How To Interact With Your Front-end

Developer

My Background● Professional Writing BA

● Specialized in Digital

and Technical Writing

What is “front-end” development?

What is a Front-end developer?

“To enjoy Front End Engineering you must

have some interest into Visual Design (and

be kind of a masochist).”

CSS? ERB? WTF? What does a front-end developer do?

● Write <div> and <p> tags all day?

● Write controller methods?

● Debug IE all day?

● Test how one button looks on 50 different mobile

devices?

● Create Photoshop mockups? Wireframes?

Tip #1

Get involved with the design process

“Front-end Developers establish a

visual language between Designers

and Engineers.”

● Care about usability! Care about the users end

experience!

● Ask to see wireframes during the design phase

● Have your own opinions about design and voice them

● Ask us questions about our designs

Get involved with design

Tip #2

Walk your front-end developer through

your code

Have mid-project check-ins

Walk your front-end developer through your code● Hold short 3-5 minute in-person meetings to explain

your code

● Give me a check-list of things I may need

● Make yourself available for mid-project check-ins

● Be patient!

Tip #3

Provide detailedtesting feedback

Stop!

There are 18,796 distinct Android devices.

“Hey Natalie, I noticed something weird in firefox

earlier on the checkout page. You should take a

look at it later..”

“Hey Natalie, I noticed something weird in firefox

earlier on the checkout page. You should take a

look at it later..”

● Be aware of browser testing when you test too

● Send me screenshots of when things look weird

● Let me know the browser version, OS version, etc. of

the bug I need to fix when you see it

● Write down the steps it takes to reproduce the bug

Provide detailed testing feedback

Conclusion● Being a front-end developer can mean many things

● Get involved with the design process

● Walk us through your code

● Make yourself available to us

● Provide testing feedback in a way that is useful to us

Thanks for listening!@NRKozlowski