I see many people asking for advice on freelancing careers and the many different businesses that can be run from home in the web design sector. But I think one very basic question is not being asked often enough. That question is: How do you learn web design?
1. Learn By Doing
Practice, practice, practice!
Learn from your mistakes and create something new.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different things on the page!
Be willing to make mistakes and try again until you’ve figured out what works best for your website.
Keep improving and refining your site as time goes on, even if it’s just a small change every day or week! The point is that there are many ways for people who want to learn about coding without having any experience whatsoever to do so; all it takes is a little creativity and willingness to put forth some work on their part.”
2. Sign Up To An Online Course
You’ve probably heard of online courses. Websites like Coursera, Udemy, and Treehouse offer internet-based classes that cover a wide range of topics, including web development. Online courses contain videos that walk you through the basics of a discipline. They often include interactive quizzes or challenges designed to help you put your new skills into practice.
If you’re interested in taking an online course, you should ask yourself: What am I looking for? And how much do I want to pay? The answer to the first question is subjective—you can learn anything from “How to make a website” to “How to build beautiful websites” depending on your skill level and interests.
The answer to the second question is less so: For any given topic, there are literally thousands of free courses alongside the paid ones (which range anywhere from $15–$200).
To find a good course quickly, read reviews on Reddit and Quora. Once you have some clarity there, search for reviews on Google—the best ones will be at least six months old because they’ll have had time to grow more detailed as people leave comments about their experiences.
3. Learn From The Best Blogs In Web Design
Read, read, read.
Stay abreast of the latest news and trends in web design by reading blogs. The best ones will help you stay inspired, up to date with new techniques, and focused on quality content. They’ll also provide hiking opportunities if you’re on the lookout for a job as a designer or developer.
You can find some great blogs by doing a simple Google search for “web design blogs” or by asking colleagues what they read to keep their skills sharp and stay informed about industry issues. Most are updated frequently—at least once or twice a week—so make sure you check back regularly or sign up for an email subscription to get updates delivered straight to your inbox.
4. Watch Video Tutorials And Screen Casts Regularly
Video tutorials and screencasts are a great way to learn new skills. They can teach you how to use a tool, for example:
Let’s say you want to create your own vector images using Adobe Illustrator. You can do a quick search on YouTube or Vimeo for something like “How to Create Icons in Adobe Illustrator” and watch someone else go through the process step by step.
They can teach you how to solve a problem, such as:
Maybe you want to learn how to create an HTML5 video carousel or gallery with captions for your portfolio site. With so many options out there, it’s best just watch someone do it first, then try it yourself later.
One of my favorite sites for learning these types of things is Tuts+. It has over 5,000 free tutorials all with full-screen HD playback that cover everything from illustration and design fundamentals to coding languages such as HTML/CSS and jQuery.
5. Read An E-Book Related To Web Design
Did you know that there are many free e-books on web design available for download? You can find beginner, intermediate and advanced e-books on topics like programming, user experience (UX), site architecture, good design practices, graphic design, and visual communication. E-books are a great way to gain knowledge and get practical advice from experts in the industry.
Here’s what you need to do:
Search for free e-books related to web design. There are many lists of free resources online that include e-books. You can find lists here or here.
Download an e-book (or several). Most of these resources have a link directly to the book’s download page such as this one or this.
Read and take notes while you read. Read through the entire book while looking out for specific tips and resources mentioned by the author.
6. Interact With People On Forums And In Chatrooms
If you’re looking for a quick answer to a specific question, chatrooms are the place to be. If you’re trying to learn new things from a community of people over time, forums are your best bet. Both forums and chatrooms can provide valuable peer learning opportunities and let you network with others who share your interests.
Forums also tend to have an extensive archive of posts that you can refer back to as needed.
Both types of communities tend to operate based on the principle that those who ask questions should first do their research and make an attempt at answering their own question before asking the community for help.
This means that there’s often some expectation that users will give back by answering other users’ questions as well, whether by posting on the forum or in the chatroom itself. So if you want to take part in a community where this type of positive karma is encouraged, check out these options:
7. Get A Mentor Or Find A Role Model
Find a mentor, someone you can follow and learn from. Having a role model will help you learn web design faster. They can either be in person or online.
