Web Design - Where to Start? Learning to Code

From experience, I can tell you web design is fun, interesting and also a great hobby. The customization available is vast, a web page can be made to look however and also do whatever.

Can Anyone Learn How to Design a Website?

If you are interested in this article you will most likely have some technical background and experience with computers, if you have that, you are more than capable of learning how to design a website. But even without prior technical experience, web design isn't difficult to learn or do. Web development may take a few years to get good at but web design will take a lot less time.

Web Design Languages

Starting from scratch, there are 3 different languages you should master first in order to become a good web designer, these are HTML, CSS and JavaScript. While HTML and CSS are necessary in my opinion, JavaScript can be learnt later down the line but would be helpful to know and use for dynamic designs.

HTML is the foundation of a web page, it is used to structure websites, we use this language to input text, images, shapes, videos and other content. What you see on this page has some form of HTML, without HTML on a web browser we would not have much to see. Using HTML we define and tell our web browsers what our headings, paragraphs, tables etc are, each piece of content added to a web page is called an element.

HTML is written in tags, If I were to open a notepad file and type in the h1 tags like below, type some content between the tags and save the file as a let's say test.html, then double click the saved file, it would open in my web browser and display a heading with the text 'This is a heading'. The h1 tags stand for heading 1, you can also use h2 or h3 to tell the browser what type and size of a heading we want it to display, try it out.

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

Next up is CSS, this language is used to design and animate web pages, the content we put into a web page using HTML can be modified using CSS code to look better. For example this sentence, I used HTML to enter the text and then designed the text to bold. CSS is used to design elements on a web page. We can move and position elements anywhere we would like on a web page, we can shrink or enlarge them, fade them in or out, create borders, paint them in different colours and do much much more.

Finally JavaScript, this is used to animate and change the behaviour of web content to make a website dynamic. For example, the menu function at the top of this screen, when the screen is in mobile view or the desktop window is made small, the menu headings are shrunk into a menu icon which then only opens to display the headings when someone clicks on the menu icon, this behaviour is controlled using JavaScript. Using JavaScript code I have told the web browser to open and close the menu when the menu icon is clicked. This is just one example, perhaps you have seen other websites using JavaScript to run cool functions, a lot of websites nowadays use JavaScript and the language has become extremely popular.

Where to Start?

I started learning web design on YouTube, my brother told me about a channel called ' The New Boston', it is a great channel dedicated to teaching all sorts of computer languages, they have a dedicated web design playlist, and the tutor 'Bucky' goes through the different sections in detail and adds a little humour which in my opinion helps with the learning process. Right now, however, the YouTube channel created by Brad Traversy called Traversy Media is doing really well, I would highly recommend either of the 2 channels.

I would also recommend websites like Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, the course I took at LinkedIn Learning taught me a lot about web design, for example, the importance of structure was made very important. In fact, the tutors here taught me so much I recommend you check their courses out if you are new to web design. You may have noticed LinkedIn Learning offer a free trial for 30 days, use this trial and see if you like their teaching methods.

Another good website which teaches web design is Codecademy.com, their method of teaching is mostly through practice on their website, if you like this sort of teaching, check their website out.

How Do I Become a Good Web Designer?

1. Practice, practice makes perfect, after learning the languages to create websites I would advise testing your skills by creating your own website(It does not have to be live on the internet), this will give you a rough idea of the level you are at. Continue practicing until you are happy with the websites you have created, this will allow you to know when you are ready to create your first purposeful website.

2. Compare your websites with other websites and learn from them, and see if you can replicate some of their designs and functions. If you run out of ideas, pluck ideas from different websites and see what suits your website.

3. Ask people for their opinions on your website, believe me, it helps a lot. Sometimes I design an element that is too small and people tell me to make it slightly larger, a few days later I can see the positive difference the change made.

TIP: When building a website there will be lots of chopping and changing, do not worry about getting it perfect the first time round, keep at it and try new ideas. Having said this, I should tell you that planning your website layout and design is important, get a few sheets of paper and draw a brief plan of how you want your website to look, write down what color each section will be, and how you want each element to behave. Nowadays people tend to use online design software to plan out their web pages and this is a great way to do so.

Web Design Routes?

When you are confident with your web design skills you can look to becoming a front-end web designer, according to Glass Door the average salary in and around the London area is £25,000, a very good starting point.

TIP: If you wish to become a web designer, you could create your own website and show it off in an interview, your new employers will be pleased to know you are capable of creating your own website and thus you will have a higher chance of being employed.

Blogging is another option, you could use your skills to create a blog about your passion and interests if your content is good your website will generate hits and through those hits, you could earn a steady income.