Is it not too late to become Web Designer?

Simply no, it's not too late. While this field is full of young, bright, and talented kids, there is room for everyone.

The great thing about the field of design is that it doesn't really rely on any particular schooling or education. So you can learn it at any point in your life and apply it.

The PHP you would be doing for design is nothing math oriented. As long as you are comfortable with basic algebra you really shouldn't have a problem. The only time when complex math is involved is very specific algorithms used to sort data or work with specific data types. None of that will be needed for what you are interested in.

Your list of what you need to learn is completely accurate, the only thing I would add is some jQuery as well. That along with javascript is the best way to make things "move" on your site. Dropdowns, animations, fading in and out, etc. While CSS3 is now allowing these to happen as well, it's not as well supported in some browsers.

There was recently a thread on the math as well explaining that it's really not that important. Also a thread on learning to do this and the number thrown out was around 500 hours to learn. You could do a quick search for more info on those.

+1 to Jake's post! What a great responnse! :)

Anyone who tells you you're too old to learn something new is merely voicing a stereotype that has been disproven time and time again. Your passion to learn something new is all that matters. Let me tell you something too that might put your mind at ease.

People assume the younger generation is tech savvy, and to a point, they are. They are masters of technology consumption. They can pickup new devices and learn them inside and out with relative ease since their minds are wired that way. But if you ask one of these persons to actually DEVELOP and DESIGN technologies (ie, create a relational database with referential integrity or code a e-commerce web application designed in a load-balancing environment) they don't know the first thing what to do. They are CONSUMERS of technology, not PRODUCERS (of course, this isn't true for everyone, some break the mold)

If you want to get into web, understand that the role is often twofold. Design AND Development. You need to have the best of both worlds. A beautiful website that does nothing is like a beautiful person who you have no common interests in; looks great, doesn't do anything amazing for you. Also, a site that can do backflips but is about as designed as a block of wood will also fail to impress anyone.

You have a good game plan setup. Learn HTML, then CSS. From that point I would recommend Javascript (preferably jQuery-related functionality) and then choose a server-side language. Though PHP is popular and readily available on most hosts due to it's low-to-no cost, I personally found Adobe's ColdFusion to be an EXCELLENT alternate. It has tag-like syntax to HTML which makes comprehension much easier than PHP's Javascript-like syntax.

You nailed it right on the head; you gotta do what makes you happy; hopefully the money will be there too, but to be in a job you dislike or find unfulfilling robs you of much more than it provides.

And don't sweat the math thing. Design and Development are about PROBLEM SOLVING. Be it in ColdFusion or PHP or the design on a UI, they are merely tools used to help you solve an issue.

Wow those are some great replies. Thank You very much. My mind is a bit at ease now.

There is one thing that Aaron mentioned and it got me thinking...Yes there are web developer's and web designers and thats why i have one more doubt. Lets say i master the HTML,CSS and learn a bit of PHP and JavaScript:

1)Will i be able to "solo" create good sites on Wordpress for clients? (thinking about making my own customized theme's + some basic extra funcionality + wordpress CSM)

2)What about classic way of doing websites? Can i make "moving" sites for smaller companies alone or i will need a web developer to help me with it? (not thinking about e-commerce etc, just basic functionalities)

3)Would basic knowledge of Photoshop and Flash (already know flash a bit) be useful for me?

And the last thing, what exacly is "SEO"? I know its some kind of site positioning via search engines, but are there some tutorials how to do it? Is it a knowledge i also must aquire?

Thank You again for Your interest and sorry for so many new questions but those are the last things that bug me a bit and i would really appreciate if someone could explain it to me.

Also forgive me for grammar mistakes, English is not my primary language.

p.s. Gonna check on ColdFusion, got me interested.

1. With mastery of HTML and CSS, and an interest in designing Wordpress Themes, the only other tool you really need to get good at is Photoshop. On top of that, knowing good design principles would enable you to make amazing themes. If you want to do more than just make Wordpress Themes (say instead also be able to develop Wordpress Sites), PHP would be the better language for you, as I believe WP is based on PHP. So just get familiar with their API and in time, you'll easily have that under your belt.

