right!

Top skills your Front-end Developers must-have

Front-end developers are the only ones who talk directly to customers, so they must be multi platform communicators. They understand what goes beyond just markup. These top skills that your front-end developer must-have and master, because that’s where the user interacts with the application. Having a front-end team that has these skills will significantly enhance your product experience.

1. Understand HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Mastering HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript is a MUST. Honestly, not having it at your fingertips is unacceptable for a frontend developer. HTML, the key structural component of any website together with CSS, which is the styling part already allows you to build some basic websites and applications. However, to make it interactive you need JavaScript! But without knowing HTML and CSS, it won’t be possible to implement them into the website or app. This trio is necessary for everyone who considers a career in the front end, but that’s just the beginning! Although, if you are not a fan of styling but you really enjoy all the JavaScript functions and possibilities it gives, you should consider digging deeper into this particular language. There are many offers for purely JavaScript developers and the demand is as high as for general frontend specialists.

2. CSS Frameworks and Preprocessors

Like Bootstrap, Foundation, Bulma, UIkit, Semantic UI, Susy, Materialize and Pure, etc. for CSS – optimizing the workflow. It means, that it is actually better for a developer to know them because you can get the same results in less time and less typing. Another important aspect is a responsive design – sites and apps that work great on each device and in each size are a must-have in 2019. Knowing how to convert a website from a static to responsive one is essential but saving some time by using frameworks that have it already built-in is even better. Win-win.

A top frontend developer should be proficient in CSS3, however, what makes a dev life easier and the whole process faster is knowing preprocessors. Sass and LESS are quite commonly used and often you can find those in job listings. Their duty is to process the CSS written by you, before publishing on the website and turning it into cross-browser-friendly code.

3. Know your JavaScript framework

Depending on the team you are going to work with or on the project, most likely there will be given a framework you should be familiar with. Knowing the language itself is one thing but knowing how to work within a framework is an additional skill and you can’t do much without it, especially if you want to create some real project for a client. The most popular are Angular, React and Vue.js – getting familiar with one of them is a big plus. You can start with this ng2 (Angular) comprehensive guide.

Additionally, libraries are great to minimize the amount of code you have to write from scratch. Being fluent with, for example, jQuery will make not only your life easier but also the workflow way faster! You can find there ready-made plugins and extensions which are customizable like search form autocomplete, how to automatically resize grid layouts or countdown timers, and so on. Why reinvent the wheel and wasting time instead of using a working solution?

Before, JavaScript was only used to enhance the user experience. Now it’s being used to entire power websites. Front-end developers who know JavaScript frameworks like AngularJS and ReactJS can do wonders for your project.

4. Development Best Practices

The Front-end is no place to reinvent the wheel. From best practices, tools, and frameworks to processes and organizational structure, there’s a lot of stuff you can and should learn from the collective wisdom of the web development community.

The chances are that your team will have its own internal set of development best practices. Front-end development is a very dynamic field that changes all the time. It’s hard to keep up with the latest JS frameworks and design trends.

To be a successful front-end developer, you need a strong understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—and not only the basics. You need to build complex interactive web pages, solve tricky problems and make your users happy.

5. Debugging

The ability to find and fix bugs is an essential part of creating reliable, secure code. Debugging can be done manually or with automated tools. Developers will need to know how to use the debugging functionality provided by their development environment.

Use breakpoints in browsers. Browsers’ developer tools allow you to set breakpoints. When the browser hits a breakpoint, it pauses before executing the line of code that caused the breakpoint to be triggered, allowing for investigation of what is happening then or execution of other statements before resuming normal execution.

Breakpoints are typically used when there’s a problem with page layout or rendering, but they can also be used for general problem-solving. For example, you can put a breakpoint on a function call and step through the code as it executes to see what is happening.

Debugging is an essential skill because it’s the process of finding and fixing mistakes in source code.

