In the development world, it’s not just about knowing how to code. There are a number of additional skills that make a good developer. Skills that will help you develop user-friendly apps, cut down development times or increase the efficiency of your apps. Every developer should now or learn these skills.
So if you are getting into development, or are already a developer and are wondering how to take your career to the next level, here are the 5 skills every developer should know in 2021.
Front end tech
There’s one thing that every single app out there needs. And that’s a front end or the face of the app that users will see and interacted with. No matter what’s going on behind the scenes or what languages are been used, every app needs a good front end. So, every developer should know front end development. Whether you’re a Java, Swift, C# or Phyton developer.
HTML, CSS and JavaScript are a great option for front end development. They’re easy to learn and understand and are capable of running on virtually any device. Apps like Facebook and Uber use make use of them for their front ends.
UX Design
UX design is the ability to design apps with your users in mind. Functionality isn’t always everything. If your app is difficult to use, it’s going to turn people away.
UX design will help will help you design user-friendly apps with clearly defined user journeys. This is important in giving users a positive experience and building loyalty from your users.
Keep the layouts simple, beautiful and Userfriendly
Object Oriented Programming
Object Oriented Programming is a programming model that organizes your code into “objects” that can be reused and added upon within your project.
Think about it like this, if you’re developing a game in which the player needs to fight off a hords of zombies. Instead of having to code each zombie, you’d simply create a zombie “object.” This object can then be reused an many times as you need. To put it simply, you develop once, use
This significantly reduces development times and streamlines your code. It also makes maintenace and updates much easier to perform. Additionally, it leads to code been neater and running a lot more efficiently.
Web Dev Frameworks
Frameworks like .NET of Spring are a must for app developers. Most apps out there, while being unique in many ways, generally have similarities in their structures of functions. With any app you’re going to build, chances are parts of it have already been developed before. So why re-invent the wheel?
Framework like .NET and Spring give you access to prebuilt features and “skeletons” of apps that you can include into your app and then customize to match your specific needs. This again cut’s done development times significantly. Frameworks are also well refined and optimized, meaning your apps will run smoother and with fewer errors right off the bat.
Git and GitHub
Last but not least, Git and GitHub. At this point, these should be compulsory for any developer for a number of reasons.
Firstly, GitHub allows you to automatically back up your code to the cloud. This, in my opinion is reason enough to get a GitHub account. I’ve had the SSD hard drive in my laptop die at one point. I managed to recover most of my data, but I also lost a lot of work. Since then, I’ve made it a habit to regularly back up all my work and I’d encourage you to do the same.
Secondly, Git is a powerful version control tool. Every time you make a change to your project, Git will save is as a verion of your project. At any point in time, should you wish to revert your roll back to a previous version, maybe you’re not happy with a certain update or you made a change that broke the entire app, Git allows you to do this with the click of a button.
Finally, GitHub enables easy and fluid collaborative development. With projects been automatically synced to the cloud, entire teams can work on a project at the same time and have changes appear to everyone else instantly.
These are just some of the skills and tools every developer should be familiar with. But naturally, the list isn’t complete. The complete list would be far too long to cover in a single blog post, and the truth is, it will always be changing and expanding. That’s the nature of the IT industry. The idea is to never stop learning and innovating.
