The hardest thing about deciding to study something about which you know absolutely nothing, is knowing where to begin.
I wanted to learn something about designing websites. Not so much so I could build my own, but so I could have an intelligent conversation with the people who would be building it for me, namely my husband and my brother.
I checked out a dozen books from the library, but just narrowing down where to start was frustrating. Thankfully, with my husbands help (“Don’t read that one, it’s worthless. This one’s really good though,”) I finally honed in on a couple that I really liked. I thought I’d share them with you so in case any of you want start your education in web design, you – like Dorothy – will know where to look to find the beginning of the yellow brick road:
This is a great primer in HTML, CSS and XHTML. Most books I looked at excelled only as sleep aids. This one was different. It was actually fun, in a geeky kind of way. Very engaging.
This would be good to tackle after the Head First book, because it assumes basic knowledge of HTML. If you already know HTML, then this is a good one to check out because it helps you build sites with the minimum amount of coding.
This is a fabulous introduction to website usability. You’ll never surf the web the same way again.
This is an excellent all around training website. You can start your training with HTML, then continue with CSS, XHTML, Java, etc… It’s a pretty dry in its presentation, but effective, and very well organized. Plus, it’s free and that’s always a good thing, right?
Keep in mind that these are references for complete novices only. If you already have a working knowledge, then these might not work for you. Then again, they might. Either way, good luck!
Rebrandable Content said,
June 15, 2009 at 10:25 am
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