Modern web applications must strike a balance between attractive design and smart, intuitive functionality. One without the other will always result in unsatisfied users who won’t return. In too many instances though, features are debated at length while the user interface, or how a user interacts with a website, is little more than an afterthought.
Owners of successful applications know user experience is a problem so they bring on UI experts. UI engineers are tasked with building forward-thinking functionality that lives up to inspirational design.
User experts
Now more than ever, companies are investing in user interfaces. User interface (UI) engineers are tasked with building the tangible human interface users rely on to actually use your website. All experts rely on front-end tools to help them build websites that not only work, but anticipate and delight. And those technologies are evolving rapidly.
One such tool is ReactJS, an open-source JavaScript library for creating user interfaces. ReactJS allows developers to create large-scale, single page web applications that use data which can change over time without the page reloading. It ‘s designed to promote the creation of reusable UI components which improve performance and maintainability. It ‘s also the newest technology tool students at Woz U can choose to use during full-stack web development courses. We recently rolled out a new, modular curriculum and we are pleased to include ReactJS as the latest language we have baked into our full-stack program. [Read my post here for more information on our modular curriculum.]
Inspired by the interactivity used by engaging social media sites, ReactJS was actually created by Facebook software engineer, Jordan Walke. It was first used in the social site ‘s newsfeed in 2011 and then used on Instagram starting in 2012. In 2013, it was open-sourced for public use and, over the last few years, has grown significantly. Most recently, React Native was released for cross-platform mobile app development. You ‘ve likely heard of a few of the sites that currently use features built in ReactJS: Netflix, BleacherReport, Feedly, Airbnb, SeatGeek, Walmart, and others.
What can ReactJS do for you?
Knowing ReactJS provides interesting career options. Linkedin has more than 34,000 open positions for those with React experience. And the salaries are solid. There are wide variances across job markets obviously but PayScale says the average salary for a UI engineer in the U.S. is $80,998.
Currently, Woz U offers full-stack training with JavaScript, .NET and Ruby. ReactJS can be integrated with each of those and is the latest tool we ‘ve added to provide students with a high degree of flexibility. More are being added each month into our new format so watch for another update soon.
