Web Design Tools

Want to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript or web app languages but don’t know where to start? Here we present the best places for web design training online. The thought of designing a website can be daunting. Just the sheer amount of acronyms used can make it seem scary and confusing. But don’t worry – help is at hand in the form of easy to understand, web design training resources on the web.

That said, there are many approaches to web design training – some paid, some free; some interactive, some not; some based on text, others on video. Which means it can even be an uphill struggle working out where to get started getting started!

To make things easier for you, we’ve gathered the best 10 web design training resources on the web. All have a good reputation and feature instruction and advice from web design’s leading experts. The only thing left is to decide which one’s the best fit for your needs…

01. Don’t Fear the Internet

hische Web Design Tools

Don’t Fear the Internet is the brainchild of freelance typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische, and is aimed at similarly creative people who have little to no desire to do web design professionally – but at the same time don’t want an ugly cookie-cutter site showcasing their work.

Through short tutorial videos, you’ll learn how to take a basic WordPress blog and manipulate the CSS, HTML (and even some PHP) to match your aesthetic needs. So if you’re scared off by web design terminlogy and general geekdom, but like the idea of a more casual, good-humoured approach to learning, this is a great place to begin. The site is free to use, although donations are welcomed.

02. Treehouse

Treehouse is another video-based service, offering web design training in HTML and CSS, web development (including HTML5 and Javascript) and creating iOS apps (using Objective-C and Xcode), all wrapped up in a clear and easy-to-navigate user interface.

Treehouse charges a subscription for its services, but the videos are very professionally produced, and you get a wealth of lessons covering almost every aspect of web design and development.

Not only does Treehouse provide great content but there’s also a game element to the site that tests you on what you’ve learned and rewards you with achievement badges. So if you need extra motivation to learn, this is a great site to use.

03. W3Schools

While the first two sites on our list look colourful, attractive, and welcoming, with their use of video and colourful graphics, W3Schools may look at first glance a bit off-putting, its layout seemingly overladen with text and dozens of unfamilar acronyms. But don’t be put off!

If you’re looking to start from the beginning with the most basic lessons in HTML and CSS, the site offers a steady progression of interactive tutorials that explains everything in plain and simple language and, more importantly, lets you play with markup live on the site, so you can see what effect the tiniest changes can have on how a web page appears in the browser.

There’s been some criticism of the site by W3Fools, which has pointed out some technical errors in some of W3Schools’ lessons. However, for a beginner who doesn’t know quite where to start with HTML and CSS it still provides a straighforward (and free) way to get going.

04. Codecademy

Codecademy describes itself as the ‘easiest way to learn how to code’ and has established a great reputation for itself within the web design community. This free web design training resource runs through the path of building websites, games and apps in an engaging way, easing users in gently with a very basic first lesson.

The site also features a social network aspect, meaning users can interact with and learn alongside friends and colleagues. And, like Treehouse, the team at Codecademy also understand the power of a badge, offering them at various key points in the training.

05. Mozilla School of Webcraft

No, we haven’t added a rogue Harry Potter game in the list. The Mozilla School of Webcraft is part of an open education programme at the online community for learning, Peer to Peer University.

The site offers a host of free web design training courses, including ones in CSS, PHP, and HTML. It also features various challenges to test your skills: for example, Challenge 101 will help you create your own basic website from scratch.

06. Code School

Code School’s approach is to help users learn by doing, through interactive video and coding in the browser. This web design training comes at a price but, in our opinion, it’s very reasonable.

For just $25 a month, this fee gives users access all areas to the school’s entire training content. But this is not just for individuals, there’s also the option for buisnesses to enrol entire teams on training courses – an offer that the likes of IBM and NASA have already taken advantage of.

07. Udacity

Want to learn how to build a simple web browser in just seven weeks? Or how to build a search engine like Google? Well, with Udacity you can do both and best of all the training is absolutely free and is led by expert professors from Stanford and the University of Virginia.

For anyone interested, courses are not offered on-demand. Instead, prospective students can visit the website for a class schedule and enrol accordingly.

08. Code Racer

It’s not web design training in the traditional sense, but for something completely different, check out Code Racer. Here you have to race to finish code before your enemies, use special weapons to foil their progress and win awards along the way! An interactive and fun way to learn the fundamental skills of HTML and CSS.

09. Rails for Zombies

If you want to learn to build websites, you’ll probably be looking to study HTML, CSS, and JavaScript first. But if it’s apps you want to build, you may be better off starting with a web application framework such as Ruby on Rails.

This is generally considered a taller order than learning website markup, but to make it easier, and a lot more fun, the aforementioned Code School have created Rails for Zombies. You’re taken through five zombie adventures, each followed by exercises where you learn by programming Rails in your browser. And best of all, it’s free!

10. Stackoverflow

And finally… Stackoverflow is not in itself a place to learn web design, but it is an invaluable resource for anyone learning any web design language. Put simply, it’s a question and answer forum where some of the brightest minds in the web design community give up their free time to help those who have got hopelessly stuck.

So if you ever hit a wall and just can’t get your head around something you’re learning, or have written some code that just doesn’t seem to be working, this is a great place to get help and advice from some old hands (and once you get more confident in your own skills, make sure you pay it forward and help out some newbies yourself…).