From standard textual websites with minimal interaction to complete and immersive smart client apps, frontend web development has evolved tremendously throughout the last two decades. Web development, due to its immense growth and versatility, has become one of the most popular and in-demand fields today.

In this chapter, you'll learn the importance and relevance of the web development field while covering some of its background as well as its current state. Additionally, this chapter covers the basic principles and pillars of frontend web development.

We will focus on the following topics:

• The relevance of the web development field
• The pillars of the web — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Key progress and future development
• App illustrations, which you build throughout this book
• jQuery app development

First, let's start with an overview of the web development field and recognize its true power and great relevance for today.