How to Improve Your Web Development Skills
Are you a new or experienced Web Developer who wants to improve their skills? The field of web development is always changing, and it’s important that programmers continue to deepen their knowledge and advance their coding skills. The hard part is knowing which activities will be most effective in boosting your abilities. To help you out, here are ten ways you can improve your web development skills.
1. Practice Coding Daily
We’ve all heard the old adage that practice makes perfect, right? While the expression might be a bit overused, the advice is both practical and true: the more you engage in an activity, the better you become. By practicing every day, you’ll solidify your knowledge of coding fundamentals and improve your overall skill level. Daily coding will also help you become better at detecting your errors and avoiding similar mistakes in the future.
While you might find it challenging to code every single day, you should try your best to stick to a regular routine and make coding a habit. The more time you take off from coding, the harder it is to restart; one day off stretches into two or three days and your skills start to degrade. You’ll find yourself having to refresh your memory and review old concepts instead of advancing your skill level. The more faithful you are about coding regularly, the more your skills will improve.
2. Learn New Skills
When you’re learning how to code or working as a Web Developer, it can be easy to get stuck in a rut and rely on skills you already have. Even though it may be tough to break out of your comfort zone, that’s exactly what you have to do if you want to improve as a developer; one vital way to accomplish that is by deliberately acquiring new skills.
You should be intentional about learning new skills. Start by taking an honest assessment of your current skill set then determine which skills you don’t have but could benefit from learning. Do a bit of research to determine which ones are considered most useful. would earn you more money, or would open up additional job opportunities then select one from that list.
3. Work on Open Source Projects
Another way to improve your web development skills is to contribute to open-source projects. Only working on your own projects or those at your job will give you tunnel vision and limit opportunities for growth; contributing to open-source projects gives you the chance to practice coding while contributing to a valuable project and collaborating with others.
Working on open-source projects offers many benefits. For starters, other developers will review your code and find ways to improve it, which will help you learn to code better. Contributing to open-source projects also exposes you to other people’s code so you can learn from it—both what works and what doesn’t work.
The best place to find open source projects is GitHub. With more than 56 million users, GitHub provides an amazing opportunity to meet and work with developers from across the globe. When deciding what to work on, you can choose to contribute to an already-existing project or fork a project and create your own iteration of it. Whichever you choose, working on open-source projects is an invaluable learning opportunity.
4. Program for Fun
As you’re working to improve your web development skills, don’t get so focused on making progress that coding starts to seem like a chore—that’s the worst thing that could happen! If you ever start to feel like you’re slogging through projects and you dread coding, you need to step back and rediscover the enjoyment you initially experienced when you first started programming. The best way to do this is by working on projects you love.
It’s easy to get motivated when you work on projects you’re passionate about. What type of project would make you eager to start coding again? If you love coffee, you could create a site reviewing the various coffees you’ve tried. If you’re a fan of a particular TV show, comic book, or sports team, you could create a fan site. Even if your site never gets any traction, you’ll enjoy the process and remember why you got into web development in the first place.
5. Find a Mentor
Finding a mentor can also help improve your web development skills. A mentor can give advice on projects, review your code, offer constructive criticism, and help you foresee any potential problems. While mentors can be great, the biggest challenge is finding someone who’s willing to act in that role.
Some training schools match you with an industry professional to provide you with feedback on your work and help answer questions you may have about entering the tech field; this kind of access to an experienced programmer is invaluable. You can also look for mentors in web development meetups, online boards, or paid matching services.
Even if you don’t have an official mentor, you can still learn from developers who have more experience than you do. One way is through pair programming where the less experienced person writes the code while the experienced developer looks on and provides immediate feedback. You could also seek advice and feedback from others in your circle such as a boss, co-worker, friend, or someone you meet in an online programming community. Regardless of where or how you find guidance, learning from the experience of others is pivotal to improving your web development skills.
6. Take Coding Challenges
Another great way to improve your web development skills is to take coding challenges. While some associate coding challenges with the exercises employers give to test skills, you can actually take on challenges willingly as a way to practice your coding. By taking these challenges, you not only get an opportunity to improve your coding skills, you’re also becoming a better problem-solver, learning new algorithms, how to be a better problem-solver, and preparing for future job interviews.
There are several sites where you can find coding challenges to participate in. Some of the most popular include TopCoder, HackerRank, CodeChef, Coderbyte, LeetCode, Codewars, and CodinGame. Each one of these sites offers a wide range of coding challenges, so you’re sure to find several that interest you.
7. Keep Up On Trends
To continue improving your web development skills, it’s important to be knowledgeable about all the latest trends and technologies. The field of web development is notorious for changing at a rapid rate. If you don’t make a conscious effort to keep up with all the latest developments, then you’ll quickly fall behind with your skills lagging behind those of your competitors.
One of the best ways to keep yourself informed is to read web development magazines and blogs; some of the most popular include Smashing, Noupe, IBM Developer, SitePoint, and Developer Drive. You can also find many YouTube channels dedicated to web development—they can be an excellent source of information.
8. Teach What You Know
If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of any topic, there’s no better way than teaching others what you know. This is true whether you’re providing instruction on literature, welding, or web development. Teaching others requires that you have a solid knowledge base; if you don’t already have that knowledge, teaching others provides you with an opportunity to conduct research to further your understanding of the topic.
If you’re just starting out in web development, you might be thinking that you don’t know enough to pass on, but that’s not true—you can always find people out there who know less about web development than you do. Even if you’ve only been learning for a month or two, you can take someone who is a complete newbie—maybe a younger brother, sister, or friend—and teach them what you know. That way you can pass on your knowledge, solidify your understanding of web development, and further improve your skills.
9. Enroll In Web Development Classes
Another great way to improve your skills is to enroll in web development classes. While it is possible to pick up new skills by taking tutorials online and practicing on your own, you’ll often learn more by participating in a structured class with an experienced instructor. Taking a class also gives you the opportunity to meet other Web Developers so you can make valuable connections in the industry.
If you look at class listings online, you’ll see there is a wide range of web development courses to choose from. You can take a class on a programming language you’d like to learn, such as HTML and CSS,Python, and JavaScript or you could focus on learning new frameworks and tools like React, Express.js, Git, Flexbox, and Bootstrap. Once you complete your course, you’ll not only have improved skills, you’ll also have a certificate of completion to show off to potential employers.
10. Make Time to Rest
While you’re working hard to improve your web development skills, don’t forget to take some time to rest. It’s important to schedule regular time off and go enjoy something other than coding. If you keep charging ahead at full steam, it won’t be long before you wear yourself out. Take at least one day off and you’ll have more energy to learn throughout the remainder of the week.
Want To Improve Your Web Development Skills?
If you want to improve your web development skills or acquire new ones, consider taking web development classes through Noble Desktop. They offer a wide range of web development classes available live online and in-person from their location in New York City. Topics covered include programming languages like JavaScript, Python, HTML, and CSS plus essential web development tools like Git, React, Node.js, VS Code, and more.
For those who are just starting out in web development, the best way to acquire the skills you need to pursue a career in the industry is to enroll in a bootcamp. Web development bootcamps are intensive programs that have been specifically designed to get students career-ready in just a few short months. Noble Desktop offers several different web development bootcamps including those that specialize in front end web development, full stack web development, JavaScript development, and Python development.