Newbies, How did you learn web design?
Most of us come to places like this looking for information to fix a problem or to learn more ...

How did you learn/find out about HTML/Web design?
What did you search for when trying to learn more?
How did you find frontpage (if you use it)?

and any other insights into todays newbies.
Don't worry there is no test on friday am just curious if things change over the years.

Me, I discovered webpages when I was doing photography, a client wanted to post my pics on his webpage (made with frontpage), I had never been interested in websites before. I thought to myself, man that site sucks, I could do better. So I put my money where my thoughts were and designed myself a website - complete with animations, coloured backgrounds, comic sans text ... all the bad things lol. I had made a website in notepad that held together but wanted more, so I found websites I liked and looked at the source, trimmed it all down into sections and found out which bit did what and why. I probably did it all in the wrong order but a while later then I started looking for tutorials but all of them (well most) explained using capitals in tags, to me it looked wrong or ugly so kept coding in lowercase. Switching to XHTML wasn't a problem as i prided myself on clean code (back then, get lazy these days).
Back then validation was mentioned in one in ten tutorials, but bobby (508, wai ..) were around and mentioned a bit more. A lot of the tutorials were to advanced for a complete newbie even with the basic knowledge and all the minor ones were repeats of the very basic stuff.
I picked up php and css quite easily but javascript i could never get into, weird i know.
__________________
<?bhb if(broken){ echo("It wasn't me "); } ?>
Learn HTML the ez way - EzHTML.net

Some people are like slinkies, they dont really serve any purpose but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs ...

Not everyone gets into Javascript. I've been coding for about ten years now and I have barely touched javascript. I prefer not to overload my visitor's computer with client-side script when its much faster to use server-side, which is why I choose PHP.

I started learning to code back when I was about 15. I was big into the chat sites where I was introduced to image manipulation. From there, I wanted to build a website for where I hosted my images that I did. But like all new people, I had to do some research. Search engines became my friend for simple html coding. I have never used Frontpage, and with all hope, never will.

I started out coding in high school using Geocities' file manager thing. It was not until I was in college that a design friend introduced me to Adobe GoLive. I used this for years until I found Dreamweaver which is what I have been using for about 3 years. At work, I am on a Mac and I use TextMate, but at home, Dreamweaver remains my right hand for coding.

Since I went to college, I still use the internet for researching things I don't know, but I have also begin to collect books that I know are written to be understood easily in case I forget something, which I know I will do because of my horrible memory. lol. A good book I am looking to get in August is Bulletproof Web Design. This book is already out but I'm waiting on the 2nd edition to come out before i order it. Or at least wait till its closer to being out to pre-order.

If someone's a 'newbie', they probably are still learning web design. . .

I was a html newbie 5 years ago. Never could get then hang of WYSIWYG editors, they always seemed to use a bunch of sloppy code that I couldn't mess with (I started using a netscape editor) - it was always causing me issues.

I skipped the html editors I started by editing source code & doing searches on Google to learn about new elements. I'm not really a designer, though - much more of a programmer. Design, graphics & flashy things never got my goat, it was always the code, which is why I probably went on to learn perl/cgi.

That being said - I'm really finding that dreamweaver speeds up coding by finishing my elements for me when I'm working on html.

I think that even as a web designer you should have a general understanding of html. I almost worked with a web designer that couldn't modify simple html to save his life, but he could make pretty websites in photoshop.

I started when I was 12-13 making a dragon ball z website haha. Those were the days. I learned about computer maintenance/hardware first. I can't even remember how I learned html to begin with. I started with frames then heard that tables were all the rage. I learned css/xhtml standards fairly recently just by reading online articles, asking questions and using the almighty google. I started off with Frontpage but now I am loving DreamWeaver. It doesn't add any unnecessary markup and if it does, I replace it. Unlike the post above I learned the code as a means to artistic expression. I love designing but learning a bunch of coding languages never got my "goat" . I find I can do everything I need with css/html/ a little php and the knowhow to download what you need and modify it if necessary.

Only a nub would still use the word "newbie," it's outdated.
haha, irony.

I started in 1994 when IT and the internet was all new. I ran an internet cafe in Stockholm Sweden and learned HTML and everything from scratch by hand in trusty old notepad. I still enjoy using notepad and I do some teaching at the local school and have them all learn how to hand write code. This so that they understand the basic logic behind everything. It's great fun

Today I work as a web development manager with a team of 22 and don't touch code that much and i do miss it. So i do some coding at home but most of it is in PHP..

