How to Hire an Exceptional Front-End Developer

Since 1990, Theo Jansen has been creating his most famous works of art: the Strandbeest. By employing both art and engineering, Jansen transforms an intricate assembly of recycled plastic tubes, bottles, and wing-like sails into towering, animal-like creatures that move on their own and respond to their environment.

Like many of the other great efforts of our time, Jansen expertly mixes art and science in order to bring innovation to life.

Similarly, an exceptional front-end developer blends technology and vision. Front-end developers are the bridge between the designer and the back-end programmer, emulating just the right combination of creativity and tech-savvy.

Thanks to the front-end developer, a designer’s work is transformed into a living, breathing site. Every time you load and use a website on your desktop, smartphone or tablet, you’re looking at the intricate work completed by a developer on the front-end.

Hiring a Front-End Developer

Specifically, front-end developers use a combination of markup languages, design, and client-side scripts and frameworks to create the environment for everything that users see and touch. This includes all content, layout, and interaction.

In our modern, digitally-dependent society, front-end developers with a successful track record and impressive portfolio are in the highest demand. Do you need to hire a skilled, remote-based front-end developer, but aren’t sure where to start?

You’re in the right place.

In general, the most skilled front-end developers should be comfortable with:  

•       Crafting well-formed HTML informed by today’s best standards
•       Turning Photoshop comps into dynamic, working interfaces
•       Rapid development of front-end HTML/CSS
•       Building responsive sites
•       Optimizing projects for mobile browsers
•       Programming in JavaScript
•       Setting up content management systems like Drupal and WordPress
•       Debugging cross-browser compatibility issues
•       Consulting on SEO best practices
•       Testing the site for usability and fixing any bugs
•       Maintaining proper workflow and project management

You’ll also need to vet your candidate about the client side languages and frameworks needed to complete your specific project.

Popular client side languages and frameworks include:

•        JavaScript, the core of Web 2.0
•        HTML5, which dictates a site’s organization and content
•       CSS3, that makes up the look and feel of a website
•       jQuery, a fast, small, JS object library
•       Bootstrap, the leading mobile-first framework that blends HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to facilitate rapid responsive app development
•       Pure.css, a lightweight, small framework and set of responsive CSS modules to help streamline designing mobile sites
•       Skeleton.css: Another responsive CSS framework
•       Semantic UI, a front-end user interface framework that focuses on code readability

While the best front-end developers can also guide you through the process of tying up the loose ends and make recommendations for you, don’t go into the process in the dark. Do your homework ahead of time so you can properly vet your candidate.

If you’re having trouble finding skilled front-end developers locally, a remote-based front-end developer may be the best option you never considered. Our new Remotler app, for example, is one of the places where you can find the remote developer that is right for you – anywhere around the globe.

The Interview Process

During the interview process, you can start by sending short questionnaires to qualified candidates to collect basic information and code samples. Next, send test projects to your narrowed-down candidate list so you can see their work in action before a Skype or phone interview even takes place.  

Take a good hard look at their testimonials and portfolio, but don’t forget about personality and work ethic, either. With all of the investigation that goes into finding a skilled professional with the right experience, you should also feel comfortable with the freelancer’s work style, communication style, and if they interact with any of your team members of clients, an ability to do so as well. Great developers may not necessarily have the soft skills your situation requires.

Most of all, remember the beautiful, colossal Sandbeest when choosing your next remote-based front-end developer! With the right balance of technical skill and creativity, and the right combination of language and framework knowledge that meets your project needs, you’ll find an exceptional developer that can bring your idea to life.