Artikel
What a freelance front-end developer can do
By Carsten Bjerregaard, founder of Marketingcapacity.dk (Feel free to link to this article. Copying/publishing without agreement is not allowed)
A front-end developer is often a web developer with a special focus on optimizing what meets the eyes of digital users. The front-end developer's job is to make a solution's digital interface beautiful, user-friendly, intuitive, responsive and optimized. A front-end developer can work on developing new solutions or optimizing and modernizing existing solutions.
See Frontend Developer profiles
What is front-end development?
Front-end development is about making a digital user interface optimal for the user. That is, getting the interface to:
- Being intuitive
- Being inviting
- Selling the content in the best possible way
- Inviting interaction
- To support the brand's look and feel
The front-end developer therefore combines a number of professional tracks:
- Design
- Programming
- UX understanding (User experience)
- Hardware knowledge
- Software and platform knowledge
- Data capture
- Content dissemination
- Image processing
And then the front-end developer must be able to balance how it will work on all possible platforms and technologies such as:
- Computers, tablets and mobiles
- Chrome, Safari, Opera and other browsers
How does the front-end developer create value?
It's hard to overstate the commercial value of websites, apps, landing pages and other interfaces working optimally. Put simply, it will optimize that customers can:
- Understand the information
- Feel the brand
- Buy the products
- Submit interest
- Sign up for newsletters etc.
- Service yourself
- Etc.
What does a front-end developer need to know?
As a front-end developer, you need personal skills to perform in teams and achieve the best possible results:
- Ability to work together
- Creativity
- Graphic flair
- A sense of structure
- Good communication skills
- Curiosity
- And preferably a certain level of perfectionism
... to name just a few characteristics you should look for in a front-end developer. On the professional side, they need to master a range of techniques and technologies:
- Scrum
- Agile development in sprints
- HTML
- CSS
- Java or JavaScript
- PHP
- Flash
- ASP.net
And the list is growing all the time. Technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will gradually become part of more and more websites, just as AI will likely be in the background feeding data into websites.
Front-end developers have to deal with making increasingly complex technologies work together to present ever-increasing amounts of data in an appetizing, simple and intuitive way. So professional curiosity and the ability to keep yourself updated are vital attributes.
Examples of good front-end development work
All sites and apps that are successful over time are a result of, among other things, skilled front-end development work. You could almost say that the less you think about the interface when you're on a website, the better the front-end development. In the extreme - and practically impossible - you don't even notice the interface. It just works. Considering the sheer volume of items on Amazon, it's surprising how easily and quickly you can find an item that seems to fit your needs. Because the site 'guesses' what you're going to ask for next.
For example, if you search for Squash racket, it will already come up as meta-text with some relevant price ranges. Click on one of them to get relevant alternatives. Just 2 clicks and you'll find yourself researching alternatives - with facts and a magnifying glass to look at pictures, user ratings, quantity in stock and "shipping to Denmark". It's so easy, and a great example of front-end development.
All creative people stand on the shoulders of their predecessors. From painters and musicians to front-end developers. So take inspiration from what the big sites are doing when developing a new user interface. And take the time to talk to your front-end developer about what you want to achieve, what inspires you, what you think works well.
Why a freelance front-end developer?
In the past, most people might have thought of freelancers for one-off projects. However, many companies have now realized the benefits of working with freelancers on a long-term basis:
- You can cover needs that don't justify a permanent position
- In periods when you don't need it, you don't pay for the skill
- In a long-term relationship, the freelancer gets to know the company almost as well as a permanent employee
- Compared to buying the desired skill set from an agency - such as an advertising agency - working with freelancers is usually much cheaper
- You have the flexibility to rethink the overall competency profile of the person responsible for an area
- More and more really talented people prefer to work freelance
- A freelancer can still look at your business 'from the outside' - which is a valuable thing when thinking about creative
- Freelancers can bring fresh, outside inspiration to your business
How do you find a good freelance front-end developer?
Finding the right freelancer can be difficult. And above all, it can take a long time. Because there are many freelancers within the same field, and even if they boast the same skills, there can be a big difference when it comes to the way they work and the work they deliver. When you ask Marketingcapacity.dk to help you find a freelancer to work with, the process is simple:
- You describe your needs to us (either in writing or verbally - we'll confirm in an email)
- We screen the thousands of profiles on Marketingcapacity.com and, if necessary, the market through our channels
- We nominate a list of candidates and talk to them according to your needs
- You will be presented with 3 candidates that seem to meet your needs
- During the 3 meetings (at your location or digitally) you can ask questions and see examples of their work
- You choose the freelancer you would like to start working with
- We set it up in our systems with time tracking etc. so you have an overview and full control
In other words: After describing your needs, simply set aside 2 hours to meet with 3 hand-picked and screened candidates. That's your guarantee of a good result with reasonable effort.
