Time to Raise - Legacy UI Devs

time-to-raise.md

Web is not just HTML & CSS and anymore, though these two are solid part of web any given day, the contemporary tools and process that are available to ease the development are numerous and its growing very fast such that one can go completely outdated in a span of 3 to 6 months.

One can go completely outdated in a span of 3 to 6 months.

The way Front End Technologies expanding and booming its of-course attracting lot of interest and many people who ignored these technologies in the past are willing to learn, with increased competition surviving is not easy. And as a legacy developer you are not just expected to survive but to raise.

As a legacy Dev you are not just expected to survive but to raise.

There are two kinds of UI Devs, one from design background and another one from development background, if you are from development background you are already doing good, you are doing good because of the raise of JS. The one from design background is in a place to make a choice. Because the fairly new role called XD has taken over all the design and experience responsibilities. As we proudly say always that I'm a Design + UI (UI/UX), the design part is not valid unless we do proper XD. Doing both XD & UI is crazy, some of us could have tried our hands and burnt it.

Becoming a XD is a new way of thinking and process by its own which could take years of dedication and compromises. Becoming a proper UI dev is just about filling the gaps which we left in recent past, when the technology just accelerated like a Ferrari it just crossed miles in a moment of blink.

We start by looking back why we were reluctant learning the new work flow.

1. We never knew it was part of a front end work flow, assumed its backend.
2. It sounded damn complex. npm, grunt, gulp, node etc, freaking complex.
3. Always thought its dev stuff, we dont have to learn.
4. Never had time, when you are just one UI dev for a team of 20 to 30 people you will never have time to even think about learning something new rather stuck with solving all the float and position problems for your team.

Now, aware these things before start learning.

1. Yes, Its part of front end workflow and JS is the new backend.
2. Its not complex, its just different.
3. It will be always dev stuff, if we don't learn it.
4. Make time, take a couple weeks off and learn, no other go buddy.

Watch out my next post for Modern Front End workflow.