Your learning process?

[theplastickid]

Hello, I am kinda new to the whole word of web design, I used to design in html and photoshop very poorly when I was younger and then kinda gave up for a couple of years. I have returned to it though discovering CSS and the wonders of what it can do.

However I can clearly see the world of web development is a lot greater than just CSS and html. I still have not got to grips fully with CSS and until I do I have no intentions of diving into other languages. But I was just wondering for the other more experienced developers out there what was your learning process? Eg. CSS then you went on to learn PHP, jQuery etc etc. Also what would you suggest is the best route to go down for a newbie like me.

Appreciate any feedback,
Thanks. ;)

[falkencreative]

— learn the basics of HTML/CSS first
— Once you have HTML/CSS down, learn some javascript/javascript framework like jQuery
— finally, the basics some PHP or another server-side programming language

Of course, that is only the coding side of things… It is also helpful to know a bit of Photoshop or another graphics editing program, so you can create the images that your websites will use. Depending on the kind of sites you work on, knowing a bit of Flash can be useful too.

[theplastickid]

Thank appreciate the feedback. I am VERY efficient in PS, been using since before I can remember. I am not good at drawing and am not a good artist so for me Illustrator I just leave well alone.

I’ve read a couple of book on CSS / Xhtml. Css from novice to professional and CSS Mastery. I have an ok understanding of it, and have coded a couple of sites not without problems though.

I think for now I will just practise CSS and html and maybe as time goes on and I feel really comfortable with it, delve into a bit of jQuery.

[falkencreative]

BTW, Adobe Illustrator has nothing to do with illustration… like Photoshop, great art skills aren’t really required to use it. Illustrator deals primarily with vector work that can expand/contract in size without losing quality — print work and logos are primarily what I use it for. Photoshop is primarily for raster (pixel) based work.

[Rob MacKay]

what they said :)

[Matt]

As falken said, the only main difference between illustrator and PS is that one is vector and the other is raster. If you can do something in PS, you can probably do it in Illustrator. Now, that assumes you don’t use any program specific tools religiously.

[theplastickid]

I wouldn’t say I feel totally comfortable with CSS yet. I can do what I want with it and anything I can’t do I have good and helpful sites like this. I think I do have quite a firm knowledge of it. Do you think it’s worth learning jQuery yet? I feel I am restricted at the moment with the things I can do on my sites with just HTML/CSS.

[falkencreative]

I don’t see why not. As long as you have the basics down, you’ll be able to improve on your CSS skills the more you practice.

[theplastickid]

"falkencreative" wrote:

I don’t see why not. As long as you have the basics down, you’ll be able to improve on your CSS skills the more you practice.

Yeah I thought this too. Just ordered me a copy of learning jQuery 1.3 from amazon ;)

[nyquil]

i have been learning the basics of html and css from htmldog.com and w3schools.com

does anyone know of any other good resources?

[theplastickid]

"nyquil" wrote:

i have been learning the basics of html and css from htmldog.com and w3schools.com

does anyone know of any other good resources?

The single best peice of advice I can give you is BUY "Beginning CSS Web Development- From Novice to Professional" by Simon Collison.

Get stuck in and read front to back and you’ll know it in no time. It was very hard for me to get stuck into this book or books in general as I always look on the web to learn, but I was glad I did in the end.

[Chris Coyier]

"theplastickid" wrote:

ordered me a copy of learning jQuery 1.3

That book rules. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

[nyquil]

hey chris,

what book would you recommend for css? i’ve already went through the tutorials at htmldog and w3schools.. but a lot of these tutorials i found online, they are not very conclusive. =

by the way, love your site bro! keep it up! i just finished the beginner css and css shorthand videocasts. they are amazing!

will there be any more stuff for us beginners in the future?

=D

[theplastickid]

My book is here. However I am currently toying with Joomla, once I have my head around this CMS I will dive into the jQuery book. :D

[Author]

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