Many people think that if their code runs without any visible errors, it means it is error-free. But in fact, there can be hidden bugs in your program that only show up at run-time (that is when the program runs) and cause problems.

6. Teamwork

As it was mentioned above, good communication is key! Teamwork is usually a part of the frontend developer’s everyday life. Even if you work as a freelance dev, you’ll have to communicate well with the clients and work with them on the project to some extent. Knowing how to handle teamwork, support other devs, and ask for advice when needed make the workflow smoother and in the end, you deliver the end product faster.

7. Assets Management

The best assets management skills are essential for your front-end developers because they allow them to view the site as a whole and make changes that won’t affect the rest of the project. This way, they can focus on design and functionality without worrying about inconsistencies between CSS, images, and HTML.

Front-end developers are often asked to manage assets such as images and fonts as part of their job. Although the file management tools that come with your OS may not be as powerful as a dedicated asset manager, they’ll do in a pinch.

Front-end developers are the people who do the visual design, create the graphical interface, and develop the website’s functionalities. They work in close collaboration with the company’s business team to accomplish their goals.

They must have many skills, including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and possibly even some server-side languages such as PHP or Python.

8. Develop a Good Understanding of Web Design Principles

Deciphering between design elements and code implementation is crucial to creating a website that doesn’t just look good but works well and is easy for users. Here are some web design principles and techniques that every front-end developer should know:

A. Progressive enhancement

Progressive enhancement is a technique for building websites that ensures content and functionality will display appropriately on all devices, even those with limited capabilities. This ensures no one will miss out on your content or functionality because their device isn’t capable of supporting it.

B. Semantic HTML

Semantic HTML is essential for accessibility because it allows screen readers to correctly interpret the structure of a page and present it to users in a way that makes sense to them – essentially allowing them to browse the website as if they could see it themselves. It also means developers can build one site that works well across different browsers without creating multiple versions of the same site based on additional browser support.

9. Be Familiar With Various Database Layouts

There are different database layouts used in websites today, but most fall under three major categories:

Three-tier architecture. This is probably the most common layout for web applications today. It comprises the following components:

  • User interface (UI) – All the screens that users see when visiting a website or using an application.
  • Business layer – The software responsible for handling business logic, performing data modeling, executing transactions, etc.
  • Data-tier – It is where data persists. Using the above-mentioned three-tier architecture diagram, this would be the database server. Two-tier architecture or fat client architecture. This is similar to three-tier architecture, except it has only two tiers: the UI and the other consisting of both business logic and database management.

10. Creativity and Willingness to Learn

Building the page structures, keeping the design up-to-date, responsive and pleasant for the user requires a lot of creativity and constant learning. Trends and technology are changing, thus it is important for a developer to keep up with the latest news and don’t decrease the learning curve.

December 10, 2021
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Blogs03
December 9, 2021

UI Trends 2021: Top 10 Trends Your Users Will Love

2020 was very unpredictable as covid swept the world, and without exception, every industry was affected by it one way or another. In our trend collection article we wrote last year, we highlighted only trends that solely focused on the looks of a user interface. This time, our 2021 UI trends article has a slight shift in focus. Even though many services and businesses were forced to undergo digital transformation due to the pandemic, user interface trends didn’t change that much compared to 2020.

10 UI Trends 2021

This time I went ahead and asked our designers at UX Studio what they expected the 2021 UI trends to be.

We rolled out this article a bit later than we usually do because we pretty much came to the conclusion that not many NEW UI trends could be highlighted. This year apparently slowed people down in coming up with something that focuses purely on the visual aspects.

Many related articles mention things that have been trending for three years now. And yes, storytelling, dark mode, ethical design, unique illustrations, and bold typography will remain the defining elements on digital platforms. I explained more about these in previous articles.

But, since these elements have been on the radar for a few years now, we can’t say they are “trends” anymore, but rather, common knowledge. In the same way, we don’t mention buttons as continuous trends on platforms.

