{"id":321530,"date":"2020-10-07T07:48:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T14:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/?p=321530"},"modified":"2020-10-09T15:07:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T22:07:22","slug":"the-widening-responsibility-for-front-end-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/the-widening-responsibility-for-front-end-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Widening Responsibility for Front-End Developers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is an extended version of my essay “When front-end means full-stack”<\/a> which was published in the wonderful Increment<\/em> magazine put out by Stripe. It’s also something of an evolution of a couple other of my essays, “The Great Divide”<\/a> and “Ooops, I guess we’re full-stack developers now.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The moment I fell in love with front-end development was when I discovered the style.css<\/code> file in WordPress themes. That\u2019s where all the magic was (is!<\/em>) to me. I could (can!<\/em>) change a handful of lines in there and totally change the look and feel of a website. It\u2019s an incredible game to play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Back when I was cowboy-coding over FTP. Although I definitely wasn’t using CSS grid! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

By fiddling with HTML and CSS, I can change the way you feel<\/strong> about a bit of writing. I can make you feel more comfortable about buying tickets to an event. I can increase the chances you share something with your friends. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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That was well before anybody paid me money to be a front-end developer, but even then I felt the intoxicating mix of stimuli that the job offers. Front-end development is this expressive art form, but often constrained by things like the need to directly communicate messaging and accomplish business goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Front-end development is at the intersection of art and logic<\/strong>. A cross of business and expression<\/strong>. Both left and right brain<\/strong>. A cocktail of design and nerdery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Looking back at the courses I chose from middle school through college, I bounced back and forth between computer-focused classes and art-focused classes, so I suppose it\u2019s no surprise I found a way to do both as a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term<\/em> \u201cFront-End Developer\u201d is fairly well-defined and understood. For one, it\u2019s a job title. I\u2019ll bet some of you literally have business cards that say it on there, or some variation like: \u201cFront-End Designer,\u201d \u201cUX Developer,\u201d or \u201cUI Engineer.\u201d The debate around what those mean isn\u2019t particularly interesting to me. I find that the roles are so varied from job-to-job and company-to-company that job titles will never be enough to describe things. Getting this job is more about demonstrating you know what you\u2019re doing more than anything else\u00b9<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chris Coyier<\/strong>
Front-End Developer<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The title variations are just nuance. The bigger picture is that as long as the job is building websites, front-enders are focused on the browser<\/em>. Quite literally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n