Front-end technologies drive the success of almost any software infrastructure. Though back-end technologies allow software applications to run smoothly in the first place, users would hardly look twice at any software product if there was not a visually appealing graphical interface to draw them in.
Despite traditional society often sweeping the importance of creative work under the rug, it’s become exceedingly clear just how much the world relies on artistic prowess.
Of course, merging the interests of art with the technological innovation of the modern world leads to more pervasive outlets for both enterprises.
As an illustration, within the next decade, particularly spanning the years 2019-2029, the projected growth rate of employment for web developers and digital designers is 8%.
At first glance, this number may not appear to be staggering, but it is twice the average growth rate for all occupations.
Keeping this in mind, you should pay close attention to the front-end technologies that will foster successful software development for your upcoming project. Here you’ll find 11 front-end technologies to watch out for:
- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- React
- React Native
- Angular
- Flutter
- NPM
- Vue.js
- Ionic
- BootStrap
Stay tuned to learn more about each of these front-end technologies and how they can help you reach your business goals!
What Is Front-End Development?
Front-end development comprises the part of web development that is visible to the end-user. Therefore, front-end developers are largely responsible for building user interfaces (UIs) that users can interact with.
Essentially, front-end development involves transforming back-end code into something that is easily navigable to the user via a graphical presentation.
While back-end development mostly works behind the scenes with servers, databases, and other internal structures, front-end development ensures that you’re able to use an application or website effectively.
Without the likes of front-end web development, you could be looking at an unsightly jumble of code right now. Instead, you have structured text with corresponding headers and an aesthetic blue theme to ground Trio’s affiliation.
A number of critical skills go into successful front-end development. Mobile-first and responsive web design (RWD), for example, are two design approaches that seek to align design elements appropriately to different screen sizes.
This is important to consider when you want web apps or websites to be accessible on both mobile devices and through web browsers.
In general, accessibility, speed, and performance, are crucial objectives that front-end development aims to achieve.
Web development, especially, requires a specific combination of core tools to build front-end behavior. Namely, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, make up the foundation of front-end web development.
Along with several other front-end technologies, you’ll learn more about these core tools just below.
11 Best Front-End Technologies To Use In 2022
Quite frankly, there are hundreds of front-end technologies that you can employ in your next software project. And many of them would do just fine handling the workload you have in store. But none stand out as much as the following 11 front-end technologies:
1. JavaScript
JavaScript has been around for the past quarter of a century. The programming language is well-known for revolutionizing the web due to its dynamic capabilities.
Dynamic describes content that is susceptible to change, whereas static content is immovable.
Before the emergence of JavaScript, the web as a whole was static in nature. A web page was simply a block of text.
Then JavaScript came about, enabling interactivity, like scrolling, clicking, and much much more.
Now, JavaScript is used on the majority of websites and is the base for most front-end frameworks, many of which will be briefly outlined today.
2. HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML), alongside JavaScript and CSS, is a foundational web technology.
Its basic purpose is to structure text which occurs by formatting documents for display on a web page.
HTML5, released in 2014, empowered HTML to natively include multimedia elements as well, such as video and audio. More or less, this development eliminated the need for Adobe Flash Player and similar plug-ins.
Every web page has HTML embedded into it as this markup is necessary for instructing a web browser how to display text, images, and other content onto a webpage.
3. CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) denotes the styling and presentation of a document. For instance, any HTML document counts on CSS to manage the visual details of the web page.
Layouts, colors, and fonts are all under the jurisdiction of CSS. And CSS3 — the latest edition of CSS as of 2001 — modularized CSS specifications, giving developers more flexibility overall.
4. React
React, or ReactJS, is a front-end JavaScript library for building UIs and UI components. React was developed and is maintained by a small team of developers at Facebook.
Today, React is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries for web development. Many major global companies use React, including Facebook and Instagram.
React uses the classic model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. In an MVC pattern, there is a separation of concerns between the presentation layer and the data access layer.
The presentation layer represents the view and the data access layer represents the model. Finally, the controller manages user interactions, pushing user input to the model and view so they can make updates accordingly.
MVC is a widespread architectural pattern for UIs. But one of React’s more unique features is its virtual DOM.
Document object models (DOMs) are application programming interfaces (APIs) that handle the way in which a document is accessed and manipulated. The DOM works with XML and HTML documents, treating them like a tree structure where each HTML element operates as an object.
DOM manipulation can be taxing on a system when it comes to syncing changes to an entire program. Virtual DOMs are an abstraction of the real thing that developers save in memory for more efficient manipulation before synchronization.
