Becoming the pro web designer (Libraries, Database and CSS basics) – Part 3
Hello fellow creative guys! I hope you had fantastic holidays. Here, we have reached the third and final post of the series of becoming the pro web designers. Building an effective website is not an easy job. Starting from visualizing idea to converting the idea in the fully functional online model requires lots of skills and commitment. We have discussed the web languages you need to know in our first post and essential frameworks for website development in our previous post.
I hope you are well aware of the stuff we have discussed so far. If no, you can check out our pervious post. After the basic introduction of web languages and frameworks, today we are going to talk about web libraries, database structure, and basics of CSS in this last post of the series.
Libraries for Multiple Functionalities
Library is a group code snippet that lets you implement vast amount functionalities without writing lengthy codes. You don’t require to have deep knowledge of writing puzzling to perform certain actions on the website if you properly know how to use libraries. They are made for a large amount of functionality and ensure that the codes always work across all web browsers and devices efficiently and smoothly.
jQuery is the highly used JavaScript library which is fast, small and feature-rich. It is the largest open source library that doesn’t require the typical coding knowledge. Using jQuery makes HTML traversal, event handling, animation much simpler using the API that works across different browsers. A vast community of developers always works to add more components to the library that has changed the way people write JavaScript.
React is the JavaScript library that is developed to let developers create fast user interfaces easily. It is developed in collaboration of Facebook and Instagram. React has recently gained lots of attention for front-end, mobile and server side development. An active developer community always keeps the library components updated to deliver at its extreme potential. The best feature of React is that only required portion of the program gets updated when you hit the refresh. Its popularity is growing day by day due to some exceptional features like Virtual DOM, Server-side rendering, Data-binding etc.
Databases for Your Large Files
You know where the huge amount of data that you have generated gets stored? You store it in the database and there are two types of them – SQL and NoSQL. While the SQL database helps you in ensuring that all the stored data is correct and validated, the NoSQL database is for flexibility and to maintain and build huge applications.
MongoDB is the cross-platform document-oriented NoSQL database. Its unique feature is that it is the only database that supports meteor at the moment. It is an open-source NoSQL database that includes high scalability and tools, which help in deploying, monitoring and creating back up. Some standout features of MongoDB are its indexing and replication ability; load balancing and file storage capacity and service-side JavaScript execution etc.
Redis is an in-memory database that can also be used as cache and message broker. It is NoSQL type database that supports various data structures like strings, hashes, lists, sets, bitmaps, and hyperloglogs with radius queries. It has built-in persistence and more data types compared to any other database. The reason why Redis has gained so much momentum is for its fast speed of retrieving data. But, the only drawback of this database is the lower depth of data storage.
Postgres is an object-relational database management system. Its primary function is to store the data securely. It is also packed with a lot of querying facilities. PostgreSQL is world’s most advanced open-source SQL database. Some standout features of PostgreSQL are its reliability, stability, cross platform working capability and its thriving community.
SQL server is the relational database management system developed by Microsoft. Its main function is storing and retrieving the data based on other software application requests. It has BI tools and SQL server management studio, which are known for saving time in troubleshooting and development. Moreover, being the flagship product of Microsoft, they are gaining a faster edge in the world of technology by evolving early.
CSS for the Basic Web Developing Techniques
It is the foundation of web designing. CSS stands for Cascading style sheets and it is the tool which will help you to enhance the aesthetic factor of your website. It enables a web developer to change the fonts, animations and other such formatting of the website. Some of the important CSS are listed below.
When it comes to the web developing, CSS can give you a tough time, but there are CSS pre-compilers like Less that have been introduced to make your task easier. It takes care of the codes and makes working on them very easy. Less is compatible with Rhino, Node, and the browser. If you are looking for easy compilers, then you need to learn about third-party tools that help you do the same.
Want a mature and bigger extension of the CSS? Learn to work with Sass. It is an extended version of Less and has a lot more features. Naturally, you will need extra time to learn Sass and how it is operated. Sass can be set up on Mac, Windows, Linux and uses Ruby to function.
Stylus is a tool that will help you defining the functions for managing and extending parameters for CSS. You can reuse the libraries with the help of Stylus and it also has various loops, conditionals and import options that will help you with designing your website. Though, they are not as renowned as Sass and Less, but they have impressive features.
Apart from learning and mastering these languages, libraries, frameworks and databases, a designer should keep these things in mind.
- The designer’s job doesn’t end with just designing the website. But they must ensure that website is not facing any glitches and works properly providing the best user experience.
- There are numerous web designers out there and with each one of them trying to get their hands at the best deal. It would only help you if you know how to sell yourself. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to put yourself in the competition and let everyone know about your unique skills and if you master the right kind of tools for web designing, you would be giving yourself the extra edge.
- In order to sell yourself, you need to communicate better with your prospective clients. So, communication is the key in the way of becoming the pro designer.
- Don’t start away on the website right away. A good website can only be created if you have a right plan in your mind. List out all the requirements of the website and research about every aspect of it. After that, chart a plan and work accordingly. This is where you will know about the skills you will use.
- Take help of experts. Web designing and development both are different tasks that require different skills and knowledge. If you are very good at design and graphics work, you can take the help of web developers to convert your design into working module.
- Since, technology is ever evolving, you must keep yourself updated with the latest trends. There are many tools coming up and having knowledge of them and use of them will give you the edge, as your contemporaries will keep an eye on them.
- Experience goes a long way and obviously speaks volumes about your professionalism. Work on getting as much experience as you can and always be organized else you may fall down.
- Having an updated portfolio with your latest achievements and collaborations will help you getting better projects. If you are working with a team, then be a team player and value the assets of each team player.
Feeling flustered with the myriad of options? Don’t! We just wanted to give you an insight about the options you have and learning all of them is not necessary and no one tool holds a preference over other. But, learning some of them will definitely give you the edge and make you a better web designer. You just need to pick out the languages, libraries, frameworks and CSS that will suit you and work best for your website and you are good to go. Check the following URLs, if you have missed the first two posts of the series,
- Becoming the pro web designer (Languages you need to know) – Part 1
- Becoming the pro web designer (Essential Frameworks you must know about) – Part 2
Another important thing to keep in mind is the new tools and technologies that come in the market every day. So, be updated, organized, and look out for better tools and you will become the top web designer in the market. Remember, patience and knowledge are the key to success!
