Resources for Learning Web Design
A lot of people want to learn web design, but where do you start? It’s great if you’ve got the motivation to trawl the web for free videos, tutorials and articles, but we don’t all have that level of confidence. Sometimes you need a helping hand, or you’re just not a self-learner.
If you’re interested in learning web design, here’s a handy list of places to start.
You’ll notice there’s a lot more video around these days, and that’s the way it’s going to continue. It can be a lot more compelling, more effective, and more time-efficient to show something in a video than to write it up into an article or book.
(If you’re serious about making a living in web design, also check out my Pro Web Design Alliance.)
My Top 10 List for Learning Web Design
DesignShack.co.uk
DesignShack has a list of 30 free tutorial videos.
WebDesignSchools.net
Lets you browse for real-world institutions that offer web design courses. United States & Canada only though.
LearnWebDesignOnline.com
Has articles on PHP, WordPress, HTML and CSS, and videos on design and coding.
How-To-Build-Websites.com
Some free basic content, and offers a short course in HTML and CSS (for $29.99).
WebPagesThatSuck.com
Seeing what not to do can be a great way to learn. Web Pages That Suck has been sharing the very worst examples for years.
Sitepoint.com
SitePoint leans toward the more advanced coding aspects of building web pages. They have good free online content, and a range of books and other materials.
Webdesign.TutsPlus.com
TutsPlus is a network of related tutorials sites. Their web design channel has a wealth of good free articles.
Membership.ThinkVitamin.com
$25 or $49 a month gets you access to a wide range of technical training videos (covering Accessibility, CSS3, Design, django, HTML & CSS, HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, NoSQL, PHP, Responsive Web Design, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Tools, UX, Version Control, WordPress, iOS).
Lynda.com
Lynda has been providing online training materials since I started back in (*cough*). It now has videos on 3D animation, audio, business, design, development, home computing, photography, video, as well as web + interactive.
SmashingMagazine.com
Smashing Mag delivers a really high standard of articles and tutorials – perhaps more for the aspiring web ninja than the absolute beginner.
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Good list.
I would add http://www.w3schools.com where you can edit the code examples and see the results in your browser.
I am looking for help taking our current web pages and figuring out how to get domains that are best for mobile applications and also for seeing some of the best mobile websites. Could you make a list that is focused on mobile?
Thanks!
Sorry Julie, we don’t specialise in mobile applications.