App frontend definition: Difference from backend and more

An app frontend is the graphical interface users engage with, including visual elements and interactive features like buttons and images. The frontend transforms complex functionalities into a user-friendly app design, allowing you to navigate effortlessly through the app.

From sleek visuals to responsive design, the app frontend ensures a positive user experience, while providing a seamless look and feel. Every tap or click interacts with the frontend, triggering actions and displaying information.

It's the bridge connecting you to the app's functionality, where aesthetics and functionality coordinate to create an engaging and accessible space for your digital interactions.

Where the frontend of an app is what you, as a user, see and interact with, the backend is like the engine room. The backend of an app is the server side that operates behind the scenes, handling data, processing requests and ensuring the app runs smoothly.

You can think of the backend as the portion of your app that doesn’t come into direct contact with your users.

So, when you tap a button in the app, the frontend makes it look good, while the backend does the heavy lifting, managing databases, handling server tasks and making sure everything functions as it should. Both the front and backend play a crucial role in delivering a top-notch app experience.

Although there are many programming languages you can use to do frontend development, HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the ones used the most. This is because they’re often integrated into a cohesive unit.

HTML provides the structure, CSS styles the elements and JavaScript adds functionality, forming the trifecta of front-end development.

1 - HTML

The hypertext markup language (HTML) can be considered the backbone of web content as it defines the structure and semantics of elements on a webpage. HTML creates the document structure, including headings, paragraphs, lists, images and links.

With HTML, you can use semantic tags like