So What Is Web Development?

So I’ve realized I talked about Front End Web Development and what is a web developer, but I haven’t broke down what exactly is web development.

Therefore, you know I had to write what the basics of what web development actually is and how it is relevant to the web.

This won’t be an extensive study on the topic but a basic understanding of what it is and what it entails.

Introduction: What is Web Development?

Did you know there are over 1.5 BILLION websites online right now according to internetlivestats.com.

THAT’S A LOT OF WEBSITES!!!!

So with all those websites the question is… “How were these sites created?”

Welcome to the world of Web Development.

This is the process in how a web page is created.

According to wikipedia web development is defined in this way…

The work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network).

Funny, I just learned what an intranet means lol.

According to John Sonmez from SimpleProgrammer.com he defines it as…

Web development is about creating applications which run in a web browser.

That might be confusing for some but how I like define it simply

It’s about creating a web page/application for viewers to view online.

It can get complex because since the rise of technology and mobile devices companies needed ways to create online applications on the go rather than just for desktop apps.

Therefore, web developers have become really vital in this time we live now.

John Sonmez says “programmers and software developers today need to know some form of the basics of web development.”

This should tell you how Web Development has grown over the years.

But wait Courey if that’s what web development is who creates it?

Good question this leads me to my next topic

Who Creates The Web?

So if you were paying attention you would have seen I mentioned the term web developers or software developers earlier.

Web developers can range in diversity and intricate as well but a general overview is that developers write/design the code that create a website or web app.

Just to dive into some of the different areas you can focus or specialize in web development there are:

Front End
Back End
PHP
Mysql
and many more.

I chose to focus on Front End Development myself. This entails the code on how the front side or what the client will see, visit, and interact with the visited web page.

Back end deals with more databases and how the applications will function and transfer data when a visitor clicks and request certain information from a site.

Since I have been studying front end web development more, I will discuss more towards this subject matter.

So if front end developers focus more on the front side of the site what is the difference between web designer and a web developer?

I’m glad you asked.

The Difference Between Web Designer & Web Developer.

How I like to look at this is it’s a merger of both worlds.

Logic and Creative

Being apart of both worlds, since I used to design websites solely I find front end gives the best of both worlds.

Being analytic/logical, as well as creative, I feel like this provides the satisfaction of being technically challenged while at the end you are able to create stunning visual experiences for visitors.

I absolutely love the idea as the challenge of learning the code for its development.

I might of skipped ahead of myself. Front end developers use code to develop a site while designers can more be classified as graphic designers who create the look of the site.

I think this is where UI/UX comes into play for more focus on the site. This is only an assumption because I haven’t studied UI/UX to much.

Web Dev Tech

So what technologies do Front End Web Developers use?

Great question!

So the main technologies or programming languages used to build websites or web apps boils down to 3 primary languages…

HTML
CSS
Javascript

HTML, which stands for hyper text markup language, is where the content and info of your site is structured. This is the foundation of your site.

You can read more here on my post HTML

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheet, formulates how your website will look – the design portion of the site.

Finally Javascript.

This is where the fun comes in.

From my experience, it is one of the harder languages to grasp from the 3, but Javascript provides interactivity as well as animation to the site.

A whole framework/library is built around javascript–more on that in a later post.

I don’t care what nobody says, every site that is online has something to do with these 3 languages.

So if you want to learn something about web development I would say there is nothing wrong with starting here.

Again you can read more about these web dev techs here:

So…

Why Is Web Development Needed?

Do you remember that stat from the intro of over 1.5 BILLION sites online right now.

Let’s just think about this again.

Now that you know what web development is, somebody, at some point had to create these sites.

So guess what – somebody has to maintain these websites.

This could be you (my smokey the bear impersonation)

But let’s not limit to only maintaining a site. Some sites could need a total revamp to be optimized for mobile responsive.

Side note: Did you know there are over 44% of fortune 500 companies sites that are not even mobile ready or properly utilized.

You can find out more in my post “Why Responsive Design is Important” or Tech Crunch.

Don’t know about you but that sounds like a lot of opportunity for the taking. If you wanted to get in the industry of web development that is.

As I said before, every site that is online whether it be WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or even Shopify is built on one or all of these languages, especially HTML.

Which means learning these languages can help you as Front End Web Developer to land a role in a job in todays job market.

I believe it and that’s what I’m working towards myself as I’m studying this market and industry.

I think that’s it in a nutshell for the basics of Web Development.

Sound interesting? would you like to learn more about how to become a Front End Web Developer?

You can start by reading this article I wrote on Front End Web Development or you can check out the RESOURCES page to check out a learning platform that teaches front End Development.

Thanks for reading and hope you find it helpful.