Thats me and my life

Originally Posted by minkbulle

... and I do some teaching at the local school and have them all learn how to hand write code.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by JeremyMiller

Thank you!

Why

I do some teaching at the local school and have them all learn how to hand write code

He thanked you, and I'll thank you for that !! Why ? Because too many schools and universities are teaching students to use WYSIWYG editors and NOT hand-coding, which is, by far, the best method to actually LEARN HTML .. and CSS. Far too many schools are still teaching tables for layout too.. which makes people like me really cringe.

We still learn to add, subtract, and multiply by rote, you have to learn those by repeating over and over until you know them. The same is true of basic HTML and it should be taught that way.

Good point about learning html by rote. That's pretty much how I learned it too. I grabbed the O'Reilly book read through it and started writing html pages. Whenever I couldn't remember something I looked it up. The more I coded the less I looked up.

And in the end html isn't really any harder to understand or remember than addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

minkbulle, I'll say thanks too for guiding people along the right path.

Now hold on thar a second, everyone. You guys just made the assumption that most people who know how to code make...you assumed a hand coder would impart lessons associated with proper code.

There are schools that do not teach using WYSIWYG editors; the problem is that most of them teach deprecated coding (usually HTML 4.01, tabled layouts, etc.) I even know of one so-called professor who swears by the font tag.

So before I go patting this guy on the back, I have to ask him: what do you teach your students to code by hand? And how do you teach it?

Now, to answer Gomzee's question: I was "taught" it at the University level back in 1996, but got a typical university lecture on it (in other words, 5 minutes of useful stuff, 75 of examples) and learned a buttload more on my own from the period of about 1998 onward.

I designed a yin yang in photoshop for my kung fu teacher and another student saw it and said her husband needed help with his design and seo company and he taught me what he knew. if I start with a blank notepad thats usually what I end with LOL but I get by. I am learning more and more each day but there is so much it's overwhelming sometimes. thank the gods there are boards and people that are willing to take the time to help or I would still be in construction busting my butt instead of sitting on it all day.

Well, I trained horses all my life if that helps?...*grin*...thats true!
Ok, but I did make a very strange career change - from horses to "an IT Trainer"...when Id actually never switched a computer on.
I got accepted for the job, and raced out to buy a computer, with *OMG!!! INTERNET!!!*...I had a bumble around, and discovered a forum about Bryce3D - and thought "thats for me" - so, bought the program, and then discovered I coudnt just "show off my work" without a webpage.

After a year or so with Bryce, I got Poser and then Photoshop - and I was given the best compliment to this day - by being called "the queen of post" (postwork) in the Bryce forum, and won the Golden Tori for most improved artist - I do of course now realise they were just being very kind!

I am self taught in everything from my notepad HTML to my *ducks* Flash AS - I made use of friendly forums like this, but never asked anyone to "solve" anything for me, or write a code - just to point me in the direction of a good tutorial. I was happy to buy books when I could afford them, but more often I learn by trial and error. Im happy to say Ive never ripped off someone elses code, although I often emaild others and asked - "how do I leran that!!!!".

..and Im sorry Adam, but I *do* still use the <font> tag in my html....and I dont even know why thats' so dreadful, if it works?

Scotia - who thinks a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, but a lot of learning is never wasted - (oh, and I still class myself as a "newbie"...

Originally Posted by highanddry

Only a nub would still use the word "newbie," it's outdated.
haha, irony.

At the age of 34, and with a small, but successful self employed business, Im more than happy to call myself a "newbie" since I'll always appreciate those who know more - and never get above myself, after all, no-one is endeared by a know it all, are they?

Scotia

I grabbed the O'Reilly book read through it and started writing html pages.

The "Bill" O'Reilly book?
lawl

About 8 years ago we had one lesson in "how to design a website" at college. We were taught how to make rollover images, a super-awesome frameset and other Dreamweaver basics.

I got hooked, ditched Dreamweaver and went with Notepad all the way

After all these years though I still can't design tables in code - I still need Dreamweaver to layout my table on those very rare occasions I feel a table really is needed.

I like the lynda.com training videos, for some reason I learn way faster watching video then reading a book

When I was a wee child (8 or 9 I think, I'm 23 now) my brother took a design class and brought home what would now be considered an ancient html coding book. I found it fascinating and soon learned how to make sites using notebook, which I used up until last week when I finally broke down and bought dreamweaver (I only use it for the color coding I swear!).

