HTML & CSS & JavaScript, Frontend Web Development

Hello, Liviu! Congrats on taking several great first steps in making this an awesome career.

While there isn't really a "right answer" to any of your questions, I'll try to give my opinion based on my own personal experience as a web developer.

First, regarding tracks vs courses: following a track is GREAT if you are completely new to concepts discussed, and they do a great job of rounding out your experience as web developer, however if you are familiar with several topics, taking individual courses is probably better for you. Tracks offer a great structured learning experience, but you should obviously spend time learning when you need it most.

As far as the web design vs web developer track, I can actually say that I don't think either one by itself will offer you a well rounded enough education to really start working in the projects. The web developer track focuses a lot more on programming in javascript (three courses are entirely devoted to javascript) and leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to things like CSS. As someone who employs several developers and designers, I can say that if candidate came to me knowing only the CSS learned in the Front End Web Developer > CSS Basics course, they wouldn't get the job. In the design track, CSS Foundations, CSS Layout Techniques and, optionally, the SASS basics course will provide a much better education.

Additionally, I think that ALL front-end developers should know SEO, UX, and the basics of their chosen design software.

Just so you know the roles and skills that I employ in my shop, which mostly does small to medium sites, but has also done large scale ecommerce and university sites, here's that information that may help you make some better choices about what to learn when:

Front End Developer / Designer Hybrid We try hard to avoid creating flat comps, so this role is focused on getting functional prototypes into the browser and into our clients hands.

Core Competencies Required

• Extensive knowledge of semantic HTML 5
• Extensive knowledge of CSS 3
• Extensive knowledge of modern web design concepts and techniques
• Solid understanding of cross-browser compatibility
• Solid understanding of modern animation techniques
• Basic understanding of jQuery
• Basic understanding of website accessibility (WCAG 2.0 / ARIA / Section 508 Compliance)
• Basic understanding of creating SEO friendly pages

Tools Used

• Sketch 3 by Bohemian Coding
• Macaw
• Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator (note: we do not create any site designs in these tools, however we prepare assets using these programs and occasionally work with comps prepared by other agencies that often come as .AI or .PSD files)
• Git / Git Tower
• Sublime Text
• MAMP

Front End Engineer

This role is focused on rounding out the front end of projects and is primarily concerned with usability, performance, standards compliance and browser compatibility. They are expected to be an expert at the following:

• HTML 5, HAML and Markdown
• CSS 3, Sass, Bourbon & Neat
• JavaScript and CoffeeScript
• jQuery (Note: we very infrequently use jQuery in production code, however on large scale projects it sometimes becomes a requirement)
• Modern animation techniques
• Cross Browser Compatibility
• SEO Implementation
• Accessibility
• Web Performance
• Automated Build Tools (We use a combination of Grunt, Yeoman, Bower and Node) All of our engineers should also have a satisfactory competency in the following:
• WordPress Theme and Plugin Development
• Command Line Interface and Tools
• PHP

Tools Used

While their primary purpose is to finalize a site, these individuals are still expected to maintain a basic competency in our primary design programs (Sketch, Macaw, Illustrator and Photoshop). Additionally, they are expected to be an expert at:

• Sublime Text
• Git / Git Tower and the GitFlow workflow
• Serverside Technologies (Apache, MySQL, Nginx)

Beyond this, I have Leads and Full Stack developers that add additional competencies (like Rails, Angular, etc) but I didn't include them here as it didn't seem to fit the scope of the question.

One final note... If you are wanting to learn JavaScript, I suggest reading this article for some nudges in the right direction: http://sivers.org/learn-js

Hope this helps. If you need any more information, I'd be happy to help.