Australian Infront

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.

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?

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.

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).

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.

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.

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?

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.

Posted 16.02.2011 @ 7.33PM

Mmmmm.

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

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