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How easy is it too learn web design? Advice welcome

  • 24-09-2008 10:30PM
    #1
    Hub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 349 ✭✭


    Ok I'm thinking of putting in a couple of hours a day.

    I want to be able to design a basic but attractive website. How difficult is paypal to include in your web site.

    My plain is to

    Get a basic understanding of html
    Learn some CSS
    Then start using Dreamweaver and Photoshop

    I'm going to source all my learning material online.

    Is this a good direction to go? I've all ready created a very basic web page with colours, lists bulletpoints, tables etc...off line of course.

    Any advice is appreciated


Comments

  • #2
    browler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40 ✭browler


    The degree of difficulty is proportional to the amount of effort you want to put in and the standard you wish to achieve. The internet is definately your friend when it comes to self-taught web design. Even for professionals with 15 years maximum experience ( html prototyped by tim-berners lee in 1992 ) web design is tricky job taking into account the purpose of the website, userability, navigation, security concerns etc.

    I get asked this question from time to time and one of the best websites for improving your knowlegde to industry standards is the w3schools website. Even for junior developers who would be rusty on their css .... even though it might be on their cv's... or if your looking for freely available ebooks the o'reilly openbook project is worth a look.

    Good luck.


  • #3
    PixelTrawler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,285 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    Web development (ignoring server side programming and complex client side scripting for now) is easy enough to learn, web design is difficult (maybe some people find the reverse).

    I wouldnt bother with dreamweaver, handcode if you can - unless you want to start programming such as asp.net then you'll need a dev environment such as visual studio (express editions are free). Photoshop is pretty essential though. I use text pad for handcoding, and visual studio for asp.net pages.

    I can knock out css/xhtml fairly easily but i find design itself difficult, its definitely harder to learn if you don't have a natural flair for it (its like learning art, if you don't have an instinct for it, its difficult to learn)


  • #4
    tomED
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭tomED


    Design is possibly the hardest part. Not everyone has the natural eye for design or neatness. If you can master that, the rest is pretty straight forward.

    I would actually recommend dreamweaver or a wysiwyg editor to get started with. But make sure you learn HTML and CSS - don't get lazy.


  • #5
    p
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,119 ✭✭✭p


    tomED wrote: »
    Design is possibly the hardest part. Not everyone has the natural eye for design or neatness. If you can master that, the rest is pretty straight forward.
    The design part is 90% of the skill. Anyone can learn HTML & CSS.


    Check out this thread, it has lots of suggestions:
    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055365304

    The book I recommend there, 'heads first xhtml & css' is invaluable to get you building websites. For designing them, check out the other resources posted there.


  • #6
    Darragh29
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,097 ✭✭✭Darragh29


    I started learning HTML years ago when I was in college by doing a few primers on this website...

    www.htmlgoodies.com

    What I liked about the approach used on this site is that as a newbie to HTML, it is very readable and you can literally get started with a webpage by doing I think it was 7 short primers. Then you can do a few tutorials and start building better webpages...


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  • #7
    Hub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 349 ✭✭Hub


    That's cool advice.

    I'd be looking to design a fairly simple but cool looking site, if you get me. Something that's easy to navigate and looks minimal but nice.


  • #8
    shane.burroughs
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭shane.burroughs


    My advice is to get dreamweaver - it is almost the industry standard and will make life much easier. Learn Html as you go by reading the code that dreamweaver generates as you work.

    Get photoshop or Corel draw. This is essential as imagery is vital for design.

    If it is within your capability's obtain and learn to us Flash.

    Simple flash movies can really add to a simple site.

    Visit Lynda.com for excellent downloadable video tutorials on all of the above and more. I can't emphasis the how much these tutorial will help

    I recently a built web site using only flash.

    check it out http://www.blackrath.com

    good luck


  • #9
    S.M.B.
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,383 ✭✭✭S.M.B.


    shane.burroughs wrote: »
    My advice is to get dreamweaver - it is almost the industry standard and will make life much easier. Learn Html as you go by reading the code that dreamweaver generates as you work.

    Get photoshop or Corel draw. This is essential as imagery is vital for design.

    If it is within your capability's obtain and learn to us Flash.

    Simple flash movies can really add to a simple site.

    Visit Lynda.com for excellent downloadable video tutorials on all of the above and more. I can't emphasis the how much these tutorial will help

    I recently a built web site using only flash.

    check it out http://www.blackrath.com

    good luck
    As said in numerous posts above, learning about HTML/CSS, dreamweaver & photoshop is only going to give you the tools to create a decent website.

    A lot more is needed to design/develop quality sites.


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