Today’s students have become fast-forward so much so that they are taking keen interest in learning about the art of web designing and trying to gain proficiency in web design field as their strong professional career. The first 30 days of learning web design for the students are vital as they need to stick to it, rather than thinking of quitting. They should learn the useful tips and tricks about web design and remain on track. There are many resources for learning web design that every student designer should know. You as a student may ask how to begin learning, or you may face excess choices and finally get confused which resource will be of great help. It is really noteworthy to understand the actual fundamentals of web design if you want to work in this field. We have approached with a guide that would help the students in learning about web design online.
1. Get started with HTML and CSS
The first step to get started should be with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). They both offer the primary code that builds the graphic user interface of internet’s World Wide Web. HTML is the actual structure of any current website. CSS mainly presents that structure a classy style. It is essential to know about these two easy languages if you want to become an ideal web designer. The moment you grab the logic behind HTML and CSS, you can easily learn them.
2. Resources regarding HTML and CSS
You need to come across some right books to begin with HTML and CSS. Head First HTML & CSS may the only engaging book on HTML and CSS which concentrates on your learning experience. Some of the other learning resources include: RockingCode- 1sxtWebDesigner’s Own Ultimate Web Design Course in 2015; Udacity; Codecademy; Udemy; and Mozilla Developer Network.
You can also go through some of the wonderful articles of 1stWebDesigner, including Basic Visual Web Design Mistakes, Call to Action – Web Design Usability, and Learn Web Design - Quit College.
3. Excellent Free Web Design Courses
You can come across some of the significant free online courses as well as educational platforms for learning about web design. These cover: CodeYear; CodeAvengers; Mozilla’s School of Webcraft; A Beginner’s Guide to HTML/CSS; 30 Days to Learn HTML &CSS; Hack Design; Basic HTML and CSS for Non-Web designers; HTML5 & CSS3 Fundamentals: Development for Absolute Beginners; Diploma in Web Design; and Programmr.
4. HTML/CSS Ebooks
You students can also try out recommended books on web design that includes HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites (an approachable, brilliantly designed introduction to HTML and CSS); The Web Book (free ebook on how to craft websites and applications with HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL); CSS Mastery (advanced topics on CSS); and CSS Basics (learning the basics of CSS design).
5. Content Management Systems
If you as a student seriously want to know about web design, then you are suggested that you need to learn how one should encode the themes for the CMS. The best and the most popular option is WordPress. WordPress approaches with many free plugins and themes. Joomla though complicated than WP, but it is also strong, and comes up with superb community and many add-ons. Drupal is considered as the best flexible open-source CMS platform. Tumblr comes with free customized blogs; and Squarespace is a cloud-based web design as well as hosting platform that is fine for professionals and speedy websites.
6. Consistency is the key
While getting into web design, consistency is certainly the key. You have to learn about web design in small bits every day, rather than going through the materials in only one day or two of the week. Also you need to apply the new concepts at least for three times every week that you have learnt. In this way you can surely improve and gain about web designing more.
7. Creating the right-to-do lists
You can make your own right-to-do lists that may cover: finish site map; create page wireframes; design page layouts (graphics, colors, etc); code pages in HTML; collect written materials; gather images/photos; set up teacher tools (blogs, calendars, etc); and finally launch of site. It is an appropriate idea of keeping track of your regular tasks using checklist, which will prove to be more productive.
8. Motivation is like a fuel
You need to motivate yourself often for learning new concepts about web design that would assist you to gain more knowhow in short time. You can explore what actually motivates you to become skilled by observing yourself and by the approach you act. You can read blogs on web design; and those blogs that talk about different small startups that are being bought and which is software based ones.
We hope the above guidance will surely assist you in gaining knowledge about web design and also developing your own attractive websites.
About the Author
Nicholas, completed his PHD in English literature with good grades and love to share tips for the students. He shared a tip “how to do assignment” for the student to increase their assignment writing skills.