Learning to design web sites?

Question

I would like to learn how to design web sites but my local Ad Ed college does not run a course on this anymore. I have Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, GoLive, ImageReady and InDesign on my PC. I assume this is all I will need in the way of software, can any of you nice PPL tell me how to get started?

Answer 1

As people have already said, those are some great design tools but they do not address the fundamentals of web design - they are primarily designed to help you with the graphical aspect of a site.

I would suggest you take a step back from your tools and take a look at http://www.w3schools.com/ - it's a great site with dozens of fantastic tutorials.

http://www.w3schools.com/web/default.asp - a primer to some of the terms you will come across.

You need to understand the components involved. A website is essentially one or more web pages, located on a web server. When a user types a web address into their browser (such as Firefox or Internet Explorer), they are sending a request to the server, which sends back the requested web page to the user. The web page is made up of code in a language called HTML, which is interpreted by the browser to display the site on the user's screen.

Server: a server is just a computer on the internet running web server software. An example of a server is uk.answers.yahoo.com. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webserver

HTML: stands for HyperText Markup Language. Code for your browser.

Most websites contain images, which is where the pieces of software you list above come in. More complex websites involve other code written in languages such as Javascript (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript) and CSS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS). Some sites are linked up to huge databases and other systems behind the scenes.

If you want to start building websites, I suggest you take a tutorial in HTML. Learn how to build a basic HTML page. You don't need any fancy tools for this, just a simple text editor. Notepad will do, but you might want something more fancy, such as http://www.textpad.com/ (that's the one I use). You can do it all on your own computer with no fuss or cost, but nobody else will be able to view the pages you create.

Once you've done that, find somewhere to "host" your web page. I use LunarPages (http://www.lunarpages.com/), which is a professional hosting solution, but you may want somewhere such as GeoCities (http://www.geocities.com/) that is more geared towards beginners.

Once you understand the basics, it's easy to start adding some structure. Here are some more ideas to create a more complex site:

1) Create another page or two, and link to them from the front page
2) Add some images to make the site look nicer
3) Create some style information using CSS (http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp) so that all of your pages have a common, aesthetically pleasing layout.

As for the photoshop stuff, that's a whole other story! I suggest you buy a good book on graphic design for the web, it's very difficult to get to grips with graphic design without reading a book and/or going on a course. The art of creating a website is VERY different to the art of good graphic design for your site! However, in the meantime check out a couple of online tutorials:

http://www.pegaweb.com/tutorials/beginners-guide-adobe-photoshop/
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialsbasic/

Once you get to grips with HTML, CSS, Javascript, images and hosting, you can create some pretty nice sites! The next level involves server-side scripting languages such as PHP (http://www.php.net/) which are used by big complex sites such as http://www.yahoo.com/.

There are tools to make your life easier. The most popular web design tool seems to be Dreamweaver - it allows you to create a site graphically by generating the HTML code for you. However, if you never learn the basics you will never understand what's really going on - Dreamweaver is far from perfect, very expensive and often downright frustrating!

Answer 2

Those are all nice image editing programs, but you need a program with which you can design webpages, such as Dreamweaver. You can download a free trial at adobe.com.

Dreamweaver will generate the HTML code needed to display a static web page. It is also good with server side scripting languages should you decide to make a dynamic web page.

Answer 3

This is such a broad topic...

To learn how to design web sites is different than learning how to use software that is designed to build web sites or edit/manipulate photos.

Illustrator, Photoshop, GoLive, ImageReady and InDesign are just tools...a means to an end. Learning them does not mean that you are a designer.

Are you looking to learn how to code sites or design sites or both?

If you are looking to learn about design and in particular web design, then I would suggest learning as much as you can about graphic and interface design, as well as user experiences and information architecure. There are many books out there on this subject.

Here are a few books that I recommend reading to begin to understand what design is all about. It will be up to you as to how to apply this knowledge when designing a web site.

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735712506/103-7426430-7213458?ie=UTF8

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735712026/103-7426430-7213458?ie=UTF8

Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592530079/ref=wl_it_dp/103-7426430-7213458?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1MU2WG1G279IH&colid=1CFMBJFDVMRZL

The Art and Science of Web Design
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Web-Design/dp/0789723700/sr=1-28/qid=1159206053/ref=sr_1_28/104-0778228-5217559?ie=UTF8&s=books

Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300088981/webstyleguidecom

Learning the software is the easy part...learning to design is what takes time and experience.

But, this is a good start for you...best of luck!

Answer 4

You can use Adobe GoLive to create websites. I personally like dreamweaver better but they are similar products. In GoLive I would recommend you start by learning basic HTML... then try all the fancy stuff later. Golive has "snippets" of code that you can drag and drop in your web page and change around. Play around with the program and you'll learn a lot.

Answer 5

W3schools, Webmonkey, Devguru have free simple tutorials for learning HTML, PHP, JavaScript and all features required to design websites . More information at-

http://tinyurl.com/o5e26

Answer 6

Contact Skillstrain.

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

dreamweaver makes web sites

Answer 9

You'll need Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, and for the video tutorial you might want to check www.lynda.com ^___^ hope this helps

Answer 10

better go here and start with something easier
http://web-master.uv.ro/index.html