When I was first starting I just downloaded simple pages, viewed their coding source and played around with it till I found out what did what. At that point I was using Gimp for image creation. After publishing my first site at age 11 (it was a crap site about FF7) I just kept doing my own sites yet never publishing them. Never took any courses on the stuff either which is why I still use tables .

Just graduated and got a job doing web design cause it's really what I love to do and the rest is yet to come.

You never stop learning.

I've never had any formal training on web design. I've went to a couple of conferences, but seminars really aren't helpful for newbies. For newbies, the best approach is experience. You can pick up some books (if they haven't become outdated yet), read online articles, look at other sites' code, etc. but you only really learn by doing it yourself.

I started learning when graphical web pages were the latest craze in the mid 90's. I picked up an HTML book and just started putting together different things for a person site. Everything was just trial and error and done for fun.

When the Web become more commercialized and my work required more professional web development, I just started reading more on web design. Table layouts and designing layouts for no more than 640 pixel widths were the way to go. I became a master at table layouts.

When CSS and XML rolled into the scene, it was like a revolutionary technology and standards development--but it was virtually impractical because most browsers couldn't render them properly. So you had to do CSS styles/table layout hybrids.

Now that most modern browsers have picked up the ball on CSS (for the most part), it's finally safe to move into fully CSS and standards compliance. Not only that, but hardware technology has changed. What was once standard and considered good web design is not necessarily true anymore--people have larger displays AND smaller displays (cell phones). Whereas I could do table layouts in my sleep, I now find myself a newbie again having to learn how to do complete CSS layouts. Not only that, you have to figure out test out all your old work and come up with new techniques whenever a new browser version is released.

I love learning new stuff. It's just a shame that what you previously learned and mastered has to be put in the trash.
Such is the nature of the IT field.

I learned from a Visual Quickstart Guide in 1997. It's been updated a few times since and is a bith thicker now it's at Edition 5!

I feel so young... Lol...

I started making real crappy sites on freewebs. (all complete rubbish ofcourse)
i think i ended up with over 10 accounts on there because of the webspace limit. ;p

i ended up getting codes and insertng then into the freewebs.

and at the time a friend "runs" a server. and i ended up getting a small free account on there.
WOW Actual webspace... wait wheres the nice WYSYWIG THING?.. Lol

i used to use WYSIWYG to kind of make the main layout for a site and then do most of the edits by hand using Frontage. this was before i kne XHTML exsited and come to think of it i dont think i had any clue what the W3C was either!

i used to learn loads by coping a sites. (i didnt know about server side...) and used to mess like that. and learnt quite alot... which now is mostly completely outdated.
like the font tag (which i honeslty dont think i have used for.. thinks oo over year!)

anyways i was making crappy site on my hosted space and around and went on to making a gallery for my pics. (this was around 2005) which in fact is still hosted XD http://dansgalaxy.co.uk/galleries

then i got dreamweaver (which i still have) and compeletey stoped using wysiwyg and now comepletely hand code.

in the past 6 month i think i have learnt the most, about html/xhtml the way the web works servers and php, and im happy to say (With SOO Much thanks to LNR!) im also making table less sites! woot.

and then i got reseller account and am now providing hosting.
i still have amazingly crap sites. because my design skills and graphic skills at almost non exsitant! - i need a very very cheap designer or one which will work for hosting space (apply overleaf)

im also doing a 4 week webdesign course in college (im 15 before u ask)
and on the first lesson i was like grr no no no no no no no TABLES!!!!! AAAAARGH

of course the guy was teaching us to do a simple Banner three collum design n DW "and then select the top cells, right click and click MERGE...." on the secoind lesson i recoded it into divs... and it looked the same
also teaching us Photoshop (CS3 version) which i ahve no clue with so the extra time it takes me in photoshop makes up the time i ave with coding...

ok i know i said loads but im almost done...

also picking p on a point someone else said. im so sick of people who are into web based suff which refuse to try to understand even basic stuff because its not what they do!,
because of a friend i now hate flash artists. sorry guys im sur ur not as arragant, obnocious, annouying, insulting.... as my mate...

again agreeing with what most people have said u can never not be a newbie (i like that word!) because technoligie and the web hanges so much u can never really know it all teres always soemthig else to learn/know/understand



Dan

Note: Wooo er i knew i had gone on a bit, i never realised it was that much.. sorry guys