getting back in to web design

Reznik

So I used to be able to make okay-but-not-fancy webpages. I still have basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, and used to dabble in PHP. I basically haven't been much into web stuff since 2009-ish, though, so obviously I've fallen behind. A lot. Like, I'm pretty sure we never covered CSS3 when I was learning web stuff in school.

I'm at the point where I can edit somebody's existing work - for example, I can take a forum skin template and edit it more or less to how I want. I can mash code together into a frankenstein's monster. So whenever I go looking for web tutorials, I try to refresh myself and get bored as shit by beginner tutorials that cover stuff I already know and remember. But then the more advanced stuff is like crazy shit above my pay grade.

I don't even really know what I should be looking for. Like as far as hobby stuff goes, I just want to make cool forum skins with neat little flourishes that don't take 1000 years to load (I'm kind of tired of editing premades, and I'd like to make my own from scratch). As far as professional stuff goes, it would be cool to know enough to freelance a little on the side beyond my usual photoshop stuff.

I guess I should get familiar with some kind of CMS? I don't know, man, I'm kind of lost. I don't even know what tutorial sites are good anymore. pls help.

Djeet

Are you specifically wanting to make forum sites? Because if so that seems niche enough that you can find out what are the best tools and start from there.

For making sites for other products who don't know what they are doing then look to implementing WordPress and look into supporting plugins for additional features. A productibe use of time might be to get a cheap host and work on developing portfolio sites until you get work.

Tutorials are not going to help you much. Make cool and slick looking websites with every bell and whistle (forums, blogging, a store, a cart, traffic analytics, reporting capabilities and all the whizbangs).

Figgy

Pretty much that. Tutorial sites bore the shit out of you because they're designed to drag simple processes out to increase page views.

Unless you can get access to more professional instructional services (I'm a fan of Lynda.com) just get in there and mess around.

WordPress is great because you can also muck about with the php. You can make a WordPress site absolutely anything you want it to be.

I'd stay away from Joomla. The only time I've ever used it was to migrate sites away from Joomla.

Reznik

When it comes to forums, I'm not talking about building one from scratch, but rather doing the skins for a pre-existing free one (like Invisionfree or jcink) - this has basically just been a little hobby of mine to dick around with CSS and make pretty if slightly useless things.

Wordpress sounds cool. I have only passing familiarity with it, but I've grabbed XAMPP and the Bitnami Wordpress module so now I can put all this idle time at work to good use.

Jasconius

you don't need CSS3 for all but the highest end sites

a lot of the evolution in web design since you last did it has been circulating around mobile and tablet friendly design, and then a bunch of HTML/CSS/JS garbage to try and replace what was lost when everyone decided that they didn't want Flash anymore

If you're not concerned with mobile and tablet design, then you don't have that much catching up to do. If you want to do it professionally though then you may not have a choice.


The other major evolution is the toolchain for building front ends. These days if you actually hand write HTML and CSS directly you're considered some sort of troll.

Almost everyone with a mouth to feed uses either SASS or LESS as a CSS compiler. For JS, TypeScript seems to be the defacto.

For HTML, most people swear by angular or something like it, and once you get past the initial "what the fuck is this" moment with Angular, it's actually pretty amazing and you can do cool things with it

Reznik

Wow, I'd never heard of any of those tools. I've legitimately just been typing stuff in Notepad++. When I was learning everything, Dreamweaver was basically considered cheating.

Awesome, I've got so much stuff to check out now. Thanks guys.

admanb

Well, none of those things replace Notepad++. :P

Figgy

admanb wrote: »

Well, none of those things replace Notepad++. :P

This.

Dreamweaver isn't so much cheating as it is annoying as fuck. It just teaches bad habits and creates bulky, shitty code.

Do yourself a favour and learn the code, rather than just Frankensteining bootstrap and other snippets you come across. If you say you may want to freelance, it will make your life so much easier. And it's fun. I would start by getting a cheap host and installing Wordpress. Find a very, very simple theme and try to mold it into what you want.

And "tablet and mobile design" isn't a thing anymore. It's the thing. Mobile first. Don't waste your time building on outdated methodologies and get a good grasp on responsive design now. The sites I manage at work are at about 50% mobile device traffic and 20% of our total annual revenue comes from mobile devices. Google even pushes you down the results page for users searching on their mobile device, if your site isn't mobile friendly. It's not a fad.

If you aren't familiar with the developer tools in browsers, mess around in there to see what's what. I like Firefox's stock tools. Right click, inspect element, and you've got a full toolkit right there. But a lot of people swear by Firebug.

Real-time CSS/HTML editing and responsive design testing will be a huge help, and both of those tools have that.

For troubleshooting or just for plain help, check out stackoverflow.com. Great community of folks who are always willing to help out.

[Michael]

You might start skimming over blogs / magazines like css-tricks.com or smashingmagazine.com once a week or so. If an article sounds interesting, give it a quick read.

It'll give an idea of how other people work and help keep you up on what direction the web is going.