Career move — how to become a UI Engineer

User Interface (UI) Development is a vast field now. It has a very vast ecosystem, so it is very hard to start with or switch careers as a UI Engineer. Earlier there were very limited things we were doing using UI technologies but in the last 4–5 years we have made great progress. Since the inception of new frameworks like React, Vue, Angular, the whole internet industry is moving toward single page application (SPA). It quickly became one of the most sought-after job titles in tech. Being a UI Engineer is rewarding, challenging, lucrative and interesting.

Here we will start how we can start or switch careers as a UI Engineer. 

Responsibilities:-

  • Writing the code that will ultimately become the interface of a web page with a variety and combination of different markup languages. 
  • Understanding how to cater to their web pages for the best User Experience, UX, by providing the ideal User Interface, UI, for that specific page and its unique visitors. 
  • Being able to take a website creation tool like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or another and construct a fully functional web site from scratch. 
  • Be able to quickly and expertly create website/webpage mockups and prototypes to show potential clients what you can offer. 
  • Understand HTML and CMS. However, there are many different coding languages, and more are being developed all the time. 
  • Maintain and update the websites you have created. Thankfully, this is usually one of the easier responsibilities. Once you have developed enough skill to competently create a website, you should generally be able to maintain it with little difficulty–assuming your code was solid from the start.

Coding Skills

The path for an entry-level developer:

  • JavaScript
  • HTML & CSS
  • Frameworks — React, Angular, Vue
  • NodeJS

JavaScript

javascript is the most important part of web development. It provides dynamic nature to our web pages. Here are the process and topics you should cover in javascript 

What should be covered on the Beginners level of JavaScript

The topics which you should cover are –

1. JavaScript Syntax — JavaScript Syntax

2. Variables — JavaScript Variables

3. Data Types — JavaScript Data Types

4. Operators — JavaScript Operators

5. Arithmetic Operations — JavaScript Arithmetic

6. Assignment — JavaScript Assignment

7. JS Output — JavaScript Output

8. Objects — JavaScript Objects

9. Loop — Multiple ways to loop through an Array in jQuery JavaScript

10. Break & Continue — JavaScript Break and Continue

Examples of JavaScript Programmes for Beginners

I would also like to list some programs that Beginners should implement.

1. Create a program where the user inputs 2 int values in 2 input boxes and you display the greatest of them on the alert box when a button is clicked.

2. Create a program where the user enters a number in a text box and you should display its table (up to 10) on a div. The table should be created on the button click event. Also, prevent the user to enter string on the text box (give appropriate error on the alert box when input is a string).

3. Create a small form for Job Application. It should have 5 fields — name, age, education, address, and expected salary. These 5 fields should have HTML controls where user enter his/her information, there should be a button which on clicking shown the user information on div control.

4. Finding whether a number is a prime number or not.

5. Create a calculator with common function — add, subtract, divide & multiply

What should be covered on the Intermediate level of JavaScript

1. AJAX

a. AJAX Introduction

b. AJAX Database

c. XML Applications

2. Functions

a. Arguments object

b. Arrow functions

c. Default parameters

d. Method definitions

e. Rest parameters

f. getter

g. setter

h. async function

3. Working with Classes

a. class

b. constructor

c. extends

d. static

4. JavaScript Cookies

These topics cover all the important parts of Javascript.

HTML & CSS

CSS is used to control the style of a web document in a simple and easy way. CSS is the acronym for “Cascading Style Sheet”. It is a simple design language intended to simplify the process of making web pages presentable.

CSS is a MUST for students and working professionals to become a great Software Engineer especially when they are working in Web Development Domain. I will list down some of the key advantages of learning CSS:

  • Create Stunning Web site — CSS handles the look and feel part of a web page. Using CSS, you can control the color of the text, the style of fonts, the spacing between paragraphs, how columns are sized and laid out, what background images or colors are used, layout designs, variations in display for different devices and screen sizes as well as a variety of other effects.
  • Become a web designer — If you want to start a career as a professional web designer, HTML and CSS designing is a must skill.
  • Control web — CSS is easy to learn and understand but it provides powerful control over the presentation of an HTML document. Most commonly, CSS is combined with the markup languages HTML or XHTML.
  • Learn other languages — Once you understand the basics of HTML and CSS then other related technologies like javascript, PHP, or angular become easier to understand.

Tutorial for CSS — https://www.csstutorial.net/

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is the most widely used language on Web to develop web pages. HTML was created by Berners-Lee in late 1991 but “HTML 2.0” was the first standard HTML specification which was published in 1995. HTML 4.01 was a major version of HTML and it was published in late 1999. Though HTML 4.01 version is widely used, currently we are having HTML-5 version which is an extension to HTML 4.01, and this version was published in 2012.

Tutorial for HTML — https://www.tutorialspoint.com/html_online_training/index.asp

Frameworks — React, Angular, Vue

A JavaScript framework is an application framework written in JavaScript. A framework defines the entire application design. A developer does not call a framework; instead, it is the framework that will call and use the code in some particular way. Some JavaScript frameworks follow the model–view–controller paradigm designed to segregate a web application into orthogonal units to improve code quality and maintainability. Examples: AngularJS, Ember.js, Meteor.js, Node.js, React.js, Vue.js. As of now, it is the must-have skill for the UI developers.

React — You can follow react official documentation to start with react — https://reactjs.org/docs/getting-started.html.

Angular — For Angular its official documentation is best https://angular.io/

Vue — https://vuejs.org/

As of now React and Vue are most popular and there are plenty of jobs in the market.

NodeJS

Node.js is a very powerful JavaScript-based platform built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript V8 Engine. It is used to develop I/O intensive web applications like video streaming sites, single-page applications, and other web applications. Node.js is open-source, completely free, and used by thousands of developers around the world.

Here you can start — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo_B4LTHi3I

There are many more things in the UI ecosystem, But these things will be enough to build something meaningful. 

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