Where code meets the road...

What we are doing here is communicating to the world or using the browser to reach a server that's supporting a specific API. Either way we need to be HTML/CSS/JS savvy. Today's users will want to be interactive with the screens in front of them.

Control centers for various ops from military to factory control to doing personel income taxes to doing research all require the designer/developer be prepared to deliver a satisfying experience for the user.

There are excellent resources to learn these skills online or through the various colleges and universities, but where do we focus our time. What languages do we learn, frameworks, libraries, or systems do we use?

There is a fundamental issue before us, and that is, are you a designer or a developer? To do both requires special talent. Designers are good at layout, styling, and overall look and feel of the screen real estate that satisfies the project's goals. Developers aren't, but they are very good at structuring the code to get the job done. Most start out trying to do both, but over time, find their niche and specialize. Large projects use teams to provide the final product. Programmers are assigned tasks. It's a job. Independents, on the other hand, work in their own comfort zone creating both frontend and backend code for a complete packaged product. You have to decide what to do. The first step is get educated. What I have done here is set up some food for thought and steps that come first to become agile and successful.