Web Design

Learning Web Design Made Easy

Have keen interest on "Learning Web Design Made Easy"?

CPRON is here to assist you. Step by step guidelines presented by Sohel Adi.

Every so often people ask me how I learned web design so I could make my own website.

After I cease smiling (due to the fact I am far from being a designer), I hastily remind them that you need not a certificate or degree in web design to create a website.

To speak the truth, I am a self-taught Internet Marketer who has learned just enough to setup and manage my own website. In fact, most folks who have websites today create themthemselves. I assume you can too.

Why Bother Learning Design

When There is WordPress?

Now that WordPress is so trendy, many people forgo any kind of web design training because it is just not as necessary as it once was. You just pick a theme and BOOM, you have got a website!

Nonetheless, WordPress themes are motivated by CSS and understanding how it works will help you to a great extent when it comes to manipulating your existing theme.

I use CSS a lot to float and position elements on my pages so having a basic understanding has helped me a lot. I do not agree with the "rely on WordPress" philosophy that many go by today.

Most public eventually discover that if they want full control over their site's design and theme, they have got to learn some of the fundamentals.

WordPress was not around when I created this site, so I was forced to hear more aboutcoding. I am actually glad it happened that way.

Having said that, here are the resources I recommend if you are interested in learning more about web design:

Lynda.com

If you are one who cares for learning by video, Lynda.com is the site for you. There are software, tutorials, tricks and tips for every major design program out there.

There is a minimum membership fee, but anyone who has used them will tell you that it is well worth it.

 

W3Schools

I used to be tentative about recommending this website because their presentation was a bit too technical for the average newbie.

However, they have refurbished their site a lot and it is a lot friendlier now. This is certainly the place to go if you are a "learn the fundamentals" type of person.

 

HTMLDog.com

This is another great fundamentals website. It is a bit friendlier than W3Schools and the organization is better in my opinion.

 

Artisteer

If you are the kind of person who just wants to create a quick design on the fly for your website, and you do not necessarily care about learning code, this is no doubt your perfect tool. It works better with WordPress, Blogger, Static Sites akin to this and even Joomla.

A lot of designers actually use this software for inspiration and to help generate ideas for their clients. It is a pretty neat tool. 

 

Dreamweaver

This is the software I used to create this site. Basically, Dreamweaver is for static HTML/CSS websites like this. Even if you could use it to develop a blog theme, it is not on average used for blogs.

DW has built-in templates but they are very simple and bare. They are nothing like you will get withArtisteer or WordPress.

Credit to my knowledge of CSS and usingDreamweaver, I was proficient to "jazz it" up to what you see now.

There is certainly a learning curve with Dreamweaverand many will state it is not for beginners. It furthermore presumes you plan to learn CSS. I enormously love DW, but understand it is not for everyone.

I would not recommend Dreamweaver today unless you really just wanted to learn more about code. Most folks just use WordPress and it is easier to learn than Dreamweaver.

 

Study Existing Sites

The Way I Learned

Quite honestly, I learned a set of what I know by either viewing the source code (right-click mouse and select view source) of other sites or downloading free templates and editing them.

The benefit of this method is it's an easier way to learn. The nuisance is you don't necessarily learn all the fundamentals... in any case not in the right order. This may reason problems when it comes to troubleshooting your design.

Nevertheless, this is how I learned. I used up many days downloading free templates from CSSTemplates.org in addition to editing away until I turned out to be skilled at how to make the templates do what I want.

I also bought a few books, but I got most of my training online. Over the years I have learned that a lot of people prefer to learn this way. That is the primary reason I created my own CSS Templates.

Some people don't necessarily yearn for learning the fundamentals. They just desire templates they can edit and be on their way.

However, with my templates I do offer clarifications in the stylesheet so you can at least understand more about CSS.

 

Is Formal Training Required?

You may be wondering if you should seek some sort of formal web design training. Fine, I think that depends on your goal.

If you would like to become a professional web designer then you should think about formal training and perhaps even obtaining a certificate or degree.

Or maybe you want to get into WordPress theme development. Then you will want to get some time to study PHP, this is the language used to build WordPress themes.

However, some people just wish for publishing their website as quickly as possible. They are not interested in getting concerned in code and learning fundamentals. I would even bet that is the majority of people today.

So if that illustrates you, then you will probably do fine with WordPress. If you have liked this, please share.

Thanks for being with cpron.blogspot.com. To learn more keep an eye on Computer Professionals Network -a gateway to Outsourcing in Bangladesh.

Sohel Adi is founder of CPRON -a Dhaka based Outsourcing Agency that provides Websites, SEO, SMM and a full suite of digital services to small and medium scale of businesses. CPRON also provides e-training for Business Owners, Executives and Students. CPRON offers Custom Training to Companies/Agencies around the GLOBE (preferably Bangladesh) on SEO, Content Strategy and other Digital Marketing disciplines.

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