5. React Native
React Native is a mobile application framework, also the offspring of Facebook. Through React Native, mobile developers can build applications for Android, iOS, and a variety of other platforms from macOS to AndroidTV.
This means that React Native is a hybrid app development platform. To be sure, the primary objective of React Native is to enable native features on multiple platforms.
Most front-end technologies, and development tools altogether, struggle to maintain high performance when cross-platform compatibility enters the picture.
But the very name, React Native, suggests that Mark Zuckerberg — the notorious creator of Facebook — is very confident about React Native’s potential.
Other notable features of React Native are code reusability and fast refresh.
Of course, code reusability refers to the ability of React Native to share code between multiple platforms.
Fast refresh empowers React Native developers to see changes immediately as they are implemented.
6. Angular
Angular is a TypeScript web application framework, and a reliable component of the MEAN tech stack — or MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, And Node.js.
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript which extends static typing, permitting stronger type safety for detecting errors quickly.
Instead of MVC, Angular uses a model-view-viewmodel (MVVM) design pattern. An MVVM pattern also distinguishes the graphical UI from the business logic.
But in absence of a controller, the view model notifies the view of any state changes by receiving notifications from the model.
Besides its architecture, Angular is quite a versatile framework. You can build progressive web apps or utilize the framework with technologies like Cordova, Ionic, or NativeScripy to build near-native mobile apps.
You can also use Angular to build desktop apps across Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms.
Another exceptional feature of the framework is Angular’s templates which developers can leverage to create UI views rapidly, aiding the software development team in becoming more productive.
7. Flutter
Flutter is a UI software development kit (SDK) courtesy of Google. Along with Flutter, developers employ the speedy programming language Dart and the resourceful graphic engine Skia for building cross-platform apps.
Benchmarks demonstrate that Dart is even faster than JavaScript, and Skia works with APIs from a variety of development platforms to abstract platform-specific graphics and render native UIs.
Naturally, these Flutter attributes drastically reduce code development time. What’s more, Flutter’s ready-to-use widgets are markedly customizable and help save time as well.
8. npm
Node Package Manager, stylized as simply npm as a rule, is a package manager for JavaScript.
npm is the default package manager for Node.js. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment, authorizing developers to use JavaScript for back-end development.
Most programming languages have associated package managers. But consider that JavaScript is used on approximately every website on the World Wide Web, and it should come as no surprise that npm is the largest software registry in the world.
With over 350,000 packages, npm is a quintessential front-end technology where JavaScript developers can share their code and reuse the code of other developers.
9. Vue.js
Vue.js is a progressive, MVVM JavaScript framework. By being progressive, Vue.js encourages incremental adoption.
In other words, Vue.js starts developers off with only the view layer. Any other software structure should be added in with supporting libraries and packages.
Vue.js designer Evan You created the project after using AngularJS. He decided to extract the best features from Angular and build something lightweight.
Developers like Vue.js because it is easy to complete small projects and just as easy to scale upwards.
10. Ionic
Ionic is an open-source SDK for hybrid app development. Thanks to Ionic, a single JavaScript codebase could be your gateway to performant native and web apps.
Developers can take advantage of various front-end technologies like Angular, React, or Vue.js with Ionic at the helm for building user interfaces.
Cordova and Capacitor plug-ins play an equal part in Ionic’s dexterity. They host integral operating system features like GPS, camera, flashlight, etc.
Packaging app development within Cordova or Capacitor bridges simple UI building with extensive native tooling.
11. Bootstrap
Bootstrap is a CSS framework with design templates for typography, forms, buttons, navigation, and similar interface modules.
You can think of Bootstrap as a toolkit for building the front-end of responsive sites with ease and speed. Themes and icons come equipped with Bootstrap’s pre-built components.
To add, Bootstrap is mobile-first, meaning design is catered to mobile devices which has far more restrictions than web development. Thus, developers can expand design to fit the web rather than the other way around.
Conclusion
Front-end development is a non-negotiable component to building nearly any software. Whether or not you know the ins and outs of software development, front-end technologies will play a big part in the product you will ultimately release to an eager client base.
Using the right front-end technologies will determine how you will fare in the market. Utilizing JavaScript, CSS, and HTML is a must for front-end web development, but what other tools will deliver your project where it needs to go?
Take a good look at the front-end technologies summarized in this piece, and choose wisely. Remember that all of these front-end technologies depend on qualified front-end developers for effective use.
Trio is here to bring you the best senior front-end developers. Learn more about hiring front-end developers at Trio!
