Learning more about web design

[vanessacox]

Hi!
I have designed a few websites using Wordpress and theme sets I have purchased from StudioPress. I do some customizing and graphic design as part of that to make the sites unique.
However, I never feel as though I have the same level of expertise as others I see doing web design.
Today, I saw a Groupon for e-careers.com to have a year of web design classes for $149 and I am wondering how others have learned more detailed web design for whatever might be useful to their clients like Flash and Java. I have considering getting a certificate at our local community college but it seems to have a lot of extraneous classes that I don't need.
What sort of design classes have you taken to learn more about designing and what do you recommend?
Thanks so much!
Vanessa

[templatesofty]

to learn web design you have to join any course

[snakeair]

Originally Posted by templatesofty

to learn web design you have to join any course

Any good course's that you would recommend then?

[steiner]

Lynda.com for all of your SEO, web design, adobe, etc. needs.

BTW, this Canadian guy is awesome as an instructor. Eric Meyer is great too for CSS.

http://www.lynda.com/WordPress-3-0-t...s/77859-2.html

[annahussy]

I think for web designing you will get many web designing resources through many software. Adobe, dream weaver and Flash are the web designing resources as well. You have to make sure that Your web designing must be contain unique design with images, graphics as well.

[steiner]

No one uses flash anymore especially for content sites. Notepad++ is all you need for an editor.

The rest is trial and error with CSS. But look up Rand Mirtensen and Eric Meyers work. They are clean and functional.

If you want awesome and cheap go get a theme from themeforest and have at it.

[quino]

My choice is Adobe and dream weaver are the best. because am used both software's.

[RedScooter]

WordPress is a great niche to get into. Not all that many people can create a theme from scratch. I have done well creating custom WP themes for various clients and helping them maintain the current versions, cleaning up plugins, etc. If you build a good relationship with a client they will often keep you around for site maintenance.

If you want to specialize in WP, I would suggest taking the classes at Lynda.com (if you learn well from videos) or perhaps signing up for Safari Books Online (if you learn well from books but don't want to spend a fortune buying them). Learning to develop or tweak plugins would be a good use of time.

Responsive web design is another niche that is really taking off. Lynda has some courses, Smashing Magazine has a good book on it, or really you can just Google it and learn about it for free on the web.

Aside from those - being fluent in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and jQuery are all useful these days. If you don't know much PHP, that can also be a great moneymaker as a lot less people know how to manipulate PHP than HTML.

Overall, I would first stick to free resources on the web, and then look into subscription services to learn new things. Flash can still be an okay niche but jQuery is becoming more and more popular since it works on tablets that don't support Flash. In the U.S. a "certificate of completion" will not really get you anywhere, so focus on learning the skills and building up a portfolio - do volunteer work for friends, nonprofits like churches or animal rescue centers, etc. - and your resume and portfolio will do much more for you than a piece of paper will. The classes at a community college or art school might be helpful, but most likely you can get just the info you want from subscription sites for much less money.

Best of luck to you!

[ijujym]

You can find some interesting info on web design topics in books and videos on safaribooksonline.com

[richelle]

I have seen Lynda mentioned, I have a monthly membership with them and have learned tons. I am also a member of killersites.com, IWA (eclasses.org), planet ocean and a few others.

[garyadams281]

Originally Posted by steiner

Lynda.com for all of your SEO, web design, adobe, etc. needs.

BTW, this Canadian guy is awesome as an instructor. Eric Meyer is great too for CSS.

http://www.lynda.com/WordPress-3-0-t...s/77859-2.html

Thanks man for this wonderful themes. It will be a great help for me. Indeed, Eric Meyer is best known for his advocacy work on behalf of web standards, most notably Cascading Style Sheets.

[skpearl]

Lynda is a better option. But the best way of learning is trail and error. But it would be time consuming and more than that will be the worth.

[rahulbangar]

Try these websites. These are really very very useful websites for learning web designing.

http://psd.tutsplus.com/
http://net.tutsplus.com/
http://sixrevisions.com/

[Oday]

did you try w3schools.com it is good, and i think now you can found anything in youtube

[webmarketertraining]

Hi Vanessa, there are so many websites that can help you learn web design. Some of my favorites are:

-Killersites University (not to be confused with Killer Sites, although part of the same network) - Killer Sites University offers several main tracks - html, css, javascript/jquery and php. Not a super wide selection - but if you're just starting, this is all you need. They offer video courses, multiple choice tests and coding exercises.
-Udemy - Perhaps the widest variety of courses. They allow you to take notes directly within their website and many of the courses come with exercises.
-Codecademy - They have offer live code challenges on top of a tremendous library of web development resources.
-Team Treehouse - They offer every course that you'd need to become a web developer as well as a lot of mobile app development courses. They allow you to reinforce your training with tests and have short web design challenges.

TutsPlus and Lynda are also great sites to learn design from. However, the most important aspect of your learning process should be practicing what you learn on a regular basis. If you do this you'll be in good shape.

Hope that helps.

-Benin

[adsonmycar]

I have come to know that people don't look at your degrees as far as for designing for others. However, you will need a concrete portfolio and that's what bring the real money on the table.

[Mediworm]

Look for joomla tutorials! You will learn much more and design better!

[GadgetsFactory]

I took classes and I didn't really learn much. All my web development leanings comes from my tries and sites such as w3school.

[bubbensingh]

1. Fireworks
2. Dreamweaver
3. Panic Coda
4. Photoshop
5. Firebug

[J. H. Rasmussen]

Originally Posted by bubbensingh

1. Fireworks
2. Dreamweaver
3. Panic Coda
4. Photoshop
5. Firebug

That wasn't even close to being helpful, please make sure to read opening post before you reply.

Got anything to add to:

Originally Posted by vanessacox

Hi!
I have designed a few websites using Wordpress and theme sets I have purchased from StudioPress. I do some customizing and graphic design as part of that to make the sites unique.
However, I never feel as though I have the same level of expertise as others I see doing web design.
Today, I saw a Groupon for e-careers.com to have a year of web design classes for $149 and I am wondering how others have learned more detailed web design for whatever might be useful to their clients like Flash and Java. I have considering getting a certificate at our local community college but it seems to have a lot of extraneous classes that I don't need.
What sort of design classes have you taken to learn more about designing and what do you recommend?
Thanks so much!
Vanessa