P.S. We’ve also analyzed the top product design companies to work with within 2021, based on our knowledge and expertise.

1. Unique Illustration and Animation

Digital or hand-drawn, 2D or 3D, custom illustrations, you name it. The free forms, unaligned elements, components, and vast asymmetry, not only help platforms stand out from the generic but also, create a friendly and inviting environment that ensures a better experience for the users. Additionally, to make these pages stand out, these illustrations often come to life with complex motion design.

Moving elements and unexpected animations make users curious, making them scroll further to see what happens next. Nevertheless, we have to be mindful of these bold solutions and take into account the industry that the website represents.

Whenever a change is made it should be tested keeping the conversion rates in mind. But if used right, minimalistic with a touch of neat 3d illustration, a service website can still look professional, while up-to-date.

2. Artificial Intelligence

AI continues to be integrated into almost every possible product. We highly doubt that it will replace designers though. On the contrary, it will benefit and ease our work. Thanks to AI’s data-collecting capability (of collecting huge amounts of data.) we will notice more personalized products that are 100% tailored to each and every individual’s needs.

Google’s AI-powered Smart Reply and Smart Compose tools in Gmail that do the job well by generating accurate responses which is a huge time saver especially if English is your second language. The response suggestions are well distinguished, and noticeable due to their contrast with their surroundings.

You may have noticed that those long and sometimes boring onboardings which were designed to get to know the user, appear less often as they are being replaced by machine learning.

Products will learn more about users based on their behavior, which will help to create a better-personalized user experience. This eventually could lead to a higher conversion rate. Moreover, instead of designing hundreds of onboarding screens, we will be able to focus on delivering smoother experiences.

3. Augmented reality

In 2021, web design trends will involve thinking outside the box, or rather sticking to the grid. Forget the UI that is restricted to screens. Instead, you should emphasize interactions that feel like they take place within the real-world environment.

Google and Apple have already introduced their own AR development platforms, ARCore and AEKit, that blend the physical and digital worlds. AR UI can have different approaches:

  • Object-related, real-world objects that have tethered interaction;
  • Fixed to screen space, where the user has to position the camera in a specific way;
  • Real-world related, which uses the surrounding physical world.

Besides their headset, Apple invests in AR, and there’s a lot of excitement around the Apple Glasses. Therefore, as a designer, if you haven’t already, you should start expanding your knowledge with the upcoming AR UI kits. Additionally, you might also want to think through the context and function of AR experiences carefully.

As designers, we have to consider the fact that we’ll have to get prepared and start learning new tools. The ability to create augmented reality interfaces and 3D elements might become a very useful skill in the upcoming years.

4. Virtual reality

2020 was a year of progress for Virtual reality. We could call it the internet of experiences because of the effect that it has on users. VR headsets bring most of the excitement to the gaming audience for now. Besides slow improvements, I don’t think next year will bring much more to the VR table, but there could be some opportunities opening up for other industries. For instance, it would be a great possibility for enhancing interaction in education, especially during the lockdown.

Designers should look out for opportunities to create virtual spaces for collaborations. While doing so, we have to be mindful that not all users will have a VR headset, so we have to think of a mixed platform solution.

5. Virtual Meetings

Virtual communication tools had a huge breakthrough. Considering our current global situation, this is an area that will probably continue to be explored more from a design perspective.

There are many opportunities in this area. For example: Rethinking a complex communication product and also designing a cleaner, lighter version to avoid disconnection for those who might have slow or limited internet access.

Wonder has already broken out of the conventional boring video chat interface. Pretty much just an MVP, but it is an interesting UX/interaction case.

Since many people have been working from home this year, it would be great if more apps define features that make online video calls smoother. RingCentral, for example, gives you the possibility to integrate other apps like Slack to schedule and begin calls directly from these 3rd party platforms.

