If you are anything like me, the day probably starts by browsing through HuffPo, and checking the Amex credit limit, and ends with logging calories consumed on MyFitnessPal and ordering a new table lamp from Amazon.
It’s all so easy to navigate through. In fact, it is so easy we forget half the time that we are using a website or a near clone in the app version.
It is the magic done by a remote front end developer that lets all of us enjoy seamless services from hundreds of businesses around the world.
Which websites benefit from remote front end developers?
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, AJAX, ReactJS—these are the usual stock in trade of a front end developer. Some also know Angular, Vue, and MySQL.
Which type of website needs constant attention, and a dedicated remote front end developer on their team?
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Ecommerce
Ecommerce is the most obvious name on this list.
Look at Amazon with its colorful tiles offering you exclusive deals based on your shopping history.
Navigate to a product page by clicking on the image of a shirt or a subwoofer. Immediately you see product description, high res images, a comparison table that offers a quick look at features, a longer detailed features section, a Q & A followed by reviews.
I almost forgot the most important part—the Buy Now button that seamlessly transports you through a payments page and address setting and lets you track orders from warehouse to doorstep.
Now think of the same across 10,000 types of products on a million product pages.
All of it has been achieved by the best front end developers money can buy. It’s all simple HTML and CSS, but try to write a code for something similar after a few Udemy classes and you would find the level of dedication required.
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News Websites
Have you ever noted that every news outlet like CNN and BBC also has a terrific website?
I love these sites more than newspapers. They help me keep my reading habit intact but click through several pages of news in a few minutes.
From Deutsche Welle to Al Jazeera, every news outlet has a packed site that offers information on every topic under the sun – from the win by Atlanta Hawks over Dallas Mavericks last night in a buzzer-beater to the latest troop movements in Ukraine.
Designing a site where the content changes every hour of the year is difficult. Displaying a vast amount of content in a limited screen area and arranging news stories in a hierarchy, depending on their importance, is no straightforward task.
At the same time, monetization is important and most news websites like to run some type of banner and display advertisements that do not disturb the viewer.
Add to it readability and a single-layer navigation bar on top that opens up further layers, and it is easy to understand why it takes hours of design and coding.
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Travel Websites
They are a real lifesaver and we hardly realize how far travel has changed since those days 20 years ago when we used to have a travel agent who planned our trips.
Want to take the cheapest flight from Dallas to Nepal next weekend? You have a choice between Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa. But if you want a stopover in Dubai, you could also go for Qantas and British Airways.
While you are booking tickets, also find yourself a nice cozy hotel room in Pokhara and avail a pickup from the airport. Even booking a home stay is not out of question and many of these sites show packages and local transportation.
All through the front page of any travel aggregator site in the world. It is amazing how hard these pages work. Type in a city name or even a part of an airport IATA code and you get results instantly.
They don’t have a fancy front end but simple to understand travel information, a drop-down menu with origin and destination, a date and calendar utility, and helpful facts about logistics.
The task of a great front end designer is not to cram it full of details but to show a little more as the traveler completes the purchase journey. Such as suggestions for hotels following the flight and thereafter a suggestion for package tours that might interest you.
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Business
A business website focuses on brand building. Look at the neat and clean home page of Tesla.
No clutter. It is as efficient as the vehicles they make.
No one visits the Tesla site to know what a Tesla looks like. The reputation of the product precedes the website.
But customers want to know more about the models they have on offer and if they can buy one that is custom built.
Design your own Model S, customize the interior, and find the federal and local tax initiatives to help you go green.
Business websites need to speak to a customer about specs, delivery, booking options, and also generally broadcast information and product news.
It is tough to keep a customer always within a single click of a conversion opportunity. That is why business websites employ the most skilled front end developers.
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Financial Institutions
Modern banks are no longer a hall full of dreary cubby holes. According to a recent study by Accenture, half of the clients interact with their bank digitally compared to a third two years ago.
At the same time, banks have moved from providing a checking and business account to being share brokers and insurance providers.
A customer can transfer money electronically anywhere in the world, withdraw from thousands of branches, and view their account statements from the comfort of the kitchen table.
All this is possible due to translating the bank’s intranet (the operations website used by employees) into an open website with strict security features in place.
Bank sites are plain and unremarkable. But they have the strongest encryption of any website. Front end developers who are highly accomplished and experienced design these sites to perform flawlessly even if there is a cyber attack.
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Portfolio
Last but definitely not the least.
A portfolio site is a showcase of work by a photographer, artist, even a content writer.
It’s meant to have maximum visual impact and show content in a compelling manner. A portfolio site is a CV on steroids and the hardest to design.
They also have the most exotic CSS tricks – dynamic height and width of columns and boxes, scroll snapping, image masking, shape outside, Gaussian blur – the list is endless.
Though highly labor-intensive these sites also are a testament to the website designers’ creativity and coding skills. Advanced CSS and Flexbox can be as hard as coding C.
Finally…
No matter the type of site a good front end developer is a must-have guy on the team.
They design the UI and present a great visual experience. The importance cannot be overstated.
Highly simplified blogs that have static pages might not need extensive HTML and CSS experience.
But keeping that class of sites apart, others requires a lot of hard work and a cumbersome design process.
Investing in a top-notch front end designer is an investment that would pay benefits for years.
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