Resources and Tools for Web Development
4 min read
web dev
Web development can be a daunting path if you don't know where to start or what tools to use to get the job done quickly but efficiently. In order to make your life easier, below you will find a list of some of the most common tools that web developers use.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
Before you start any project you will need an environment and/or text editor. Arguably the most popular IDE used is known as Visual Studio Code or VS Code for short. VS Code offers an all in one solution for nearly any web application or programming need. Sublime Text is another great and popular option. It may not be as robust as VS Code but it has everything you need to get started.
Learning Resources
There is a near limitless amount of free and paid resources all over the internet. The most familiar to you might be none other than YouTube. Just simply find your favorite content creator and you're off to the races. However, many channels may lack structure or a sense of consistency. A few of my favorite creators that offer full series or videos that give you more than enough basics to survive are FreeCodeCamp, Web Dev Simplified, and Bryan Dunn. If you don't mind paying a small fee for premium courses with much more structure then Udemy and Codecademy are well worth the price of admission and frequently offer sales .
Creative Common Images
One of the more annoying struggles when building web applications is the need for images and scouring the web for creative common media that can be freely used. Filtering through google with Creative Common license selected in image search is useful but surprisingly limited in what is shown. Unsplash is a great platform that offers images that can be used for placeholder items or permanent places in your application since their content is free to use, not excluding commercial use. A paid alternative is known as FreePik, which offers of plethora of images, svgs, templates icon packs, and more.
General Inspiration
When you start working in a Web Development career you will likely work with one or more Designers that develop the User Interface (UI/UX) for your product(s). As a Developer your job will be to make their concepts come to life in production. That's all fine and dandy but what about working on your own side project? Who will create your mock ups? Are you creative enough to come up with detailed designs? If so, great. You can skip this part. Others are not so lucky, and I for one am not very creative when it comes to UI design. Dribble and Pinterest have been the most useful by far. Dribble is specifically made for designers and web developers. Whether you need ideas for a logo, animation or a cool dashboard interface, Dribble is a great option. I encourage you to create an account and start saving ideas in "collection" for future uses. Pinterest is for all that and more but also have a large variety of UI concepts for inspiration.
Color selection
Lastly, you will likely need a color scheme for your project if you are looking to make things more visually appealing. You can browse a variety of color palletes at Coolors, and even create your own that give you different shades, hex, or rgb values to use directly. If you want some more insight in which color combination you should use or the importance of color selection, check out this article on color theory.
Summary
The mentioned resources and tools have helped me along the way but there are many more. Take what you can and make your own list of resources. In general, I.T. fields move fast so best practice is to find something consistent that works for you and never stop learning. Best of luck. Here is a list of all mentioned tools and resources:
- IDE
- Learning Resources
- Creative Common Images
- General Inspiration
- Color selection