Mentors are all around us and they come in many forms: teachers, artists, programmers – people who can show you the way to your destination through their own example. We wouldn’t recommend that you copy another person’s style directly, but having a teacher or an artist as a role model will help guide you to become a better designer yourself.
A mentor can also point out mistakes that you might not have realized without their input. Again, this is something that will help you avoid making similar mistakes in the future.
8. Attend Community Events And Meetups In Your Area
You can learn a lot and meet some great people by attending some community events or web design and development-related meetups. There are plenty of things you can learn from talking to and observing other designers.
As the world’s largest network of 5 million monthly visitors, Meetup.com provides a calendar full of events that you can attend right in your own neighborhood. You can search for design, front-end, or web-related topics on Google, or browse on Meetup.com to find relevant groups nearby you where you could go to ask questions or just check out what others are doing in the industry.
9. Join A Web Design Social Network Site
There are now many social networking sites where you can interact with other web designers, share your work, and get feedback along the way. Two of these sites are Dribbble and Behance.
You can join a group on one or both of these sites that corresponds to your specific interests in web design, such as WordPress theme design or print design for the Web.
You can also ask questions, participate in discussions and share your work on these sites.
Don’t be afraid to openly showcase your work to others and be humbly open to critique: what works well? What doesn’t? This is a great way to build a portfolio of projects over time.
10. Consider Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS)
If you want to dive right in and start making changes, consider an open-source content management system like WordPress or Drupal. Both of these systems are built on PHP, a programming language used to build websites.
To understand how a website is coded on the back end, all you have to do is download the package and install it on your server. You can then make small changes to see how they affect the front end of your site and learn what happens when you add new modules that are available from their community repositories.
11. Contribute To Online Help Documentation Or Open Source Projects
When it comes to contributing to online help documentation or open-source projects, there are a few key differences.
Help documentation. Contributing to some kind of online help documentation (like the [Bootstrap] will almost certainly require that you have already learned some web design and can put those skills into practice in order to create something useful for others.
Additionally, this is a great way to improve your web design skills: as you work on writing about a specific topic, your own understanding of it will likely deepen, making you more familiar with the subject matter and maybe even helping you figure out a few new things about it yourself!
Open source projects. Working on an open-source project is much more hands-on than contributing to help documentation because it requires actual coding, so it’s probably not something that beginners should attempt until they have acquired some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (among other programming languages).
On the other hand, once someone has reached somewhere between an intermediate and advanced level in their programming abilities not quite an expert status yet but still relatively competent—getting involved with an open-source project can be very beneficial because beginners are often paired up with mentors who can teach them even more about web design and other topics related to computer science.
You can learn web design for free if you do it in small steps over time, interact with other people and stay motivated.
Learning web design for free can be a great way to get started. You can start learning it right now, without the need for an expensive computer or fancy software. There are plenty of resources available online, and you can learn web design on your own time and at your own pace.
12. Join Communities Of Designers
There are many active communities online where designers share their work and offer advice on everything from how to create mockups in Photoshop or Illustrator (two very popular tools used by most designers today) all the way through more technical topics like HTML5 canvas programming using Javascript libraries like PixiJS or WebGL (a recent trend).
Joining these communities will give you access not only to talented peers who want nothing more than to help others achieve success; they’ll also provide invaluable feedback on your work when needed!
Final Thought
Hopefully, these resources won’t just help you learn the basics of web design but also help you improve yourself as a designer. Learning to do new things can be difficult, but it’s something that we all have to do in order to better ourselves.
So pick one or more of these resources, lace up your shoes and start running towards that finish line. Once you cross it, not only will you be able to get your job done in record time but with far greater efficiency than ever before.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Learn To Design Websites?
There are many different ways to learn web design. Some people go back to school for it, but that takes a lot of time and money that many people simply don’t have. Luckily, there are a few free ways to learn.
How Much Does A Web Designer Cost?
The cost of hiring a web designer depends on their experience and skill level. Some freelancers charge a flat rate, while others charge by the project.
What Skills Do I Need To Be A Web Designer?
You’ll need strong communication skills, an eye for detail, creativity, and an understanding of how to build a website.
Can I Actually Make Money Doing This?
Absolutely! The web is a great way to get exposure for your business or brand, and if you do it correctly, you can make some serious cash.
