Whether you’re a total amateur or a seasoned veteran, there will always be more to learn when it comes to website design. Luckily, there are plenty of free online education resources that can provide valuable guidance. This article will help you learn how to make a website by providing 12 top-notch (and free) web design tutorials in the following subjects:
01. Wix Learn: Velo
Although website builders enable you to design without coding skills, having them will give you more versatility in terms of what you can create and control over the resulting product. Velo is a tool that enables you to add custom functionality and interactivity to your Wix website with Javascript.
This Wix Learn course serves as the perfect introduction to Velo. It’ll take you step by step through the process of utilizing Velo, sharing valuable tips and tricks along the way. You'll explore its powerful features and the developer environment so you can add code and implement custom functionalities seamlessly.
Check out this explanation of the difference between web designers vs. web developers to find out whether web development would be a good path for you.
02. Wix Learn: accessibility
It's not enough to design aesthetically pleasing layouts; you also have to ensure that people with disabilities can use them effectively. Wix’s tutorial on accessibility provides guidance on creating inclusive websites. It covers topics like creating accessible navigation menus, ensuring proper color contrast and using alternative text for media. You will additionally learn about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines—which is widely considered the standard for web accessibility—and how to apply them to your site so that it’s usable by everyone.
03. W3Schools: HTML
This web design tutorial for beginners offers insight into the fundamentals of HTML, the standard markup language for creating web pages. W3Schools breaks down the tutorial into bite-sized chapters that focus on specific topics such as headings, colors, tables and emojis. This structure ensures that you won’t feel overwhelmed by information. Each chapter provides infographics, examples, quick references and exercises to make the learning process engaging.
If you find the teaching style effective, you might want to consider investing in the W3Schools HTML certification course. This course will offer more structure in your learning journey, providing a comprehensive and guided path to mastering HTML and enhancing your web design skills.
04. Wix Learn: Core Web Vitals optimization
Google’s Core Web Vitals are a crucial set of performance metrics for evaluating and measuring the user experience of web pages. They focus on three key aspects of web performance: page load speed, interactivity and visual stability. Google considers these metrics when determining the ranking and visibility of websites in search results, making them essential factors for website owners and developers to address.
This Wix Learn tutorial provides guidance on optimizing websites for Core Web Vitals, which are a set of performance metrics that Google uses to assess the user experience of web pages. You will learn practical strategies for improving page load speed, interactivity and visual stability. By following these optimization techniques, you can enhance your site's UX, improve SEO rankings and deliver better overall performance.
05. CareerFoundry: UX design
User Experience (UX) refers to the overall experience that a person has when interacting with a product, system or service. UX design aims to create meaningful and enjoyable experiences for users by focusing on their needs, goals and preferences.
CareerFoundry UX design tutorial for beginners not only aims to enhance your understanding of UX but also sets you on the path to becoming a skilled UX designer. Each tutorial is thoughtfully designed, offering video introductions, comprehensive text, interactive quizzes and optional practical tasks to reinforce your learning experience.
The course commences with foundational knowledge, empowering you to distinguish between good and bad UX practices. As you progress, you'll delve into the UX design process, exploring essential aspects like wireframing and testing. The section dedicated to the four main disciplines of UX design—experience strategy, user research, interaction design and information architecture—is particularly significant.
What truly distinguishes this web design tutorial is its focus on helping you determine if a career in UX design aligns with your aspirations. By the course's end, you'll gain valuable insights and tips for building a compelling UX design portfolio, ultimately paving the way toward a successful career as a UX designer.
06. DesignCourse: UI design
User interface (UI) is the means by which the user and a computer system interact. User interface design is the process designers follow to build interfaces in software, focusing on how it will look and function. UI is a foundational element of any product. Therefore, learning UI design skills should be among the first things you do when mastering web design.
In this web design tutorial, DesignCourse offers a fantastic overview of UI elements, such as typical content blocks, navigation menus and functional elements. Then, it shares recommendations on how to use those elements when building your own website. The course manages to offer dozens of practical rules in a short period of time, such as how to work with whitespace or develop effective color palettes.
