What Is a Front End Designer and What Do They Do?

We’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about the front-end designer lately. This is a very important term in the programming world. This blog post will tell you who a front end designer is and what he does.

Who is a Front end designer?

A relatively new job title, a front end designer is a specialist who combines aspects of both graphic design and computer programming. They live between the world of programming and design, bridging the gap between code and visuals.

1. They understand UX principles and best practices.
2. They have an eye for aesthetics.
3. They can also write JavaScript.
4. They understand the possibilities of front-end programming

Front-end design is the creation of HTML, CSS, and presentational JavaScript codes that form user interfaces.

Front-end Designer Skills

As we have already mentioned, front-end developers and designers can combine their skills. We must have a concrete understanding of:

CSS and HTML

The basic building blocks for web coding. To build static websites, front-end designers must be proficient in HTML and CSS coding. HTML is used to build a website’s foundation, while CSS is used for styling the layout, colors, fonts, and other styles.

Javascript

You can add simple functionality to websites or create complex web applications. While most front-end designers are familiar with Ember and React, this does not mean they can code complex features with them.

Although I am familiar with Ember, Vue, and React, I don’t know enough to be a master of anyone. However, I do know enough to understand the technology and what it can do. The same applies to the backend; Ruby on Rails is what I have been using since 2012.

This does not imply that I am a full-stack or backend developer. There is too much to cover, so staying current and knowledgeable about everything is impossible.

The Importance of Having a Front-End Designer in Your Team

A front-end designer will ensure the coding, and design processes run smoothly. Any changes between design and code are improvements, not an oversight. A frontend designer can also help with:

1. Better design. Designers often add 24 different font sizes and 30 shades of gray when people can only distinguish between 5 or 5. Or, they create spacing that doesn’t follow any rules. It is not font-size: 36px. It is 35, 36, and 37px depending on how the designer randomly clicked it. Designers can live in the perfect bubble of their design and only cover the best scenarios. Front-end developers often don’t care if the margins are 10 or 20px. A good front-end designer combines these two worlds and creates a perfect design.
2. Implementation. Some designers argue that following your advice can often lead to bad design, as you know exactly how much effort is required. This is a problem with you, not the web designer. It’s happened too many times to me. I was consistently doing extra work to make the website look good. I know what can be achieved with pure CSS and how to push it to its limit. I also know what JavaScript can do.

   Sometimes, it is easier to create a CSS file and present the changes to clients in CSS than to recreate the entire thing in Sketch or another design tool.

   Implementing a design is easier because you already know all variables and can convert them to code much more quicker than if you had to measure everything.

3. UX. User experience can be greatly improved by paying attention to the contrast between colors, the size of buttons and fonts, the placement of design elements, and the consistency of your design. A front-end developer can conduct a user experience analysis to ensure your design meets these needs.

   You will see that many designs on dribble don’t respect accessibility or usability. Although this is a great place for inspiration, many would not work in real life.

Frontend design lies somewhere between design – which is a world full of pixels, personas and polish – and engineering – which is a world full of logic, loops and Linux. Frontend design is the creation of HTML, CSS, or presentational JavaScript code to create user interfaces.

Brad Frost

A front-end designer is, in other words, someone who understands UX principles and has an eye for aesthetics. They can also write HTML, CSS, and Javascript. They might even have a basic understanding of backend development.

This reflects the “webmaster” role we used to have, where we did everything from design to development.

It feels like it is reviving the ” should designers have the ability to code” debate, which resurfaces every.

Font-end Designers Worth 

Because of the organizational silos between developers and designers, we see a revival in the idea of designers being capable of coding. This is dangerous as it slows development, prevents rapid iteration, and leads to impractical designs.

Brad says it this way:

Frontend designers are in a unique position to bridge the gap between the development and design worlds. They are the mortar that holds the bricks together.

Front-end designers are more important than ever. However, not every designer has to be able to code. That is what I believe. This is because some modern design tools encourage front-end designers to think without writing code. It can also encourage designers to create a design that is easy to use, thereby reducing development costs and avoiding a lot of back-and-forths.

The Mindset of a Front-End Designer

The point that I am trying to make with this post is that front-end designers are not valued for their ability to code but rather for their ability to think like developers.

While it is helpful to write HTML, CSS, and Javascript, a front-end designer won’t be able to code as well as a programmer. But, the ability to code comes with the mindset to create developer-friendly designs.

Designers are encouraged to adopt this mindset through the tools we use to create designs. If you asked me whether learning to code is necessary, I would probably answer no. However, I believe you should learn how to use Figma in the most efficient manner possible. This will allow you to think like a front-end developer.

What does a front-end designer do?

How do you become a front-end designer?

Conclusions

Front end designers are responsible for creating a user experience that is both visually appealing and code. They are a bridge between design and development, helping to keep the bricks in their place. Although not all designers should be able to code, it is important to understand how code works to create better designs and communicate more effectively with developers.