2.What's a "moving" website? Remember, your ASL (Application Server Language, in this case, PHP) is what lets you do amazing things with websites. ASL's, in the end, output HTML and CSS and Javascript. Some basic things you'll want to touch on with an ASL are: Interacting with a Database (what we call CRUD - C.reate, R.ead, U.pdate, D.elete) and possibly managing user sessions (to allow you the ability to make websites where you track users who "login" to your sites).

1. Heck yeah to PS, Not so heck yeah to FL. Flash, IMO, is on its way out. Adobe has been trying to make it more and more accessible and standards-compliant, but I honestly think that if you want to have some form of media presentation, getting into HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities should suffice.

SEO is Search Engine Optimization. They are "best practices" that help to promote your website through various methods such as Indexing Services (which make your site return higher when people search for keywords) and promote clean and user-friendly URLs. A bad URL is like:

www.domain.com/function/index.php?session=123&login=%5do

A good URL is like:

www.domain.com/blog/2013/january/14/newly-released-wordpress-themes

No worries about the questions. When I got started, a couple sayings came to mind:

"I do that which I cannot do in order that I may know it" —Albert Einstein "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm" — Winston Churchill.

When I was just learning these things, I had nobody to teach me in the manner I was accustomed to. But there were people here and there who had been where I was and took the time to offer that invaluable experience with their feedback; so I had made a promise to myself that "As I acquire knowledge of my own steam and at the experience of others, I will offer that experience to those who have not yet been where I am in the spirit of those before me" :)

The short and skinny on ColdFusion (CF) is this. For a host, PHP is free, so they offer it. It's a great language that is very powerful and has a syntax very similar to Javascript.

ColdFusion is not free (for hosts). In fact it can cost from $800 to $5000 depending on the version you're running, so there's an initial expense for hosts in order to offer it. As a developer, you can download the "Developer Edition" from Adobe for FREE. It has all the features that the ENTERPRISE edition has (vs. the Standard edition) but comes with 1 major limitation: It allows for no more than 2 concurrent connections to your website. This is usually fine for development locally because really only you are accessing the site (or your mobile/tablet device as a second authorized user)

In the event a 3rd person attempts to connect, they are refused; but if you want the 1st or 2nd person's "session" to expire, you simply restart the local ColdFusion server and boom, the next 2 people can connect to the server.

CF is VERY easy to pickup since it's syntax is like HTML. It uses "cf-prefixed" tags. For example, if you wanted to loop from 1-10 and display the number:

[cfoutput][cfloop from="1" to="10" index="i"]#i#[/cfloop][/cfoutput]

Suppose you ran a query called "results" that has a "name" field and you want to display that? Many CF tags have alternate attributes to do the same thing. We can again use the cfloop tag to handle this (I have to replace the less than/greater than with [ and ] because this site messes with it)

[cfoutput][cfloop query="results"]#name#[/cfloop][/cfoutput]

Pretty simple looking eh? When you look more and more into the powerful end of CF, you'll see why they call it a RAD ASL. (R.apid A.pplication D.evelopment) Cause you can do many powerful things quickly and easily.

Sir...i bow before You. Thank You very much for so many useful information's, im gonna print screen all those answers because they are so useful!

Team Treehouse seems like a great place, full of great people. And yes my main interest and goal is to be Wordpress Designer (theme's) and Developer (sites from scratch) so im gonna mostly focus on HTML,CSS,THEN some PHP and JS with jquery along with photoshop here and there..phew thats a lot of stuff but cant wait to grasp all of it:). Oh yeah and gotta find some tutorials about SEO too! Somehow i got hooked to WP and very interested to learn in that direction.

I have no knowledge about programming yet but CF looks really interesting, i will give it some attention in the future.

If i ever will be on advanced level in the future i also promise myself to help others, this is how it should work anyway imho :)

You sound like you have a very good game plan set in front of you. Just don't overwhelm yourself! There's so much out there, and there's a reason why Web Designer and Web Developer are 2 separate careers (because it's rare to ever find 1 person who can master both)

I'm glad I come off as helpful. I'm only here for a month; trying to learn as much from Treehouse as I can, heh heh heh. Enjoy me while I last!

