There’s always room to grow, no matter if you’re just starting out as a web developer or an experienced programmer. Good habits can help you improve your skills and eventually advance your career. These are our top tips to help you become a better developer regardless of your level.
1. Never stop learning
Programming is an ongoing learning process, no matter how skilled a web developer may be. To stay competitive, you will need to be aware of new technologies and frameworks. To find answers to your questions, or to see what other developers are asking, you can dive into Stack Overflow or GitHub. Make a list of industry magazines and blogs to read. These are our favorite resources:
2. Contribute open-source
You can get tunnel vision if you only work on your own projects. You also have fewer opportunities to develop coding skills if you leave it up to your boss. You can develop your skills as a developer by coding for fun. Open-source is a great way to get involved. Start contributing to open-source projects by jumping on GitHub. Your creativity and problem solving skills will be cultivated by helping other developers solve their problems. It also helps you to be more visible as a developer. You can build a solid reputation within the community if you do great work on open-source project. This reputation can lead to new opportunities in the long-term.
3. Conduct code review
Many companies have a culture that encourages code review. The development team reviews code together before it is pushed. This helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This process may already be in place if you are lucky. You can start it if it isn’t. Code review helps you spot problems in your code before they become bugs on your website. This allows you to think more deeply about why you wrote the code you did. It helps to reflect on why you made the choices you did. This can help you identify and remove bad habits and teach new skills.
4. Document properly
This is a must-do: Comment your code. Documentation wouldn’t be required in a perfect world. Coding would be written to make it easy for humans to read and easier for machines to interpret. This is not a perfect world. Sometimes, code is too complex or difficult to understand. Commenting is essential in these cases. Other developers will benefit from your comments. They can see the why, how and what of your codebase. It helps you to understand. Commenting allows you to reflect on your code and make an assessment. You can also use it as a guide to help you with future projects. We are here to help. You will be remembered for your comment in the future.
5. Learn from the success of others
Web development offers a wealth of intellectual capital. Amazing things have been done by web developers, and they continue to push the boundaries of the internet experience. Look for sites that are interesting and unique. Learn from them, then shamelessly rip them off. To see what they have done, you can simply inspect the source code of the site. Learning from the work of others developers is a valuable tool. Make a “swipe” file of websites you like, and those you admire. Take a look at their code. You can even reach out to the developers.
6. Coding for a purpose
Coding code is not an end in and of itself. It is important to understand why you are writing code for your website. What are you trying achieve? Coding is a business endeavor. Before you begin coding on a freelance project you need to understand the business goals and aspirations of your client. This is the best way to find out if the outcome you are producing will be achieved. If you are writing code for your site, consider the bigger picture. What are your goals? What is the site’s purpose? You have to stand out in a world with over 200 million websites. Your web development will be more focused if you have a clear vision of what you want.
7. Sandbox your experiments
You’ll make mistakes when learning web development front-end or back-end. There will be many of them. You can avoid serious consequences by sandboxing your experiments. Set up a server environment to sandbox your code. We recommend MAMP for Mac users, WAMP on Windows or LAMP to Linux users. You can easily identify any errors you make and they won’t affect your entire codebase. This allows you to experiment and fail. Failing is part of learning.