6. User Experience

Usability has become the new “UI” trend the same way pink became the new black once.

You have probably heard about Google’s announcement by now that in 2021, they will introduce three new user experience metrics to measure a website’s loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. They are collectively called Core Web Vitals.UX audit is a proven method to identify usability flaws in your product and improve its online performance. You can also do usability testing with actual users to learn more about their motivations and needs.

Besides the pandemic, this could be another reason why the focus from pretty UI was shifted towards a more intuitive and user-friendly design.

It is good to encourage people to create something unique if they want to show how their brand is one of a kind. If it stands out from the crowd, it will surely grab the attention of visitors. But most of the time, it is not mentioned that this cannot be applied to all types of websites.

Yes, if you’re a creative agency, or you want to present a portfolio as an individual, or want to promote your showroom, it is useful to go crazy to get that wow factor, but if you, let’s say, have an e-commerce platform, it’s probably not the best idea to hide your main navigation under an unfamiliar icon placed in an unconventional part of the page.

7. Glassmorphism

You probably remember seeing this style on the good old Windows Vista or ios 7 but the frosted glass effect seems to have made a comeback and we will probably see more of it in 2021.

While neomorphic elements remained rather eye candies on Dribbble, for many reasons, one of them being poor accessibility, glassmorphic elements are getting more popular by the day.

These glass-looking translucent elements provide a well-defined hierarchy on an interface. They do it by mimicking depth that helps users differentiate what is in the front and what is further back on the screen. Yet it doesn’t look that overwhelming. Also, the new macOS update called macOS Big Sur implemented this style too.

8. 3d Will Be the Ui Rockstar

3D has already been here for a few years now, but 2021 will be its time to shine. Fortunately, we live in an era where technical efforts and achievements, such as rapid improvement of semiconductor production and software optimization in the last decade made even the lower-end devices powerful enough to tackle complex visuals in real-time. Thus, animated 3D UI won’t be a pain to utilize anymore.

In 2021, animated elements like logos, illustrations, and texts will also thrive on web pages and help users distinguish the parts they can interact with.

Adobe XD might also influence the upcoming 3D elements in designs. It introduced a new feature called 3D Transforms which, can now add a whole new perspective to the upcoming designs. As they described it “A 3D Transform allows an object to be manipulated within three-dimensional space, creating tilts and rotations as well as changing the depth of an object on the canvas.”

To put it simply, designers are able to think outside of the traditional X and Y axis when it comes to creating concepts.

It could also open the door towards designing for AR or VR experiences.

9. Similar Icons

I think we’ve all seen the big transformations that famous companies’ logos and icons underwent lately.

And well, people are not happy about it. Why? Because instead of hopping on the latest trend train with flat geometric design or vibrant gradients, these logos should have been treated as icons, as what all the rest of the world considers them to be.

These icons have different purposes. Rather than gaining a fresh and similar look, they should be easily distinguishable from one another.

Google’s former G suite logos or Facebook’s Messenger and Instagram logos are icons that are in daily use. Countless users are clicking and tapping on them more than once a day. They should be able to detect them in less than a second.

People like me who have more than 50 tabs open at once — yes, I have a tab manager, but still… — take longer and struggles to scan through all the favicons and recognize which is which.

This is yet another example of how accessibility should come before pretty UI. Icons should be helping users recognize an action, a command, or a certain state faster rather than making it harder for them to find what they are looking for. So let’s be mindful about how we craft our icons and logos in the future.

10. Retro Aesthetic

While Miley went back to the 80’, with asymmetry, big and bold typography, and wild choice of colors some of 2021’s UI will probably be inspired by the 90’. Other trends in website design will adopt the modernist art movement’s attributes like constructivism or brutalism. We have to be mindful of the purpose of the website and towards which elements we want to navigate the users. If we decide to adopt a UI trend, we have to make sure that after the visitors had their fun on the webpage they will also convert.

December 9, 2021
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