07. Meta: front-end development
Front-end web development is the discipline within web development that focuses on creating the user interface of a website. This Coursera course by Meta is hands-on and will put you on the path to becoming a professional front-end developer. In addition to mastering coding languages like CSS and Javascript, you’ll learn to use design tools like React and Figma. At the end of the course, you’ll create your very own front-end application that you can share with future employers to demonstrate your capabilities.
What sets this web design tutorial apart from others in this list is you’ll gain access to the Meta Career Programs Job Board (which connects you to over 200 employers) upon completion. If you’re looking to make a career switch, this course offers the perfect opportunity to do so.
08. Clever Programmer: JavaScript
Whether you're just starting your Javascript journey or looking to take it to the next level, this 12-hour web design tutorial is perfect for both beginner and intermediate developers.
During this comprehensive course, you'll master the foundational concepts of Array and Object, enabling you to build powerful JavaScript applications. Through practical hands-on sessions, you'll create nine different JavaScript applications of varying complexities. These projects range from elementary apps to highly interactive games, providing you with a diverse set of skills and real-world experience.
09. freeCodeCamp: Bootstrap
Bootstrap has earned its reputation as the go-to CSS framework for web developers, so much so that many simply say "let's bootstrap it" when they want to create something swiftly and effortlessly. This powerful framework enables developers to design and customize responsive, mobile-first websites with ease.
In this tutorial from freeCodeCamp, you'll discover the essential features of Bootstrap that will propel your web development skills forward. You'll learn how to create efficient grid systems, which form the foundation of responsive design, allowing your sites to adapt seamlessly to various devices and screen sizes.
Moreover, you'll dive into using popular Bootstrap components like buttons, cards, icons and online forms. These components are pre-designed and easily customizable, saving you time and effort while maintaining a polished and professional appearance for your websites.
With the knowledge gained from this tutorial, you'll be well-equipped to leverage the power of Bootstrap and create stunning, mobile-friendly websites that captivate users and deliver an outstanding user experience.
10. Real Python: Python
This Python Basics tutorial is tailor-made for newer developers, ensuring a smooth and accessible introduction to Python programming with the guidance of experienced instructors. This comprehensive tutorial offers a variety of resources to ensure a well-rounded education, including instructional videos, downloadable materials, Q&A opportunities, access to a community chatroom, quizzes and exercises.
The tutorial begins by teaching you how to write Python code and effectively handle errors. You'll then learn valuable skills, such as understanding the purpose of specific variables and communicating with fellow developers using comments. A math lesson follows, covering essential topics like math functions and number methods.
As you progress, the tutorial delves into more advanced concepts, including functions, loops and scopes, while emphasizing their interconnectedness. You'll gain further insight into debugging your programs effectively, using conditional logic to make decisions and mastering the principles of object-oriented programming.
11. freeCodeCamp: responsive web design
Responsive design is a crucial approach in web design and development, aiming to create websites and applications that adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes, devices and orientations. It has become a de-facto standard in modern website design.
This hands-on course from freCodeCamp provides a comprehensive understanding of responsive design fundamentals, including key concepts like media queries and creating responsive containers using HTML and CSS. The course takes a practical and engaging approach, offering real-world assignments like building simple web apps like photo galleries or portfolio pages.
By participating in this course, learners will not only grasp the theoretical aspects of responsive design but also gain practical experience in implementing responsive techniques in real projects. This combination of theory and hands-on assignments empowers students to create visually appealing and user-friendly websites that perform flawlessly on any device or screen size.
12. Mozilla: web performance
Interested in learning how to design a website that not only looks great but also delivers lightning-fast performance? Performance optimization holds the key to achieving this goal. It's a discipline focused on enhancing the speed, efficiency and overall performance of a website. By identifying and addressing bottlenecks, inefficiencies and resource-intensive areas, performance optimization ensures that your website performs exceptionally well and meets user expectations.
Mozilla Corporation, the company behind Firefox browser, has created an extensive resource dedicated to improving the performance of web applications. In this guide, you'll learn essential techniques like measuring your web application's performance, maximizing the efficiency of media assets and optimizing CSS and JavaScript code. Additionally, the guide introduces the concept of performance budgets, which establish limits on various performance metrics to guarantee that your web applications remain fast and highly responsive.
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