Hi I am also in the same boat as ?ukasz Bu?k (28 years old) and this thread has give me more motivation to learn as much I can with Team Treehouse. I am looking to improve my web design and learn mobile app design, as I believe mobile websites and apps are blowing up right now.

Thanks guys.

And success to us all.

I'd say you are not TOO OLD! I am 36, yes, I am learning/improving some skills, but all my experience in the past has not gone to waste, it is still valuable and can potentially be reapplied to a new career.

I can only add the same advice. I'm now 47, am adding these skills to a largely non-tech career. I started by learning VB.net to create a desktop software package almost ten years ago. I'm now moving to Android/Java programming, with the goal of eventually working at least half-time in coding/development. Theoretically, most coding/development jobs are awarded mostly on demonstration of practical skills and accomplishments, making it a slightly more egalitarian work environment.

Thanks for replies. Definetely gonna give it my best to learn everything even tho im not that good at "math" and stuff.

@?ukasz

1) Henry ford said, "You're never too old to learn. Once you stop learning, then you become old"

2) I taught myself to do Html, then CSS, then Wordpress (the wordpress codex will tell you all). -- After joining treehouse to brush-up, learn some new things, etc. -- I realize that you will be able to learn from them a LOT faster than it took me to learn.

3) Practice. -- the only way to learn to design well (or anything well) is to practice. a lot.

In addition to learning web stuff here, it is good to google for Photoshop and Fireworks tutorials (for example, find a tutorial that shows you something like this http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/glossy-emblem-text-effects-photoshop_tutorials/ )

4) look at other designers' work. http://bestwebgallery.com/ is good... there are many others. Learn to copy what they do. -- eventually, you'll be able to put all that knowledge together and start experimenting on your own. Maybe you'll say, "well.. that text shadow effect is okay, but it looks a bit cheesy... what if I change the color and spread a bit, and off-set this a bit... yeah. that looks a lot better" -- done. you've just started "owning a skill".

5) Ask for help. Have friends and colleagues who are into the same stuff. There's always perspective that you can provide, and always knowledge and perspective others can provide. Asking questions and making people talk about this stuff will get even the most seasoned vets to reconsider what they know, or expand their understanding.

6) to the non-literate, websites and wordpress all look daunting... but once you understand what is going on, it's pretty straight-forward. The REAL FEAR, is fear of the unknown.

--by the way, it sounds like you work with some salty and jealous people. It's hard not to let it get to you, but focus on the important part.

7) The (VERY QUICK AND BASIC) way to make a wordpress theme is to:

a) (plan) b) make a design mock-up. (To keep it simple, just make it a header, footer, sidebar, and a main area where the content goes.) c) Create the HTML and CSS to make the page. d) swap-out some of the code and paste-in "The Loop" (the wordpress junk that shows your posts and pages). e) make sure your style.css has the appropriate stuff, add a PNG, zip, and upload. done.

NOTE this would make a VERY rudimentary theme, it would have the same layout from page to page, and not include any of the features (like nav menues, widgets, etc.)

BUT... that's really the basics of a theme. (index.php, style.css, thumbnail.png).

Once you complete the "smells like bakin" site, you could turn THAT into a wp theme. (just to play with).

It's out-of-date (2008), in therms of current WP tags, but here's the tutorial I followed to learn: http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/complete-wordpress-theme-guide

I'm sure there are many better ones, and Treehouse is rolling out a tutorial on that too.

@Alexander

Thats some excellent and well writtent post, thank You. Many useful links, very much useful info about Wordpress that im most interested in atm. Also its very encouraging:)

P.S. Just curious about Your surname, what country are You from?

@Łukasz - My dad is from Poland (I assume with a name like yours, and that you're asking about Sobieski, that you are too). - I have been several times, but I was born/live in the US.

Do you live there now, or are you elsewhere?

-a

if you love what you do and it drives you then its never late!!. You should just be passionate about it and have fun