New To web Design, How Do i Start

[IAm_Ace]

Currently Trying to learn web design, not working so well, can anyone with experience help me out, and give me some basic steps, currently reading Web Design for Dummies.

Thank you in advance.

[Shiranui]

Try here: http://bit.ly/tzHH91

Welcome to the forums.

[paperless]

I would recommend getting started with HTML first. It won't take you long as it is simply a markup language and if you learn it well you will probably be able to avoid some headaches in the future. After that jump on CSS, get a good book that covers the basics and especially take the time to understand how certain CSS properties change the flow of the document. This is very important because you will often be wanting to position things in a certain way and these are core concepts to deal with when working with CSS. Learn about what javascript is and play with it around a bit (but no need to 'master' it at this point, IMO, unless you really want to).

Well, okay. Once you are able to understand how static web pages work you may start wanting to do more advanced stuff that involves generating content according to the input of the user. For that I would recommend PHP to start because it has an easier learning curve than ruby on rails or django, it allows you to deal more directly with some things that those other two "magically" deal with and php is also, in my opinion, easier to get into by those who never programmed before.

On your googling quests avoid w3schools for your learning as they a lot of times offer incorrect advice that may get you into bad habits.

[IAm_Ace]

Thank you for the info, and a lot of people have told me not to go into w3schools, for incorrect advice, guess ill follow up on that and thank you for the small guide paperless,

Thank you,

[Tekkerson]

Thank you for the info, and a lot of people have told me not to go into w3schools, for incorrect advice, guess ill follow up on that and thank you for the small guide paperless,

Thank you,

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

This is where professionals and enthusiast developers go for references. It's maintained by the developer community so you can't go wrong.

[IAm_Ace]

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

This is where professionals and enthusiast developers go for references. It's maintained by the developer community so you can't go wrong.

Thank you Tekkerson

[Dan~]

Draw layout on paper. Learn CSS, then HTML.

You can do a lot with CSS and will get the major part of the design structure out of the way, then you'll need to lear HTML for things within the structure.

[grayscale]

Codecademy?

[hotosega]

If you want to program websites I think it's necessary to learn HTML & CSS. If you want it more interactive try to learn Javascript and/or any serverside programming language like PHP, Ruby on Rails and ASP.NET

If you want to design the layout I think it's necessary to learn to use a graphic program like Photoshop or GIMP. There are lots of tutorials on http://www.pixel2life.com/ (for quick link to photoshop web layouts: http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_photoshop/website_layouts/) It's not neccesary to draw them on paper. But it might come handy.

[IAm_Ace]

Thank you for The advice, i actually know a bit of Photoshop, kind of good at it, but never used Gimp guess i need to start messing with it (hotosega) thank you for the site suggestions hotosega, ill take a look at it, i took a look at codeacademy looks like a pretty goo web site.

thank you

[Ambroos]

I highly recommend you to follow these basic excercises: http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/web (remember to make an account first to save your progress!)

It's a great website that will learn you all the fundamentals of working with HTML and CSS. Afterwards you can go and focus on things that interest you.

[Tanvi]

developer.mozilla.org is awesome thanks tekkerson

[MattehCarter]

I'm confused, do you want to learn website development or website design? Because to me, the two are both completely different. I would class "website design" as creating templates/layouts within photoshop, whereas development is where you actually code the website. So, I'll give my advice based on that.

For website design, I'd look Google "website design tutorials" also look at websites such as dribbble to get some inspiration on different designs.

For website development, I'd take a look at html doctor to get started. I definitely would not advise looking at w3schools.

[Krome]

Currently Trying to learn web design, not working so well, can anyone with experience help me out, and give me some basic steps, currently reading Web Design for Dummies.

Thank you in advance.

The most basic step towards web site is, first you must feel a little bit comfortable with HTML, CSS, and JavaScripts language. After you have a little foundation on that, you may want to learn about PHP. In addition, you can research about JQuery. Once you are comfortable enough on those, you may want to know about CMS (Content Management System). CMS will allow you to design the layout and publish it using the web browser. The content management is done on the fly with CMS and specific given templates. You can have your web site running in minutes with CMS. CMS is like an HTML engine that will create sites without having to tinker with the HTML or PHP codes manually. CMS have preset functions and routines written by elite web programmers to solve the tedious work of tinkering with the codes.

Try here: http://bit.ly/tzHH91

Welcome to the forums.

When someone asked a forum a question, it means that person already resort to "Google" engine already and got boggled somewhere. That's when they turn to human interactive experience for answers. :)

[Bulldozer]

Start bylearning basic coding and move onto basic graphic design. Build it up from there :)

[astropheed Veteran]

Web Design: Look at designs, try to make that exact design using Photoshop. Play with the filters to learn how to do cool glossy stuff or whatever. Once you've successfully emulated enough designs and basic layout of standard websites: Make your own designs. Easy Peasy.

Web development: Learn HTML then CSS. Learn Javascript. Learn a server-side language like PHP and a Database engine like MySQL.

It sounds like a lot to learn, and it is. But they are all relatively easy to learn. HTML/CSS should take at most a week to learn fairly advanced stuff, Javascript basics maybe 2 weeks (advanced a couple months). PHP/SQL should take about a month (advanced 6 months). (these are figures for a brand new programmer). Within just one year you could be quite a damn good web developer.

Video Tutorials:

www.thenewboston.org (Tutorials on html, css, php and mysql)

www.phpacademy.org (Tutorials on php)

Great website (ignore the name)

http://www.programmi...********er.com/

(lol at censor, it's www.programming-motherf*cker.com, * is a u quite obviously)

Don't be put off by buzz words, programming is very easy it's just intimidating at first. Don't be overly ambitious and take your time.

[killswitch92]

How I started

Htmldog.com. Ended up buying their book. It's pretty good and straight to the point

[koolguy]

My first recommendation would be sitepoint. It's clear and simple. Buy some books of sitepoint.

http://reference.sitepoint.com/

then

http://www.developphp.com/

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs

All the best.

[IAm_Ace]

Thank you all fro the feedback currently working on my own project just something to begin with, nothing great something simple, i will put it up soon, i really thank you all for all the information you've provided me with, thank you.