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HTML

Shay Paustovsky
Shay Paustovsky
969 Points
Posted by Shay Paustovsky
Shay Paustovsky
969 Points

Ideas for small projects

Hello,

So I had just finished HTML & CSS Basics courses and heard Guil saying the best way to learn is to be an active learner, engage in forums/discussion/coding reviews, build small projects, etc... Unfortunately I don't have any ideas for small project I can start coding if some one could suggest any ideas / any experience in this situation would immensely assist me.

3 Answers

Dvontre Coleman
Dvontre Coleman
13,075 Points
Dvontre Coleman
Dvontre Coleman
13,075 Points

Have you made a portfolio page?

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

Have a look around the internet for inspiration. :-)

Google is always a great place to start. But here's a couple more ideas.

Have a look at Briefbox who have a lot of free and paid plan ideas for project briefs. Have a look and seed if there's anything that interests you there.

Or if you wanted to look closer to home, maybe you could take a peek at the TechDegree curriculum for Front End Wev Development. Now, of course the precise details of those are only available to paid TTD students but the titles alone will give you idea for things you might want to build.

The very best thing you can do for inspiration is have a look around.

Good luck!

Shay Paustovsky
Shay Paustovsky
969 Points
Shay Paustovsky
Shay Paustovsky
969 Points

Thank you Jonathan!, It's just every time I proceed to open a text editor I encounter the 'blank slate' syndrome. Any ideas how can I counter it?

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

Hi Shay,

I know exactly where you're coming from with the blank slate syndrome. :)

Unfortunately few of us (especially me) have a photographic memory. I'd love to think that I could just think of an idea and then just code it from start to finish without some of planning or paperwork. But the reality is that design and planning is as much part of the Web Design process as spending time building your website with a text editor.

Bear in mind that Web Design is a creative industry so there's not necessarily a 1 single solution that works for everyone.

What has helped me over the years though is something like this

  • Ideas generation. Spend some time making lists of ideas or concepts you think will be relevant to your concept. Or maybe you need to come up with a concept on its own. This could be post it notes or mind maps that you can then bring together in an organised list. Suddenly, there's your idea. You have something to build on.

For this stage I cannot recommend a website like Workflowy enough. I use this website to basically organise my brain and keep it everywhere I go.

  • Sketching For the longest time I went back to simple pencil and paper for this but my drawing skills aren't the best ;) But this is the stage where you make the "bluprints" for your web site or application. Flesh out how you think your project is going to look. If you're on a Mac you might use an app like Sketch for this but I prefer to use Balsamiq Mockups for this. It's a fantastic tool for wireframing your projects and if you've never heard of it before I recommend you check it out.

  • Photoshop - Then I might go ahead and start building drafts on a graphics package like Fireworks or Photosho. This will help give you a visual understanding of what your site will eventually look like.

  • Build - The fun part. :)

I hope this will give you some ideas for how to beat "blank slate" syndrome :)

Shay Paustovsky
Shay Paustovsky
969 Points
Shay Paustovsky
Shay Paustovsky
969 Points

Hi Jonathan,

I cannot stress this enough thank you so much for helping me. I wasn't sure about whether to go with JavaScript or Design course, eventually I've decided about Design.

Again thank you so much, and have a good day,

Shay