Ask HN: Web Design vs. Front-end?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8192209

by shire • 12 years ago

5 1 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

This might be a silly question but what's the difference between Front-End UX Design, Full-Stack JavaScript, Web Design and Front-end Web development? are these all the same terminologies or do they all have different aspects of the WWW. To me it seems like there is a lot of overlapping between these terminologies so how can they be different.

I've always had a thing for Javascript and if I may want to become a Javascript developer do I need to know Web design as far as Photoshop and color and things like that? I'm more of a coder not a designer.

cyborg_computer• 12 years ago

I use "might" in these descriptions, because you will find they all cross over and are almost essentially the same package with a different odor.

UX Designers - might work more with wireframes, layouts etc. and is closer to a traditional graphic designer as they use a tool like photoshop or indesign to creak a mock up and send it to the Front-End developer to build.

Full stack JS - This sounds like either someone using a bunch of libraries (Angular with jQuery and some RequireJS or something like that). Otherwise, it might refer to MEAN developers (Mongo, Express, Angular, Node).

Web Design - that is so broad of a term, it could mean anything. Maybe someone who does both UX and Development, but is mainly developing 'Websites' not 'Web Apps'.

Front-end Web Dev - Mostly a HTML/CSS/JS wizard. Might have some UX skills, might also call themself a Web Designer, or Developer.

If you like using a language like Javascript, find out what you like about it and what you might use it for. Javascript can be used for more than just making a website look pretty and do fancy things. Chances are there will be someone asking you to do what they want (make it this color, make this disappear, draw this on a canvas etc.) and you just do it. At least learn HTML and CSS so you know how it relates to those.

Hope that helps.

Ask HN: Web Design vs. Front-end?

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