Hello people. I’ve been learning how to make websites for years, but never actually made a real website that I’ve been proud of. I’ve made one or two good designs but never actually got to create the html and css for it. I’ve read hundreds of tutorials and still don’t have the courage to create a site.
Right now, I am sitting finally down again in front of my screen, this time I plan to create a porfolio for myself to add my graphic design work and some animations that I like to make. Will also like it to become a web design portfolio in the future once I actually make one. I’m sitting now and staring at my blank photoshop canvas. I have no idea where to start. I tried creating a wireframe on paper, but it looked like crap. I need guidance from you experts. I’m pretty artistic and like to think outside of the box. Every design that comes to me is either to generic or the exact copy of another site I’ve seen. IDK why I have to be so unique, but maybe I should try to start off simple since I am only a beginner. I was thinking on reading the book from sitepoint “Principle of Beautiful Web Design” but IDK if that will help me. What do you guys think I should do?
Edit: I think my real question is, what do you guys do when you’re first planning a website. I know the idea doesn’t come outta nowhere. Do you guys look at galleries and stuff? IDK if I can ever become a web designer/developer that I want to be if I can’t even make a site that I want to make.
Speaking from the perspective of someone who has only dabbled with the creative process, but spends a lot of time looking at web and email design to critique, I think you can take a two-prong approach to this.
Get wise. Read Sitepoint books, learn from graphic designers about using the grid for layouts, typography, choosing an effective palette, using Photoshop tools. You can never be too technically proficient.
Get away from your computer and find things that resonate with you. Go for a walk, visit a physical art gallery, take photos, sit down with other designers. In the past I’ve asked other folks about where they’ve found inspiration for their designs - one told me that he found ideas for a site by looking at the branding used in a cafe up the road. Personally, I’ve found a lot of inspiration by looking at everything from aviation magazines to 1930’s architecture, so to expect that ideas will just ‘come’ to you by staring at Photoshop is quite ambitious.
Don’t forget that everyone has to start from somewhere and no-one is an expert overnight. So keep pushing your limits and eventually, you’ll develop a style and voice that’s unique to you.
Layout, content, and interface driven by the best workflow to maximize conversions. This will create a necessity for a certain set of visual language in the site, and will constrain the spectrum of what you can do stylistically.
Concept & character, driven by the company’s brand & design guidelines, and/or the website’s theme/purpose.
Sound advice Max, it’s apparent you can design but you haven’t really applied any practice regarding markup and CSS.
So forget the ‘design aspect’ for the moment and embrace the semantics roll up your sleeves and start with some simple markup demos from a good quality beginners book. See how things look from that side first. Then when you understand function you can get more creative or see what is more feasible design wise.
Thanks everyone for the great advice. I will continue reading “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design” and try to create a basic layout using only html/css. I will def come back here with more questions.
Do you happen to know of a good book that teaches you how to design in Photoshop, and then how to slice it into CSS/XHTML? I feel like I’m decent at CSS, but have no idea how to design in Photoshop. I’ve searched a great number of books and none seem to cater to this area of web design.
I bought one a long time ago as an ebook. It’s something like from photoshop to html and css by Jeffrey Way. He also has videos and stuff, and it’s pretty good. I’m looking for more though.
I just bought smashing css from the store from Eric Myers. I have The CSS Anthology from sitepoint already but I was looking for something a bit more advanced. I need another book for design process of a site, rather than the coding part. Any suggestions? Oh and sorry for the double post.
Not that this helps, but since you are asking about design. Here is a website I like css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design, it is basically 6/7 different websites with the exact same content built differently all using CSS code. Just to give you an idea of everything that is possible!
First try to learn the rules that other designers follow, then you can break them. I suggest not just reading the tutorials, but do them and keep track of 2 or 3 techniques that you learned. Afterwards try to use some of the techniques on a mock site. It probably won’t look pretty at first, but you are training your mind to remember the techniques and once you have that method down, you can start breaking the rules.
For example: In art class we would have to study and copy the way of the master painters. At first it seemed stupid, but after a while new styles and ideas formed from them.
Yes copying isn’t usually a good practice, so if you are building for a client, or something that goes live, don’t copy. But if it is strictly for learning purposes, there is nothing wrong with trying to redesign a site or follow someone’s tutorial.
Remember it takes patience and practice, but eventually you will wake up and everything will just click. Good luck!
What type of rules do you mean? And I do try to learn the techniques I pick up from tutorials.
What I’m mostly looking for a book/tutorial that is on the process of creating a whole site from the planning stage all the way to the browser compatibility check and finally result. That includes stuff like choose what type of layout, color scheme, etc.
Google Nettuts and webdesigntuts. This is where I learned a lot of techniques. Many of the tutorials are video based and cover the process from design to CSS.
The only way you’ll get good at this, just like any other creative endeavour, is practice. Keep building sites. Your first one will be unoriginal and badly made. Figure out what’s wrong. Do another. Then do another twenty. Then another twenty. Make a news website. Make a blog. Make an online shop. And so on.
None of these sites have to go live. None of them have to be for anything real. But you have to do them.
I’m a writer as well as a designer. A writer will tell you that you need to write 500,000 words or a million words before you write anything worth being published. It’s practice, with a critical eye to make everything you do better than the previous one. The same is exactly the same with web design. You have to keep practicing and keep making sites better.
Every great designer produced some terrible, unoriginal sites before they designed anything worthwhile. Everyone wants there to be a shortcut, but there isn’t. You can’t sit there being unhappy with what you’re doing and so do nothing. You have to do those bad sites until you make a good one.
So that’s my only advice. Build sites. Throw them away. Build more. Then, one day, you’ll realise that you’re building sites that are better than most out there.
And, to add, you’ll learn the HTML and CSS as you do the building of the sites. You’ll find problems and you’ll find ways to solve them. Yes, get a good basis in HTML and CSS from books (not online tutorials; you need real books or you’ll miss some core concepts), but then learn how to apply that HTML and CSS in real-life situations by practice and asking questions. Even if you hate a design, build it, and you’ll learn something.
Try to do something new in coding each website. Learn a new technique. Try different selectors. Challenge yourself to use less code to achieve the same thing.
Practice! I felt the same way. I had years of self-taught experience but could never make a full fledged site from scratch and be proud of. Then I realized I wasnt trying hard enough, and was just taking short-cuts.
I sat down one morning, and said “Im going to learn how to make a website with HTML/CSS.” and thats how it started. Take an hour or two each morning/day/night to seriously SIT there and do nothing but follow tutorials or even get a book.
I feel the same way when it comes to practice. You need to practice when you get the opportunity. I learnt website design html, css, and a bit of javascript just by reading on some websites and just working on my own website. I started of on web design programs and now I am creating websites with no program and by scratch. It is all about practice and knowing what is right and what is wrong when it comes to website design. Just work hard and keep pushing on and you should be able to learn it rather quick if you work hard.
