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Published On: October 24, 2016
Author: Contributing Author

The Beginner’s Guide to Learning Website Development

There are tons of resources out there for learning website development, but it can become very overwhelming. Here's how I got my start developing websites.


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There are tons of resources out there for learning website development, but it can become very overwhelming. I remember feeling completely stuck and confused about where to start.

This article will go over the steps I took to get started in web development.

Do You Even HTML Bro?

The first thing to learn is HTML and CSS. To keep it short and sweet, HTML is the structure of the website where you add text, images, links, and so on. CSS is used to style the website and all of its content. If you had no CSS, your website would just be text and images on a blank, white background and look extremely plain.

Here is an analogy… because analogies are fun, don’t fight it! So HTML is like drawing an outline of a flower in a sketchbook, then CSS is where you would add color and texture to bring it to life!

Codecademy is where I got my start in web development. Here is a link that takes you straight to their HTML & CSS interactive tutorial: Learn HTML & CSS: Part I. Create an account, it’s free! It’s an awesome place for learning and you even gather points and badges along the way.

It’s Time To Get A Little Interactive

Definitely go through the tutorial above to get a good grasp of HTML and CSS before diving into this section. I would even recommend creating a variety of simple websites.

So this section is about Javascript. There is a lot you can do with CSS3 to make a website interactive, but you’ll need a language like Javascript to take it to the next level.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll just be going over jQuery. jQuery is a library that makes a website more dynamic by adding interactivity and animation.

If this is a little overwhelming, skip down to the next section where I talk about Bootstrap. There is definitely lots to learn with HTML/CSS before getting into Javascript and jQuery so don’t feel rushed!

Here is a link to Codecademy that introduces you to jQuery and Javascript: jQuery Course.

Rapid Website Development with Bootstrap

Bootstrap is my absolute favorite website development framework. According to the description on their website, Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS (Javascript) framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

So if you have played around with building your own practice websites, they are not mobile friendly unless you add the appropriate CSS styling to make the pages look right on all mobile devices. This is where Bootstrap comes in like a superhero. Bootstrap has a stylesheet full of classes that allow you to code rapidly while maintaining a responsive — or mobile friendly — website. This is a great area for playing around and their website ( http://getbootstrap.com/ ) is full of resources with elements you can copy/paste into your project. You can always manipulate those elements to give them the style you want. I’ll list some quick links below:

Use the above links for reference and to copy/paste some code to play around and familiarize yourself with how Bootstrap works. I would also recommend looking up Bootstrap tutorials on YouTube or Google, depending on if you learn better reading or watching videos.

Time To Regroup

I hope I’ve provided a great way to get started with website development! This was how I got my start!

For your start, get a superb grasp on how HTML and CSS work together to create good-looking websites.

When you get a good grasp on that, there are two directions I would point you. The first I would recommend is using Bootstrap. This comes with Javascript elements, but you can use the HTML/CSS portion of the framework to create some amazing and mobile friendly websites.

The other way is learning about Javascript and jQuery, which are powerful tools for interactivity and the use of animations. You will eventually learn it all, so go the route that comes easier and more naturally.

Most importantly, it’s all about having fun. Now go write some code and slap some art on the internet!

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Posted In: Challenges, Information, Resources, Website Design, Website Development