Where to start ?

Hello Everyone,

I'm not from a tech field but have become highly interested in website design over the past few months. In fact, my interest is so strong that it might prompt a career change at some point. But first, I need to get my feet wet in at least a "hobby" sort of way. Keep in mind, I'm a complete newbie.

WHAT I WANT TO DO: I know how to design basic websites, but I want to move beyond basic designs. I want to understand how to build elaborate online community sites with forums, news, databases, etc. My guess is that this will require an understanding of web servers, web databases, and a new type of programming language beyond html (php?). This is where I need help.

So, my question is... with what I want to accomplish (listed above), what are the specific tools I will need to learn? And where might I find the best resources to learn these tools?

Again, my interests only lie with website-related design and programming.

Thanks in advance, for any help you can provide.

Jadin

Well you just asked a mouth full. Here are few things you can do to get started:
- Look at every site you can and ask what do I like / what do I hate and WHY? Learn from every site out there.

- Decide what area of the design process you want to do.. Site Design, Web Programming, Graphics, Multimedia, Content Writer, or all ..

- Depending on how you learn I would then either read everything about those subjects, or find step by step tutorials and practice.

- Find some friends, business relationships, or find some design firms see if you can make something for them - For free if need be, this will help build a portfolio and real world experience.

- Build some web sites for yourself even if they never get published you will get the experience. Find subject you love to practice with so you do not go crazy while learning.

This should get you started....

Good Luck

Scott

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Scott B. Pier
Amalla International
ScottBP@amalla.com
http://www.amalla.com

Thanks, Scott. Good advice. And since I made my original post, I've already found lots of resources. In fact, once I dove a bit deeper into this site, I noticed that there are some good articles. From what I've seen, MySQL might be a good place to start. It seems that this is the most common database program for web sites. Its a start.

Hehe, most of what I'm reading is still about 75% confusing. But that an improvement from my 90% confusion a few days ago. Just gotta keep chipping away at it.

Jadin

I was in a similar situation about 1.5 years ago. Web design which had started as a hobby while I attempted to start my own business in a completely different field (chemistry). Sadly my business wasn't taking off as expected and I started getting requests from friends (for whom I made personal homepages) to make sites for their businesses.
Since I am a one-man show I am currently a jack-of-all-trades and master of nothing when it comes to webdesign.
I suggest you know how to code html in notepad before using Dreamweaver. Knowledge of JavaScript, Fireworks, Flash and Photoshop are further minimum requirements.
For back-end I use php and mySQL.

Also set up Apache, PHP and mySQL on your computer at home. Having to upload every script for testing will waste alot of time.

Mantas

Jadin,

Glad to hear things are getting better! Keep it up it does get easier. I would try to balance your time with the art and the science of this business. All code and no design, or all graphics and no application will make your life a bit tougher down the road.

"Also set up Apache, PHP and mySQL on your computer at home" ...

I can't agree more, once you find the development tools you want to use build a development computer at home. You will go crazy trying to upload every 2 seconds to see 1 code change. You can easily build an Apache, PHP, Perl, mySQL on a basic Win98 machine. I recommend using as close to the same configuration as your hosting company, so you do not have conflicts when you publish.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott B. Pier
Amalla International
ScottBP@amalla.com
http://www.amalla.com

Funny Dreamweaver came up because I was just playing around with the demo this weekend. I've used it before (and probably will again) but I do see the value in becoming familiar with the code. I think it just makes good sense to understand the nuts and bolts before you let a program take over those tasks.

I haven't done any installing yet but I did find the programs and documentation for Apache, PhP, and MySQL. Seems like those are the core components I'll need. I'll be setting them up on my home computer this week once I read up on them a bit. And I touched base with one of our tech staff at work who is more than willing to help me out a bit. He actually seemed fairly excited that I was interested in learning what he does.

I'm a bit overloaded with stuff to learn now... but it seems like I'm all set.

Thanks Scott & Mantas. If I have more questions, I know where to come!

Jadin

Ahh, the code... learn the code well and a great web master you shall be.

Honestly, being able to code without tools is a skill that is much desired. I program all my ASP/PHP/HTML/JavaScript/VBscript/SQL etc.. in Notepad, and it's very useful to have that intimate knowledge of coding. I can knock about 1/3 off a 14k Dreamweaver bit of HTML, that's a 1/3 faster download.. thing is, once I got to the stage of being able to visualize something and set it out in tables or CSS without needing Dreamweaver then I never wanted to use a WYSIWYG tool again. Hand coding for me is faster and cleaner. I'm not saying that it's for everyone though.

So after that little soap-box bit, here's what I was going to say. There's two major servers and two major parts to web design. You need to know client side and server side, nothing more and nothing less.

So you need to be savvy with a language for the client side, and this is easy. JavaScript is the answer, cross browser/cross platform, and only one language to learn. You probably picked up HTML and CSS as part of the hobby stage. Here the JavaScript Bible by Danny Goodman is a superb introduction, it's Oxford Dictionary size, but that's good... it's complete with all you need, and make a great reference when you've forgotten that simple thing like constructing a date (when you've been doing JavaScript for 7 years and someone asks something simple like that and you stutter it's embarrassing). Don't touch VBscript, simple as that.

