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I'm very interested in learning web development and have learned some basics regarding HTML and CSS a few years back from W3Schools, but I never learned how to develop websites that are up to today's standards, i.e. free-flowing sites without the use of tables to govern the design of the site.
What are some good resources that I can start with?
The best way to learn how to create websites and applications is to actually do it, meaning you should create projects, and to do it all the time. This short video conveys the emotions of a newcomer and gives some good advice on the subject.
I also wrote some other recommendations for people interested in learning web development that you should give a read before you start.
However, just as you can't speak languages you don't know any words in, you need a good understanding of the basics before you can build a useful project. Here are some resources to pick up some some basics and sites that let you explore for yourself.
There are great places to learn the basics of web development for free. Start here, but branch off of them to play around with things they don't directly teach. After going through a few, try making other sites/projects on your own from scratch. Doing so will reinforce the concepts, teach you implementation details, and likely teach you additional things as well. You simply can't become a good developer or designer by reading only, you must create!
Check it out! They're tailored for a design based audience but apply to anyone learning. They teach the basics in the slides/post/video then assign a small project at the end of each to teach real-world front-end development.
Don't use W3Schools, it is generally outdated and very error prone. Instead, use a tutorial website like the ones above to learn and use one of the documentation sites below when you're looking for something specific.
Looking at documentation for properties, libraries, and such is vital to becoming a good web developer. The following are among the best docs you can use:
Look for web developer's and designer's personal blogs that you like. They often have great, great content.
I have also written up an intro to UI design which could be very useful. I linked some additional great resources in it.
I cannot stress enough, the best way to learn is to build things that push your limits and to do so continually.
For an even larger (and perhaps overwhelming) list of helpful web related sites, checkout WebDesignRepo!
Check out CSS Zen Garden and flip through end various results. They're very versatile and provide a lot of difference over the same source code. You will learn much about modern CSS techniques. Even if you don't dissect them completely you will at least find a lot of inspiration and CSS abilities against normal accessible HTML. The great thing about CSS Zen Garden is semantics against style. Content is not styles whatsoever. Everything you see styles is done purely by CSS which is the correct way of doing it, because data can be consumed by many different clients, and style only by those that visualize it.
When it comes to learning from books this one looks very like a good start CSS: The Missing Manual.
I read Smashing Magazine on the internet that provides a lot of examples and approaches. It spans articles from the design business to great approaches in web design and alike.
Best places for me about learning about web design (layout solutions, usability, graphics and technical solution) are those:
look at all the website of the people that wrote articles in those websites:
Or something more technical about list design, and floating http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm
You have to know what are web standards. The official source is this: World Wide Web Consortium (w3c) It is a bit tricky to learn from there because it is highly technical, but it is good to check it out when you want to know on how things work on the web and why about the standards. the most useful thing it is the Validator of your HTML code.
One best way it is having a good look at the source code of good websites, and naturally the proportion of things aligned like those to learn the tricks: http://www.cssbeauty.com/
And Look at website of good web designers and what they are doing:
Jason Santa Maria
Dustin Curtis
Joshua Davis
David DeSandro
http://www.thinkingforaliving.org/
etc...
and my Delicious bookmarks (there is a variety of things, you have to dig through them and skim what you do not need) http://www.delicious.com/Littlemad/webdesign
Before you start learning all those frameworks...
I want to redirect your attention towards the design part of web design.
Of course, you can easily build a website with Bootstrap or some other framework. But that's not designing. A framework can be a basis, but if you don't put your own spin, you'll basically get a website that's just like all other websites out there.
That's why I'd advise you to learn the basics of design and try to apply those on your own.
How do you make (beautiful) websites on your own?
Now that is a question worth a book, but here are a few pointers:
Try to design from scratch
Now, when you're done reading about all these things and you know HTML and CSS, you'll be able to do your own very simple design.
Try to design a single page with just text, in black and white.
Why just text? Because text is by far the most used medium to convey a message on the web. Therefore, it's fundamental for you, as a web designer, to be able to make text look good and be a pleasure to read.
Why black and white? Because choosing colours is yet another beast. Taking small steps will make you feel happy about the progress you're making and will help you learn quicker.
Apply the basic design principles you learned + use the observations of other people's designs + think about the goal of that page + size the text using a modular scale.
Best way of learning is making things so make yourself a website.
Read standards, alistapart, tutsplus.
If you need a book look at SitePoint's - HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS.
Some thoughts about csszengarden and W3Schools.
Honestly, I would start by learning how to develop WordPress sites. Yes, I can code a site using HTML, CSS, PHP, ... but I can put together a WordPress site faster and then customize as I need to.
If you are looking to start off just learning today's standards then I would recommend http://nettuts.com/. It would also be beneficial to get the premium membership and get access to some great tutorials. If going from PSD to HTML is something you are interested in, they cover that.
Nettuts is part of Envato. Envato has several of tutorial sites that cover web development, wordpress, vectors, photo and video editing and much more. It's a great place to start.
Just my 2 cents.
For beginners of Photoshop on Web design, I'd recommend this site http://psdvibe.com/
The are a lot of websites with tons of tutorials. However, the best platform to learn webdesign is http://teamtreehouse.com/. Hope it helps! Nik