Front-end development’s identity crisis

Thank you.

Okay.

I hope you've all had a good break and are feeling caffeinated and energized now.

Not too long until happy hours, so hang in there.

This is my first time at Web Directions and it's been a really awesome first day so far.

I'd love to say a massive thank you to John and the Web Directions team.

This has been really great.

This is my first time at an in person tech conference.

It's also my first time talking at one.

So hi, I'm Eli Loel.

My pronouns are she, her.

A quick visual description.

I am a tall, white, trans woman with blonde hair.

If you want to follow along, an accessible version of the slides with image descriptions, you can go to the URL two slash wdc 24 dash slides.

That's E-L-L-Y.TO slash wdc 24 dash S-L-I-D-E-S.

Okay, let's get into it.

So this afternoon I'm going to be talking to you about front end development's identity crisis.

We're going to start off with a couple of questions.

So if you can scan this QR code, or head to the link elle dot 2 slash wdc1, get in there, it's a little mentimeter, so we can pop in our answers to this question.

The question is, what would you call someone who builds accessible and usable UIs, uses HTML, CSS and a little bit of JavaScript and collaborates with designers, developers and testers.

Lots and lots of different things.

Seems to be a bit of centering around web developer, front end developer, but there's a lot of different things in there.

If we jump back to the presentation for a moment, the next question following this, same drill, it's the same link, you might have to refresh once I move over to this next, next set of questions.

The question is, what would you call someone who does all of the things from the previous question, but doesn't develop and optimize application logic, integrate data sources and services, ensure performance and functionality with tests, and manage JavaScript tooling and infrastructure?

Legend.

Ooh, I might be personally biased but I think I agree with that one.

Developer, UI developer, confused, product manager.

Okay, so I think the thing that's clear from this is that there's not really a consensus as to what this is.

We might think front end developer or web developer like there were answers for that first question.

It's not exactly something that is certain in our industry.

Let's work through it by having a look at some of my experiences.

I'm not a full stack developer, regardless of what my last job title says.

I'm not even a front end developer, thanks to the JavaScript industrial complex.

I'm a front of the front end developer, but that's way too long.

I am a web designer.

Okay, that was a lot of things.

Very densely packed, so let's break it down a bit.

I'm not a full stack developer, regardless of what my last job title says.

I know how to do full stack development.

Not because I wanted to.

But because I had to.

My title was developer, and so was everyone else's.

According to our titles, there were no front end or back end developers.

We just had to do it all.

This led to lots of bad HTML and CSS from back end developers.

And lots of bad Node and PHP from front end developers.

In Reluctant Gatekeeping, The Problem with Full Stack, Hayden Pickering says, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, C Sharp, and SQL may all be code.

They're really quite different kinds of code, and are suited to different kinds of people.

The value you want from a CSS expert is their CSS, not their JavaScript.

So it's absurd to make JavaScript a requirement.

Just because I know how to use Docker, NodeJS, PHP, SQL, AWS, Linux, serverless, CICD, God, the list goes on, doesn't mean I should have to.

Please, just let me do what I'm good at.

I'm not even a front end developer, thanks to the JavaScript industrial complex.

In this section, whenever I refer to React Please feel free to replace it with any of the following.

NextJS, what people really mean when they say React.

Tailwind, what people really mean when they say CSS.

Webpack, CSS in JS, TypeScript, etc.

I came into the industry during the reign of React.

I know React well.

It was all I knew for a while.

I rushed past HTML and CSS on my way to learning React.

I didn't understand that they were the main building blocks of the web.

I hate it.

There are so many things wrong with React.

The cult surrounding it.

The company making it.

The countless foot guns.

It's bloat.

It's incompatibility with web platform features.

The list goes on.

In the market for lemons.

Alex Russell says, not only are new services being built to self defeatingly low UX and performance standards, existing experiences are pervasively redeveloped on unspeakably slow JS taxed stacks.

Even if I didn't have issues with it, I should still be able to choose not to use it, right?

Wrong.

Sorry, there's no choice anymore.

I can't escape it.

React is so pervasive that almost every job is using it.

And on the rare occurrence that they're not using it, they're using something like it.

I can't escape React, but surely I could just work on something that doesn't touch React, like CSS.

Oh, wait, no, that's all done with CSS Modules, CSS in JS, Tailwind, or whatever the next way they come up with to write CSS without actually writing CSS?

If you can't beat em, join em, The issue is React, like the supermassive black hole that it is, pulls everything towards it.

Towards more JavaScript.

I start out only touching HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript for DOM manipulation.