That's client side... easy. Now server side, you need to know three languages of various levels. ASP and PHP for specific setups (unless you can get someone on IIS to put PHP on, unlikely with big big companies), learn PHP first (after JavaScript) as you'll notice how things are similar to JavaScript and thus you'll pick things up in no time. ASP is a different kettle of aquatic animals. The language constructs are odd (it's Basic based and not part of the Perl;C++;C;Pascal;Fortran;Ada progression) but make it your second server side language for those 'certain times'. Get a decent understanding but don't go OTT. Finally, you need to know SQL. You really really need to know SQL. Every database uses it, all server side languages serve SQL commands up and you'll use it a lot. Personally I'd say learn SQL from book, don't even bother with being in front of a PC, SAMS teach yourself SQL in 24 hours is about right, it does take 24 hrs, and only that to get a good understanding of it. I read the book in 5 hours, and I'm guessing I turned out alright at it.

And that's all you need:

JavaScript, a little ASP, PHP and SQL.
HTML and CSS for cosmetics.

Bookwise,
The JavaScript Bible - Danny Goodman
SAMS Teach Yourself SQL in 24hrs

Webwise,
http://www.php.net for the php manual (it really is all you'll need)
http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp for CSS/HTML/ASP
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/ for ASP

I agree with learning how to code by hand, if you can't get a grip on html/css you will never understand javascript or php. I disagree however, with flash being a "minimum requirement". I have never in my life seen a website that could not be made better by skipping the flash. It is bloated, and it removes the control from your end users by making them see what you want, not what they want. Nothing will scare off a site visitor faster than seeing "this page requires the flash 6.0 plugin". Good content will always endear people to your site rather than bloated flashy design (pardon the pun).

My 2 cents:

1:get comfortable with xhtml/css/javascript (xhtml because it is replacing html, and if you're starting from scratch, you might as well learn it right!). All these can be mastered without installing a server.

2:Install apache/php/perl/MySQL. There are many great tutorials that describe installing all these things at the same time. After you get your new development rig up and running explore php. If you are not familiar with your DOS prompt, you will have to be to run MySQL, unless you use a GUI front end which I discourage for the same reasons as why you should not use a WYSIWYG html editor.

3:Learn to weave all these technologies and tools together to make a truly killer website. This last point is the hardest, and may take several years depending on how much time you are willing to invest.

I cannot stress enough: start with the basic html/css and dont move on until you are comfortable with them, otherwise you will only confuse yourself more. A lame analogy: you must build the foundation before the walls, or they will fall.

I've preached enough. . .

Regarding Flash... couldn't agree more

I was just asked recently by someone to design them a flash intro, to which I replied that it wasn't worth the effort as people just bypass most flash because it takes vforever to load and is seldom worth it. The client replied by saying that he too bypasses flash, or only ever sees it once, so told me not to bother.

A completely Flash based site is often a pain also as suddenly UI and HCI principles fly out the window in favour of fancy flying fings. This makes sites difficult to use and slow.

I agree that Flash is used way to much...but I have found that more then half the people I talk to concerning a project want a Flash intro. So if you want to make a living doing this (webdesign) you should know how to use Flash unless you make enough money and can turn down projects.


Mantas

In my experience while I feel that a professional looking visually pleasing site is a must, I subscribe to the keep it simple philosophy. The more bells and whistles you add to a site the fewer people who can fully appreciate the site, and of those who can, not all of them will see what you put up live anyway. There was an article that broke down all the HTML tags and found that only about 30% are fully supported by all browsers / version. While it is most likely there is only one family left, living Bedrock using a MS IE Browser version 1.0 on a 286, we do need to be aware that not all visitors to your site are using big beefy computers on a high bandwidth connection running ME IE 6.x at a screen resolution of 1280 by 768. This is why I have found that for me and my clients I typically recommend building sites that 90% of the people can see and use.

I think flash, java apps and other cool things are great and look cool, I would recommend that unless the application requires the use of one of these tools you try to take into account what if...... And plan on the visitor using a PII 400 with 64 megs of ram on a 33.6 dialup connection with a ME IE 4.x browser at 600/400 resolution.

When starting out I found that it was easier to learn how to make static pages and static site first so that I could understand the process when making a dynamic site. There are a lot of companies that need a basic web site and these typically will be completely static. I found this much easier to code dynamic content once I understood all of the pieces of a site.

On WYSWYG / Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools like DreamWeaver, I feel that they are great resource for building some of the smaller more stock sites. It is also a great resource to learn how to code the HTML you want. For example create a table in DreamWeaver and then look at the code used to make the table. While most of my coding is done in a text editor I still will use DreamWeaver for a static site.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott B. Pier
Amalla International
ScottBP@amalla.com
http://www.amalla.com