Web Development Blogs
Web Development is an industry that has been around for about three decades. In the history of web development, one pattern has stayed consistent. Things change quickly. HTML, CSS, and Javascript, the three foundational elements of Front-end Web Design, have undergone many updates and changes.
To stay up-to-date with the current developments in Web Development, one has to learn information about what is happening in this industry. But knowing how bloated the Internet is, it’s hard nowadays to find specific information quickly. Fortunately enough, I have some Web Development blogs to share with you. Whether your interest is in Search Engine Optimization or User Experience Design, there is something here for everyone.
Front-End Web Development Blogs
The front end of a website is what the visitor can see. It is like what customers see when they enter a restaurant and sit inside. They see the tables, the waiters/waitresses, the chairs, and other things. In the same way, a visitor to a website sees the header, the content, and the website’s title in the tabs open. Not only that, but the visitor also considers the website’s style, which can be what makes or breaks a website.
Web design includes front-end and back-end development.
Adobe’s XD Ideas blog has a lot of helpful information about Web Design. Although meant primarily to advertise Adobe XD (a UI/UX designing program), the advice they have is constructive. This blog is great for general information about design and more specialized topics in Web Design (e.g., comparing different design types and white space design).
CSS-Tricks is a treasure trove of information on how to style your website. Although it primarily deals with styles and other CSS-related things, it also has some helpful articles relating to HTML & Javascript. Some examples of articles include restarting CSS animation and making a text shadow when hovered over.
Superhero.js is a blog focused on Javascript. What’s unique about it is that its articles are ordered so you can follow along. Although there aren’t many articles (only about 55), there are links to other helpful websites. Also, the posts go into more detail (feeling more like documentation at times), which makes them last longer. Some of the articles in this compendium involve writing memory-efficient javascript and front-end security.
Back-End Web Development Blogs
Backend Web Development involves the server-side of things with a website (e.g., storing and retrieving data, authentication with passwords, and algorithms for search or recommendations).
Some languages used in Back-end include Java, Ruby, Python, and PHP. Frameworks are libraries that have built code in the language so that someone can use that to make their website faster without developing the code from scratch. Javascript can also be used in the back end but is treated separately from the javascript used in the front end (since confusing the two can lead to problems).
NodeSource’s blog includes a lot of helpful information about Javascript in the Node.js framework, including how to use it, securing apps made with it, and performance optimization (critical in the back-end). One can learn about package.json, a file integral to a Node.js project. Also, learn about keeping oneself safe when downloading packages with Node.js.
Ruby is a website that aggregates blog articles involving Ruby on Rails. This means it has a lot of content: its upside (since there is a lot of material to learn from) and downside (there is a lot of content to sift through). Despite it being focused primarily on Ruby on Rails, one can find media with a more general audience, like this one, about dealing with perfectionism as a developer. Nevertheless, If you prefer a blog with fewer articles but talks a lot about Ruby on Rails, Railsware might be the right choice.
UX Web Development Blogs
User experience, as mentioned above, is a subset of Frontend Web Development and Web Design that encompasses the whole web design process, though geared towards how the website visitor will interact with it based solely on how the website looks. The method includes wireframing (sketching to act as a prototype for how the website will look like), research (looking at websites similar to the one that will be made to see what they have in common and see what they do right or wrong), and implementation (making the CSS and HTML to make the website look like they settled on design).
UXBooth is a rich resource full of valuable information about user experience, from specialized topics like data from rage-clicking (clicking due to frustration with design) and optimizing intranet (websites restricted to employees or students). They also have categories, including about ten articles, with a Must Reads section. However, there are a lot of articles on the website. If you’re looking for more general advice about user experience, the AdobeXD website can be indispensable.
UXMagazine is another excellent resource for all things related to user experience. It includes technical and general articles, making it a good source if you want to brush up on your knowledge and learn more about a topic. For example, one can implement certain design principles to combat climate change. Another excellent example of its usefulness is its talks about constraints and their importance to UX in promoting confident choices by limiting others.
SEO Blogs
Search engine optimization is optimizing the content on your website so that search engines are more likely to recommend your website nearer to the top of the search results. This involves strategically and organically including keywords and synonyms on web pages. It also consists in breaking up text so that the web crawlers of search engines can more effectively identify the keywords in your webpage. SEO Marketing is a clear winner when organically ranking a website. On-Page SEO, Social Media, and off-page SEO are some of the many strategies online marketers deploy.
SearchEngineWatch has many articles about specific search engine algorithm updates and what one can do to improve their search ranking. Their update schedule is about weekly, which can be an upside (more content to read and more time to process) and a downside.
If you prefer looking at a blog that updates very frequently (about daily), SearchEngineJournal might be the right choice. The frequent articles are short to read so that you can quickly absorb and implement the information presented therein.
What to do with all this information?
We have presented a lot of information and links to even more information. To avoid information overload, it is paramount that you choose one thing to focus on and only one thing at a time. It is effortless to start switching from one topic to another, and it may even be necessary (when building a whole website on your own), but make sure to space out the information so that it doesn’t become overwhelming.
Even if one feels they can handle the amount of information presented and linked to in this article, it will still do them well if they classify it and take time to process it rather than consuming it back-to-back. This article contains some principles that deal more deeply with information overload.
Other helpful resources
Although the blogs listed above are beneficial, they aren’t exhaustive. Many more online resources are available, from YouTube videos about web development topics to podcasts. Listed are some websites that can be very helpful for refreshing one’s memory and-or looking for examples of code you’re having trouble implementing.
MDN Web Docs – For (re)learning Web Development (Frontend/Back-end) structured step-by-step. Its main draw is that one can learn about the beginner and intermediate stages of Frontend Web Development, with even some topics about more advanced issues.
W3Schools – Includes examples and tutorials for HTML, CSS, Javascript, and many back-end languages (PHP, Java, Python, etc.). Its main advantage is that it can be a valid substitute for documentation in some instances (when dealing with beginner/intermediate material). Still, again, with advanced/niche stuff, you may have to look at the documentation for the language you’re using.
CSS Zen Garden – To see how much CSS can give a website (which includes the same content) a different feel and evoke a unique UX. Includes great CSS examples, but not as much modern CSS as the more dated (the 1990s, 2000s) ones. But that doesn’t draw away attention from the point of the website—how important CSS is to UX.
Don’t forget to bookmark some of these blogs and stay ahead of the information game!
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