Wilder Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 Hi! My names Wilder. I'm a sophomore in college and have evaded choosing a major thusfar and instead have taken care of core. I've been using computers forever though, and recently built this machine. I have no background in making websites except for creating forums and some adobe photoshop banners for back in the days when I was hard on videogames. So where do I begin? I asked the dean at my college which classes I should enter to achieve this goal of learning to make websites and he lead me to "Introduction to programming I" and "Assembly language programming." I picked up a class in graphic design also... I read up on assembly language though and from all I can tell, people seem to think it's older than dinosuars and that I shouldn't bother with it. What do you think? I'm a bright kid, and dedicated to this goal of learning to make websites. If you were to start learning again from scratch, how would you do it? Why? I really need some help here! I dont want to end up in a class that isn't helping me towards my goal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 There are a couple different directions you could go within the web design field. You don't have to be an expert at all of these things, but it would help if you had at least a basic understanding of them all. -- Designer: You'll deal primarily with the layout and aesthetics of the site -- how the site looks. You'll work a lot with Photoshop to create the designs that will eventually become a working website. To learn this, you would want to take graphic design classes (to get an understanding of the principles behind the designs you do) and probably a Photoshop class or two, if you can't learn this on your own. -- HTML/CSS coder: In this case, you take the designs the designer provides you and do the actual HTML/CSS coding to make it into a working website. Most likely you'll need to take an HTML/CSS class (and maybe a Dreamweaver class, though that really isn't absolutely necessary) or work through a book or online course on HTML/CSS. -- Web Developer: This gets into the hard-core programming side of the web, using technologies such as ASP.NET, PHP, Coldfusion, etc. to create a site that actually does something. You would need to use a programming language such as ASP.NET or PHP to create working contact forms, user logins, forums, etc. I'd probably suggest by either taking an online course on HTML/CSS like KillerSites offers (http://www.killersites.com/web-design/) or take a class in HTML/CSS from your local college. Learn first how to hand code using a simple text editor, and then perhaps once you have the basics down, you can learn Dreamweaver (which has some features that make coding simpler) and take some design/Photoshop classes to learn how to design the sites that you will then code. Once you have the basics of HTML and design down, perhaps then move on to something like PHP. Based on what your dean is telling you, it sounds like he is suggesting that you go the web developer route, and probably get a degree in Computer Science. That is a valid way to do things, though it may require a good amount of programming/math work, and it may not be for everyone. My experience (I'm minoring in Computer Science) is that a Computer Science degree is less about web design/programming, and more about teaching you commonalities between programming languages, programming patterns and standard ways of tackling certain programming problems. While there are some exceptions to this, most web designers/developers I know are mostly self taught, and are driven to practice and experiment on their own time. If you want to learn some of this on your own, you may want to take a look at http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/ which has video screencasts about web design to get you started. You may want to take a look at the series on creating a photoshop mockup/converting it to HTML (near the bottom of the page). http://www.phpvideotutorials.com/ also has some useful videos (both free and paid) about getting started with PHP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilder Posted July 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 This is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for; good timing too! Thanks so much, i'll check the links out. If anyone else has more to add, i'm thirsty for your oppinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicnicTutorials Posted July 17, 2009 Report Share Posted July 17, 2009 (edited) This is how I did it... When I first started, I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground (literally). I did a few months of video tuts at http://www.lynda.com/ to get the basic principals down, and then I did the remander of my learning by trial and error (learning what works and what doesn't), and by reading along (and learning along) with every single thread in this forum and at SitePoint forum. Here you'll learn best practices and the fundamentals. Over at SP you'll learn more advanced stuff. This has worked well for me (with CSS/HTML at least), php/js not so much... Edited July 17, 2009 by Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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