Australian Infront

Login OR Register
  • News
  • Jobs
  • Folio
  • Forum
  • Profiles
  • Involved
  • Market
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Home / Forum / Help / Learning to design websites for the internet?
— BACK TO FORUM

FORUM START A THREAD

START A THREAD

AUS INFRONT FORUM

Welcome to the Aus Infront forum. Fun place to hang out, see some work, share your thoughts and get some help. All we ask is that you play nice and that you don't feed the trolls.

Start A Conversation

Creative Threads758

Discussion Threads5472

Help Threads735

News Threads2290

Off Topic Threads387

Technical Threads445

RULES & HOW TO USE THE FORUM

SOCIAL CONDUCT

A FEW SIMPLE RULES

• This forum is for the specific use of Australian creatives. Keep your post short and relevant.

• Remember to show respect to your fellow prospective colleagues (and potential future clients).

• Spamming, phishing or job ads are not allowed in this forum. Administrators have the right to delete your post if you don’t play nice.

• Repeat offenders will be banned from the forum permanently. 

For further clarification, please refer to our Rules of Conduct.

Suicidalpeanut

Suicidalpeanut
JOINED 29.05.10
POSTS 156

Learning to design websites for the internet?

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 12.28PM (Edited 16.02.2011 @ 12.36PM)

I am a print designer by training and experience want to learn web design, but I find code a bit of a challenge, I understand some but I tend to get a bit bogged down on a lot of online courses. I'm on a bit of an extended holiday at the moment in Central America and want to do some learning in my downtime, with the goal of getting a job as a web designer when I return to Australia.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

comment
dave

dave
JOINED 16.01.10
POSTS 2502
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 1.13PM

What's your goal, to design website interfaces, be coding html/css, or building with open source/off shelf CMSs such as Wordpress, Expression Engine and the like?

comment
Suicidalpeanut

Suicidalpeanut
JOINED 29.05.10
POSTS 156

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 1.55PM

Well that's a very interesting question Dave. I would say I am definitely interested in interface design but primarily at this stage my goal would be to learn to build a static html/css layouts, I am not particularly interested in the content management side of things, but would be willing to learn it if necessary to employment.

comment
dave

dave
JOINED 16.01.10
POSTS 2502
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 3.00PM

Hmm... not really sure how necessary html/css is for "employment" for designers. And there may be a difference in the skillset required for "freelancer" v "employed designer".

None of our designers (4 of them in a 14 team fulltime agency environment) work with html/css at all, they create the designs and handover to the html/css guy.

The do, however, work with Flash a little, though again that's in the "design" area of Flash, with minimal actionscripting. Anything hardcore is handed over to a Flash developer.

As a freelancer there would be some difference, in that mode (v my current fulltime PM mode) it has helped get work to be able to both design and html/css.

But maybe others within agencies can give some more info on whether designers knowing html/css is really necessary to gain employment (versus freelancing).

comment
kipp_brady

kipp_brady
JOINED 25.06.10
POSTS 312
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 5.35PM (Edited 16.02.2011 @ 5.39PM)

Html & css is defiantly the first thing you'll want to learn, a large number of jobs I've seen require at least an understanding of it.

I worked in a studio environment for 4 years designing static mocks, it was a real pain in the ass working this way. You'll end up having to rely on the css guy to make a lot of the nuanced design choices. Especially concerning typography.

I found this book great for learning css
http://www.amazon.com/CSS-Missing-David-Sawyer-McFarland/dp/0596802447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289201796&sr=8-1

This book is also a great guide to css3 and html5
http://fivesimplesteps.com/books/hardboiled-web-design

There's really only a few difficult things in css that you need to wrap your head around, everything else is pretty easy and you should pick it up fairly quickly with a bit of effort.

comment
dave

dave
JOINED 16.01.10
POSTS 2502
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 6.42PM

::There's really only a few difficult things in css that you need to wrap your head around, everything else is pretty easy and you should pick it up fairly quickly with a bit of effort.

I would disagree. You may pick up basic css "fairly quickly", but from my experience those who *really know* CSS aren't that common.

comment
scotty

scotty
JOINED 04.03.10
POSTS 1453
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 6.51PM

I've been thinking of picking up some skills in how to put sites together. (Jumps on the bandwagon:)
Granted I've managed to do my own site in flash but I'd like to be able to make a simple static site, nothing heavy.

What do you reckon the way to go is as I hear so much about Wordpress and such?

comment
KenSmith

KenSmith
JOINED 10.03.10
POSTS 537
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 7.04PM

Suicidalpeanut: I've been making the switch from print to web too, it's not too hard, but theres a lot to take on board. Granted, I'm doing a major on web stuff, so they took us through html and css first. But I think it was a great way to lay down the foundations and get to playing around quickly.

Scotty: I've been tinkering around with a free wordpress theme, easiest way for a newb like me to learn the ropes, as Wordpress is php based.

comment
scotty

scotty
JOINED 04.03.10
POSTS 1453
— WEBSITE

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 7.33PM

Mmmmm.

I'm thinking Wordpress may be the way for me to go. :D

comment
webshout

webshout
JOINED 10.12.10
POSTS 9
— WEBSITE

Posted 17.02.2011 @ 3.48AM (Edited 17.02.2011 @ 3.50AM)

It is as dave says, there are alot of things in css that you won't find out about in a short period of time. Did you guys know that some css style and rules get interpreted differently depending on what browser your are using. So, a website that you coded might look absolutely perfect in internet explorer, but it might look terribly misplaced in another browser.

My personal opinion is that a designer should know the basics of html/css as it helps make the life of the front-end developer that much easier. Learning the basics could take anywhere from 1-2 months up to a year depending on the level of studying.

I am a big fan of Wordpress, I reckon Wordpress has to be one of the easiest content management system to develop themes for. In other words, someone with basic html/css knowledge can easily make dynamic websites (with a little bit of practice knowing which tags and files do what).

Great idea stuffee, that is one of the better ways to learn how to develop wordpress themes. Just by simply adding a word there and removing a line there, you'll quickly learn what does what in the files.
If in doubt: http://codex.wordpress.org/Site_Design_and_Layout
There are plenty of tutorials and guides on how to do things with wordpress.

Don't forget to have fun guys while learning :D

comment
Pages: 1 , 2 
ADD YOUR COMMENT

You will need to login or register to join the discussion.

©99-17 Australian Infront Pty Ltd
  • See All About Us
  • Read Our Copyright & Usage Policy
  • View Our Privacy Policy
  • Skim The Terms & Conditions
  • Learn Our Rules Of Conduct
Analogue
  • AUSTRALIAN INFRONT PTY LTD
  • PO Box 36
  • PORT DOUGLAS
  • QLD 4877
  • AUSTRALIA
Digital
  • General: gday@ausinfront.com
  • Support: support@ausinfront.com
  • FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
  • LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
  • SEE US ON INSTAGRAM
Thanks
  • HOSTING: DIGITAL PACIFIC
  • EMAIL MARKETING: MAIL CHIMP
  • PRINT DESIGN: SOUTHSOUTHWEST
  • DIGITAL DESIGN: AISTROPE
  • DEVELOPMENT: ZANN