But before I know it, I'm in there making API calls, transforming data, and writing middleware.

Yikes!

I really need some separation of my concerns.

I went a bit off topic here, but what I'm getting at is this.

Actual front end work has been devalued.

It isn't treated as enough to be a full time job.

It's gotten to the point now that front end no longer actually means front end.

The duties of a front end developer are more accurately described as full stack.

And as we learned earlier, there are many issues with full stack development as a concept.

I don't want to be a full stack developer.

I must be something else.

According to Brad Frost, I am a front of the front end developer.

And while those words do accurately describe what I do, they're way too long.

No one's actually going to use these as their title.

So we need something shorter that still conveys the same meaning.

People have come up with new titles, like UX Engineer, Design Engineer, and I've actually seen companies using them.

Though, I've also seen companies misusing them for front end aka full stack roles which undermines the whole point of coming up with these new titles.

Also, there seems to be a bit of an obsession with having Engineer in the title.

I'd say that mostly stems from pay related anxiety but probably also somewhat tied up in the perception that anything that's not engineering is not as important.

Which is just no, you shouldn't have to shove engineer into your title so that you get paid more.

You should make sure everyone gets paid more, even if they don't have engineer in their title.

We all deserve more.

Look, here are some titles that I came up with that don't include engineer.

These are perfectly fine.

I don't hate those other titles, UX, engineer, and design engineer.

For a while there, I was even using design engineer to describe myself.

But there's a better option that's been around since long before even front end developer was being used.

We had the right title in front of us all along.

I'm a web designer.

Okay, so why do I think that I'm a web designer?

And why do I think that's the best title?

Because I'm a designer and the web is my medium.

I'm designing for the web, the infinitely flexible web.

The web that doesn't have one screen size, one browser, one operating system, or one device.

The web that can be used by anyone, anywhere, on any internet connection, on any device, on any operating system, on any browser, with any screen size.

And I'm designing with the web.

I'm using the web platform, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ARIA, etc.

Not a bloated harmful abstraction.

I have a deep understanding of HTML and its semantics.

I love CSS and I know how and when to utilize its many features.

And I keep up to date as more are added.

I have a strong understanding of modern JavaScript.

And most importantly, I know when not to use it.

Okay, so why does this matter?

I don't know.

In the current state of our industry, we're being forced to do too many things.

We're spread too thin, it's completely unsustainable, which is why we're constantly burning out.

We're forced to do the wrong things, which leads to bad outcomes, and that's not okay.

Bad code is often some or all of the following.

Non functional, so it doesn't work at all.

Inoperable or inaccessible, so it can't be used by some or all people.

Or just completely unusable, so it's too hard to be used by some or all people.

Okay, what now?

First and foremost, don't give up.

Even though the current landscape for front end development presents challenges for us web designers, we owe it to the people using our sites not to give in to the status quo.

You deserve better than being continuously overworked to the point of burnout before unceremoniously being laid off by some short sighted, greedy CEO.

You should go and read You Deserve a Tech Union by Ethan Marcotte, then join a union and fuck capitalism.

But, if I were to put my stinky capitalist hat on for a second Inaccessible or unusable websites do mean that you're going to have less people using your site.

You're going to be making less money than if your site was accessible and usable.

Capitalist hat back off.

What else?

Advocate for preventing overwork.

So basically abolish full stack roles where you're spread too thin.

Advocate for more specialized roles.

Advocate for better quality.

And most importantly, advocate for care.

Care for our craft.

And above all else, care for the people using our sites.

Also, we should start changing how we refer to ourselves.

Whether it be when you're talking to co workers or even friends and family, on your personal website, on LinkedIn, on your resume and CV, everywhere.

And once you've changed how you're referring to yourself, then it'll be much easier to change how others refer to you.

It might not be easy, but it'll be easier.

You can get your title changed.

If you can get your title changed, that's amazing.

If not, you should still be able to absolutely get people to change how they refer to you basically everywhere, with the only exception being things like official documents.

Now, I'm talking to the people who make these decisions.

Yes, you.

You need to make sure this change happens.

You're the ones with the power to improve our current situation.

If you need to, make any and all changes that are needed to make this change happen.

Do what you can.

Change role titles, change team or department names.

Update your job ads so titles and descriptions are accurate.

And most importantly, if someone is in fact doing 2 or 3 jobs, give them 2 or 3 titles and pay them 2 or 3 salaries.

Thank you so much for listening everyone.

You can scan the QR code or head to the link elly loel dot com to find my website where you can also see links to all of my other socials.

Thank you.