learning web design from scratch
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- faxion
I have been a print designer for longer than I care to admit and have had little interest in web design (nor opportunity to get training at work). But can no longer ignore the progression.
My question is: How to get started? What basic training do I need? Are night classes the way to go?
- fadein110
Do a search in the Filter - so many threads about this.
And no - teach yourself through example and experiment.
- ArmandoEstrada0
1- Learn about usability, UX, standards, how the web actually is different than print. Where I have my office that I sublease they are primarily print oriented and years later, I still have to have conversations that the web is NOT print.
2- Learn HTML/CSS. Try lynda.com. I used to do alot of Flash and had to move to a HTML/CSS world quickly. I got Dreamweaver and a book on it. I learned HOW things worked using that. I gradually moved to using code view and not I primarily code from scratch (using frameworks) using a code editor like Sublime Text.
3- Read Read Read. Stay up on the latest tools and design trends. Visit sites like .net and Web Designer Magazine, Smashing Magazine, etc etc. There are plenty.
4- set up a local environment to work on. If on a mac get mamp, its free. Even though you might not be using it to process PHP MySQL etc you can benefit from having a dedicated serve locally.
- Man I have to take a writing English class...ArmandoEstrada
- faxion0
Cheers Amando, nowt like jumping in at the deep end. I think thats why I have put it off for so long, all very daunting. Most of your response I have zero understanding of.. Double Dutch to me :)
- newuser0
"I have been a print designer for longer than I care to admit and have had little interest in web design (nor opportunity to get training at work). But can no longer ignore the progression."
Are you embarrassed? The progression has been going on for a decade, but people always need printed materials or logos.
There's more money in motion or web, but most apps or web marketing is BS.
- boobs0
Don't be intimidated by the coding. It's not that hard. In fact, I would say that it would be easiest to just learn the code directly. Honestly, it isn't that hard. Once you understand a few basic principles, you'll be pretty well set.
I would skip over learning Dreamweaver and other WYSIWG tools like
that. All the tools that are made to make the web "easy" just make it less direct, and, in the end, harder. They will reduce your real understanding of what is going on.Working directly in HTML/CSS is easy; no need to simplify it. There wouldn't be hundreds of billions of web pages out there if it wasn't pretty easy.
- Yeah my mindset is that of a designer not technician. I don't want to waste time going down the wrong path.faxion
- omg0
- nocomply0
As mentioned above, don't waste your time learning any WYSIWYG tools.
Work directly with the code itself. That way you'll understand what's really going on.
Knowing how to code is a transferrable skill that can be applied to all different types of programming languages. If you learn a "tool" that writes the code for you you're pretty much pigeon-holed into that app. And trust me that app will not be around forever.
These days there are pretty much 2 sides to web development: front-end and back-end. As a designer I think you will gravitate more quickly and easily to the front-end stuff (at least that's what I did), but knowing how the back-end stuff works is what let's you create the amazing things of your dreams. I've been doing this for 10+ years and I'm still working on that part.
- fate0
Don't waste your time learning WYSIWYG tools (Dreamweaver)
Don't waste your time learning UX/UI, "Conceptual Frameworks" or any of that bullshit. You have to crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run.
Learn HTML/CSS and try to build a site from scratch.
- nerves0
Maybe something like this would get you started with the basics (and it's free)— Coding for Designers http://gymnasium.aquent.com/cour…
- doesnotexist0
honestly, look at websites you enjoy and always be on the look for other ones that satisfy you. classes and books are over-rated, imo.
- being aware of what is possible with technology is more important than knowing css/html/&cdoesnotexist
- studderine0
The biggest struggle I see for the new "web designer" is adhering to certain interaction paradigms/design patterns.
- vaxorcist0
Print people tend to drive developers crazy, due to thinking things can be mocked up perfectly then the final product needs to look exactly like the mockup no matter what, not just browser/platform issues, but often some "can't get there from here unless you do x first" kind of things....
Consider a design process change..... instead of making a perfect mockup, then "adding functionality", consider an opposite approach, where you think of the "page flow" and "process" before you think directly of exactly what it will look like.
So... youmake it work, then make it pretty, rather than make it pretty, make it perfect looking, then find out you can't quite make it work without some modification and then you're on the treadmill of modifications.....
- studderine0
You may have an advantage when it comes to layout, composition and typography when transitioning to UI design. A lot of web designers are jack-of-all-trades (not inherently bad) so you could position yourself as someone who truly gets design when you feel like you get the web.
- colin_s0
who knows if it would still be applicable, because i did this method 15 years ago, but i still do it today and it can work in simple scenarios:
look at a site, not a super technical one, but just a simple layout, and then view the source. look at them side by side, relative to areas of visible content, and see if the structure will make itself apparent.
i dunno, i taught myself code by just copying other people, modifying it, seeing what happened and this was with notepad in 1999. but to this day for simple scripts and structures, it's easy as pie.
- He's coding too?bainbridge
- same here - good advice.fadein11
- I've done this too. You can tweak the code to see what happens.emphor
- faxion0
Thank you QBN.
I do respect your opinion. Now, if only I could get off this site and go do some work!
- emphor0
I've found www.htmldog.com a good resource as it doesn't overwhelm you with lingo and you can do the tutorials along the way. A good site for a beginner. I also like http://www.w3schools.com/ for much the same reason.
I've learnt from experimentation using Text Edit to do some basic HTML/CSS stuff.
- 404NotFound0
Where can I learn to be a print designer?