Just created forum acc to ask this but, I’v tried making a portfolio and it got very soul crushingly boring (fiddling with html and css). I’ll admit im not really a creative person, but I love programming. So I wanted to ask are you all web developers design geeks. I’m getting a vibe that web development isn’t programming at all as much as it is design. So hard to find motivation to continue, javascript is the only salvation I find in it. That being said I can also say that JS is probably my favorite programming language.
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if you don’t want to make the designs youself, just google some template design images and copy those. That way, you are just figuring out how to implement the design you see through HTML and CSS, rather than designing one yourself. So it becomes problem solving rather than designing.
The interesting stuff starts coming when you have to start making the site interactive and/or start intereacting with various APIs.
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I mostly find working with HTML/CSS uninteresting as well.
Skipping past the tribute/portfolio and jumping into actual programming is fine, just start with the random quote machine and stick with really simple HTML/CSS.
Or go straight to the back end part of the map and start developing the microservices. Nothing says you have to do things in order.
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Don’t I need front end knowledge to start back end?
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No, you don’t need to but basic front end skills are useful in back end as well.
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I have been asking myself this same question for long, #webdev is not that boring but it’s so hard to understand. I have been trying to get it done online by learning some css, php XML but to no avail. To me the toughest coding work is php so my conclusion: webdev is not boring
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Nope. The microservices portion of the map, which is pure back end work, isn’t really related to front end work at all. (Except that FCC assumes you use JS for both.)
The “full stack” portion of the map assumes you have done the pure back end stuff and the pure front end stuff, so that will require some front end work.
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David Kadavy has what seems to be a great book (just got started reading it) called “Design for Hackers” that is supposed to help explain the stylish stuff like color theory and such to people who like programming better than design. I’m hoping to finish the book before taking a first pass at my portfolio project.
The Platonic web developer doesn’t do any design work, but instead implements specifications from designers and builds functionality. The “Apparent”, real-world web developer usually has to do quite a bit of both. This is particularly true for the projects here in FreeCodeCamp. It’s not my favorite thing, either, but oh well. The good news is that you don’t have to design anything well. Make everything butt-ugly 
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If you already know HTML and CSS I would think it’s boring. The very first time I wrote HTML, 8 years ago I thought it was amazing how I can just write certain words and that would make the web browser display what I wanted. I like the challenge of writing clean and efficient algorithms a lot. Probably just as much as I like finding a good color scheme to practice material design.
tldr; I like the design and logic problems equally.
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Plain HTML and CSS, especially for static websites, can indeed feel a little bit stale.
(I would argue about CSS tho, you can create awesome canvas and animation with it nowadays)
However I personally find the modern front-end frameworks pretty challenging, stimulating and enriching, they definitely enhance the working experience.
Perhaps try one of those next time? 
A well designed, easy-to-use, beautiful website is just a joy to see and use.
And when your client submits your website to various competitions and wins excellence awards in website design given by their national trade associations – well, you just feel proud of your work. Even though that website may be several years old! It just gives you street creds, and earns big respect from your client. Also, guarantees future work
Think of it this way… 100% of visitors will see your site design – and judge or have an opinion of your website (and basically, you the designer). That is not boring… it’s nerve wracking and exciting. But not boring.
And now ask yourself, how many of these website visitors will dig in and view your source code or be amazed by your programming? Not a lot. I would say very very few. Once in a blue moon. Maybe even nada, nil, nul, zilch, zero, donut, zot, nought.
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How about just jump on over to the react projects? or at the very least the intermediate web projects like Twitch API
You can get the functionality to work first
I have been going through the same challenge but I have concluded that front end is a necessary evil.
the fact that we find it boring means we may need to change our paradigm when we approach webdev. I think learning design may help. I am hoping to stick with it until I really master it. since it is the customer facing side of the website it deserves serious respect.
I could use some help in the basic of designing a good website
I get that- I am only doing the frontend part to understand the way it works with backend. And it is kinda boring. BUT
understanding the general way I interact with Frontend web-designers will (I hope) benefit me in the long-term.
Also I am not aiming at being great. I suck at design, I am aiming at being able to do prototypes to test functionality. With this in mind, the frontend part becomes a little more exciting. but only a little.
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If you have only learned HTML and CSS, then YES, it is boring. Wait until you start learning JavaScript. It will suddenly get a lot more interesting. I wouldn’t look at development and software programming like they are the same game. They are not even in the same ballpark, except that there are some similarities. Software programming uses fewer languages to create software. with web programming, there are a ton of languages and there are more getting added every day.
Because of all the languages that you use in web development, there are a bunch of different ways to accomplish the same thing. what makes you the best coder is figuring out which ones to use, and in what manner, all while keeping the code as minimized as possible so that the site runs as fast as possible.
i don’t really think that you get that in software development as much. I have ADHD and could never do software. Web programming totally works for me.
If you’re fiddling, that’s not boring. Boring would be doing something you know how to do and doing it the same way repeatedly over and over. If you’re fiddling, you’re trying to figure things out, and that’s not boring. Not in my books.
I am often frustrated, but never bored. There’s too much to learn to be bored.
I found the basics a bit boring but am now up to React and am just amazed at the power.
It’s funny that you say that because that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling. My coding experience has been confined to MATLAB so I’m definitely more inclined towards programming in JavaScript than I am in designing webpages with HTML, CSS and/or Bootstrap. However, the comments that your post generated have inspired to take web design more seriously. I liked the comment about how most people will judge your webpage by the front end, not the back end. In addition, it is extremly beneficial to have working knowledge of what it takes to do web design if you are working on back End stuff because the front end develeopers will be your team mates. I’m not motivated to put some effort into my portfolio, and I hope you are too
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