Web design track - feel like its all going right over my head.

Charles,

Congratulations for embarking on a super-exciting but never-ending journey! To help you learn more effectively I recommend never cutting-and-pasting, type all of the code out by hand, it will slow you down but it is great practice and you will eventually greatly speed up.

Shay Howe's material is an excellent supplement to what you are learning:

http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/

And when you have questions about HTML elements the W3C specification is high-level but a great resource (use CMD - F to search for specific tags):

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/

I would also suggest using http://W3Schools.com as they are an excellent web reference with lots of examples. Additionally, come up with a project idea and try to make it. The best way to learn is to apply it. You'll run into tons of questions that you'll have to research and answer. That is the absolute best way to grow.

If you have any friends who need websites, then volunteer to try making them one.

Hi Charles,

You're not alone, don't worry too much about it.
I think most people feel some what overwhelmed to begin with.

When I first started I didn't bother with trying to take notes, I just watched the lesson over until I got a grasp of the basics, if I ever got stuck on a challenge I would go back again and watch the previous lesson.
Once you get the hang of the very basics you will start to pick up things faster and faster.

I would recommend using sites like html dog or css tricks for referencing html and css, the're good sites to bookmark for the future too.

Above all, I'd say take your time and try to enjoy the lessons, the rest will follow.

Hope this helps.

Charles, don't give up. 6 months ago I was a COMPLETE beginner, and now I am fairly competent with CSS, HTML, and I've switched to learning Ruby on Rails, because I decided I want to learn how to code instead (but actually, all my html and css comes in massively useful - most people become 'full stack' developers without even intending to I think!).

Everyone has different study methods. Personally, I took copious notes whilst watching all of the tutorials. The Web Design track is a big one, particularly the CSS part, but I've got virtually ALL of it in note form.

The intention was to end up with a useful reference document, because I knew I wouldn't remember all of it, and that's exactly what I've got. And yes, it continues to be VERY useful!

I used Microsoft OneNote, but anything similar will do.

Tip number 2: setup a Codepen account. This is super-useful for playing around with while you're learning.

Pearl of Wisdom no.1: once you've learned all of this and become pretty good building your own responsive web pages, you'll never do it again - you'll use frameworks instead, like Bootstrap, for example. HOWEVER, you absolutely should go through this learning process anyway, because it's massively useful to be able to EDIT a framework and understanding how it's doing what it's doing. You'll be a much more powerful developer as a result.

Keep going. The learning never stops, but if you enjoy it, that doesn't matter!

As others have said, you're not alone. I've been at this Web thing for about a year - off and on - and every day still feels like I'm drinking from a fire-hose. Trying to learn this stuff on your own is really hard, because a lot of printed material - beyond basic HTML / CSS / JavaScript - is obsolete within a year. That being said, it's easy to get started and create something simple - but, it's really difficult to employ a stack of technologies in working harmony to create elegant Web Applications.

From my point of view, Web development is only getting more complex - with many different frameworks and libraries to choose from, there is a lot of overlap and no guarantee they will still be relevant tomorrow. This gets more to the deeper point that Web designers / developers need to learn how to learn, such that we can be technology agnostic and simply pick the best tool (subjective) for the problem we are trying to solve - to avoid over-engineering a solution.

Thank you so much for all these references. One of the best ways for me to learn is by seeing the same information presented from different sources, so these sites are invaluable. I think because I am a complete beginner, I get really excited when I think about learning to code, but then I get discouraged when I see how foreign I am to this territory, but it'll come in time. Definitely think its due time to start trying to build my first site.

Hey Charles,

You're very welcome. Your last sentence is probably the most important part. You have to dive in and start making mistakes and learning how to fix them. If you have any friends or family that want websites, then start making the sites for them. If you want to make some scratch, tell them to pay you whatever they think it's worth when it's finished. If you literally just want to build a portfolio, do it for free, ask them to give you a testimonial and start building out your portfolio site.

I collect testimonials from every client. They are powerful. I keep them organized by industry, so I keep all ministry related testimonials together, all ecommerce site testimonials together and so forth. Then, when I have a potential client, I show them what people in their industry are saying about me.

Thanks Andrew. I think Ruby will probably be next for me, once I've finished the Front End track.

I'm in this for the long-haul so hopefully I can return the favour at some point.

I just want to give everyone a big dose of encouragement. I'm no better than anyone else here - I started from ground absolute-zero 6 months ago, when I signed up for Treehouse, and I feel so excited now about what I can achieve. There seems to be no limit.

The cool thing about this, is that this kind of excitement seems to be exponential - the more you learn, the more exciting it becomes, probably because the more you learn, the more you can do. It grows like a big fat wedge of cheese.

To bite from.

Errr ok I'm done.