Learning Web Design
I've recently finished year 12 at school for the summer, (I don't know what the American equivalent is) and we never exactly get great summer weather over here, so I'm always keen to acquire a new practical skill every year.
I do understand and appreciate that this certain skill isn't one that you can just learn over a week or so, but I'm really interested in learning; web design. So I'm reaching out to all of you at TekSocial to give me a helping hand. I've watched a few Dreamweaver HTML tutorials over the last few weeks, but I think I'm throwing myself in at the deep end and I'm really not grasping much of the information being fed to me. So what I'm really looking for is somebody to point me in the right direction. I am willing to pay for an online academic course, but at the moment I'm struggling to find a reliable source. Do any of you as writers or readers know web design? (if that's how you say it, apologies if not) Or at least know of a course of a good standard that will teach me the professional quality skills I need?
For instance, some of you may have created your own website in the past, or helped out in designing one. Obviously I'm not asking you to sit at home and email me a step-by-step guide, but any information possible would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Cameron Mustard Jul 19, 2010 at 11:18 AM
Reader Comments (9)
I'm in pretty much the same position, except a year younger (just finished my GCSEs) and decided to do the same. I knew very limited html/css stuff and decided to buy a book off Amazon. The book I settled on was The Essential Guide to CSS & HTML Web Design and it can be found here. The book has amazing reviews, and every single one of the is true. It is well worth the money I hope you have as much fun learning web design as I did! PS, you can find my website here. I built using all the things I learnt from the book.
Awesome! Really thought I wasn't going to get any feedback from this post. Thanks a lot, Elliot. Really appreciate it =]
check out w3schools.com
Learn basic codes from there HTML. Start off coding in notepad and then you can learn other things. I found microsoft expression web easier than DW and seems like it's easier.
Give your E-Mail, I can help you out there. I took web design class in school and had the highest grade in the class. haha.
It will be easier through E-mail to help you out with the basics. Once ive given you the basics, you should be able to understand the rest.
I'm actually in Year 9 and i'm a freelancer, I code PHP and Java, aswell as HTML / XHTML and CSS. I also like to think i'm pretty good in Photoshop!
If you need any help, drop us a line at dan@djdan-uk.com.
I got my start using the "[subject] for Dummies" books -- they're extremely helpful and spoon-feed you the basics so you'll have everything down before going on to more advanced stuff. Try "HTML for Dummies" first before you move on to anything with JavaScript or PHP (but "PHP for Dummies" by Janet Valade is an awesome book). Also, sites like Tizag.com are very helpful. Don't shy away from forums like forums.devshed.com either, there are always people out there willing to help you.
The essentials are mainly PHP, HTML, CSS and some Javascript. I used W3 Schools and mainly some books to learn.
I would definitely suggest taking some kind of class in school or college if you can. There are also many other tech sites where you can learn a bunch of skills like this. I would suggest lynda.com. They have amazing tutorials and walkthroughs on how to learn a lot of things you would need like HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The subscription service only costs $25 a month!
On another note. Check out Squarespace.com. They have amazing tools to help you make a website of your own without any coding experience at all. Even though I know HTML and CSS, I still use Squarespace because they are just an amazing company. Heck, even David uses Squarespace because your looking at a Squarespace website right now! Check out Squarespace.com.
Hey, I recently started a youtube channel that will teach you all about web design and development. Hopefully it will help you out.
http://youtube.com/codetheweb