Technology is increasingly becoming an essential element of running a successful business and handling basic day-to-day activities. As such, there has been a rise in the demand for web development services. According to Jobs Academy, as of 2020, the estimated number of websites across the globe totaled 17.4 billion. Jobs Academy further predicts the use of websites to grow by 13% between 2018 to 2028, translating to a massive demand for websites in the next few years.
An increase in the demand for websites comes with a need for quality web development solutions. These required web development services vary from simple to complex, such as personal blogs, e-commerce platforms, product designs, and digital magazines. To harness this growing niche, you have to be hands-on with your skills as a website developer. And upskilling starts with mastering some of the best practices of web development so that you produce high-quality work within a short time while still being able to handle a range of customer demands.
The following web development skills have been tried, tested, and endorsed by some of the best brains in the web development industry.
1. Start With Planning Your Web Development Project
Whether you're a guru or just starting in the web development industry, you should never skip the process of mapping out your project.
Planning for your web development project starts with understanding the bigger picture. What do you intend to achieve at the end of creating the website or the blog? Start by identifying your goal. Creating a user-friendly interface for a given website is an example of a web development goal.
Once you have determined your aim, plan on how to achieve it. For example, how will you write your codes? How long do you plan to take to finish the project?
2. Follow The Standards of Web Development
While creativity has fueled the growth of the web development industry, standard procedures need to be adhered to regardless of the inventions of coding. By following these standards, you create a website that can be used across populations. Similarly, you can stay creative while avoiding unnecessary complexities that could be easily avoided by sticking to the standards.
Some of these standards include
- Hyperlinks should be visible for the user to identify them in text easily.
- The company's details, contact information, and registration option should be placed at the top-right of a webpage.
- On the other hand, the company's logo should be placed at the top left corner of the homepage. Alternatively, if the logo isn’t placed on the homepage, the user should access the homepage by clicking on the company's logo.
- If you add a navigation map, it should be the same across all website pages for uniformity.
3. Always Consider Using A User-Friendly Interface
No matter how advanced your web development project is, you should always strive to create a user-friendly interface. Otherwise, what's the point of having a website that can't serve the end-user? Learn from companies offering ReactJS development services that have built a reputation of providing web development solutions with a highly interactive, user-friendly interface to meet users’ needs. A user-friendly interface benefits the end-user and makes future updates, debugging, and general website management easier.
One of the simplest ways to achieve a friendly user interface is writing short, clear codes, which is the next best web development practice to be discussed here.
4. Write Smart Codes, Not Long Codes
If you're looking to deliver high-quality development services, you have to learn to write short codes. The longer the code, the higher the chances of bugs, which means your website won’t perform excellently.
The trick for writing smart codes is making sure every code solves a problem or serves a purpose, like providing a feature to a specific page on the website. Moreover, when writing smart codes, consider adding code commenting. Code commenting is where you insert short notes through your code to help you understand why a code snippet works in a specific way. Code commenting also enables you to understand what a specific code was intended for.
Other than helping you build a user-friendly interface, smart, short codes are crucial for a web development project being executed by a team. It helps when the code of your team member is easy to read and understand since you’re required to proofread and change their codes to achieve the end product. Short codes are also easy to edit in case of future changes.
5. Consider Multi-device Compatibility
While mobile phones are the most commonly used devices to access websites and other web services, your site must be accessible across multiple devices. These devices include laptops and tablets, to mention but a few.
Ensure that data on your website is displayed correctly across the different devices. It’s essential, especially for the primary website features like the contact form. Otherwise, you risk limiting your client's potential customers if you develop a website whose display is limited to a phone only.
Take Advantage Of The Best Practices
Following the above five best practices will help you better your web development skills, whether you’re an expert or a newbie in this industry. The demand for web development solutions is currently on an all times high, and only the best skills will milk out this business opportunity.
