Seriously interested in learning Web Design

Learn Photoshop and basic graphic design first, then apply those skills to designing for the HCI aspects of the web.

codeacademy.com is free, interactive, and a good jumping off point for beginners. Some of the lessons are a little wonky and ill-explained, but the HTML/CSS course is perfect for getting your feet wet.

To get some legit courses for anything past beginner, look at Teamtreehouse (front-end focused) or codeschool(a little bit more encompassing as it has Ruby, iOS, and Git courses). Both are paid subscription deals but worth it, especially for the interactivity.

Lynda is a good site for tutorials, and their library is huge and includes videos on just about anything you'd want to learn about. Pluralsight is also a good video based tutorial sight. If you have a .edu email address, you can sign up at Dreamspark.com and get a free 3-month membership to Pluralsight. You can also get Microsoft's Visual Studio for free. Pluralsight and Lynda don't quite have the interactivity that Treehouse and Codeschool have, but they provide exercise files and quality videos.

ETA: Teamtreehouse actually has a more extensive library than I originally thought. Here's the list of what they offer: LINK

Here's their web design track: LINK

quote:

---

Are you looking to get into web design (how sites look), web development (how sites work), or both?

---

From a professional standpoint, would learning both make me more marketable? I would assume the answer is yes, but then again I'm brand new to this so I honestly don't know.

What would you suggest? Brutal honesty is appreciated.

Once again, thanks to everyone who took time to offer me suggestions. I truly appreciate your advice.

If you prefer reading, it ebooks offers a plethora of books. Paperback versions cost money, but you can download them for free as PDFs.

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

Just curious... How did you arrive at "I want to learn web design" ?

I am fascinated with what makes someone with zero background in something suddenly decide one day that they would like to take that up.


I am into computers because I have been around them my whole life. Parents bought me a Commodore 64 when I was in 6th grade. Before that it was the Atari 2600 and Magnavox Odyssey 2.

quote:

---

I am fascinated with what makes someone with zero background in something suddenly decide one day that they would like to take that up.

---

I can't speak for kills, but I've always liked Web Design.

For me personally, I've had to learn more into Python/SQL, not because I like it (although it's actually enjoyable), but because it's pretty emphasized in the GIS Industry.

quote:

---

From a professional standpoint, would learning both make me more marketable? I would assume the answer is yes

---

Yes, mainly because it's as simple as InVolNerable said: knowing more is always better.

The more involved answer is, as you get into it and learn more about how everything works, it gets really hard to draw lines where design ends and development begins. Websites are interactive, so their design is heavily influenced by their function. There are people that make good money by sticking strictly to design and graphics, but if your end product is basically just an image, you need someone else to convert that into a working web page. If part of the design is interactive and has to move, change, or function in a particular way, then you pretty much have to learn HTML, CSS and javascript. This is probably the most common point to draw the line between designer and developer, though the line is kind of blurry because javascript is getting into developer territory. On the developer side of the line you have the database layer, and many, many choices of languages and frameworks to work with that database, manipulate the data, and shoot it over to the front works.

At the very least, in order to put a site online, someone with each of these skills will likely need to be involved, and it helps to know a little bit about what your coworkers are doing if you want to work well together.

quote:

---

I've had to learn more into Python/SQL, not because I like it (although it's actually enjoyable), but because it's pretty emphasized in the GIS Industry.

---

I am in GIS. What are some of the places you learned Web Development for GIS type applications?