Front-end has to be good designers?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this change I’m going through, becomming a developer. Sometimes I feel very confident in my choice, but sometimes I doubt if this is right for me.

I love HTML, CSS and Javascript so far and I think this is superfun! My problem is that I’m not very aesthetic. I have trouble to see what colors to match (thank god to all color pick sites :rofl: ) and I don’t think I’m very good at coming up with design ideas. I’m good at following mockups and mimic other websites.
I’m currently taking the Full-Stack Path to see what I’m good at.

My question is: Do I have to be a good designer to work in Front-End?

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Not as long as you can communicate with them.

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Front-end is not really my area of expertise, but so far I know there are even different directions/categories (whatever you want to call it) within front-end web development, might vary slightly from between organizations/companies.

you have people who make the designs/mock-ups, in a program like sketch. Very little to no programming involved
people who can actual translate this design into code (html, css). T

hese two jobs are not always split, could be that a job requires you do do both (makes more sense to design in something like sketch before actual programming)

on the other hand, a lot of websites these days are SPA (single page application). This can be done in javascript + frameworks (react, vue, angular). If you are going in this direction, you don’t need to be a good designer.

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tl;dr No, you don’t.


I work with front-end developers and designers (UX, UI), and here’s what I noticed.

Not all front-end developers are aesthetic, far from it in fact. Doesn’t mean we don’t hire them, but it’s also why designers exist. stetim is right though, some cover everything (design & development).

mtf is definitely right to say that you must be able to communicate with them.

If your talent is the ability to code a mockup that’s given to you by a designer, then that’s great. In many places, that’s precisely what would be asked of you.

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@mtf @stetim94 @ghostlovescore

Thank you for your answers!

My hope is that I will get better at design for better job opportunities. Where I live, a smaller town in Sweden, there is not very large companies and I have not seen many companies in Sweden that offers remote-jobs.

Considering that I must be able to communicate well with colleagues, it is an advantage if it is done in Swedish.

I guess in smaller companies you may have larger areas of responsibility than in larger companies with more employees.

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Work around the skills you have already, and hone them. If one is not an artist, then trying to be one is like forcing a square peg in a round hole. If one is an artist, then complement that skill with CSS, and let the codies take care of the rest.

Most organizations tend to delegate tasks to the members who can complete them with the best results in the shortest amount of time. Only a poor manager lacks the ability to delegate.

Bottom line, build on your skills and gradually acquire new ones that complement them.

Please share any information you uncover with me. Every day, I continue to investigate who I am.