I recommend doing Front End Web Development track first :D

It teaches HTML, CSS and Javascript which gives you a really solid foundation for Wordpress development.

In the end it is up to you. Most tracks will lead you in the right direction, just do choose something like Android Development :P

I'd recommend Front End Development since you already know a bit of HTML & CSS. There are some courses that are useful in the Web Design track too but you can complete them later individually if you feel like. :)

I don't know how familiar you are with the underlying concepts of different things so I'll break it down very basically in case you're at the "pfft, I have no clue" stage but even if you already have a general understanding it may benefit some others.

With wordpress you could set up a wordpress site with 0 knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes and you can move forward with just that and never really have a problem. Purchase a domain, setup a wordpress.org site and get rolling.

But setting up and using wordpress -- whether you know nothing about building a website or even if you already knew all the HTML and CSS and JavaScript that goes behind regular website development-- is an entirely different animal from actual development. So whether you know nothing or know all that other stuff, you still have to learn how to use Wordpress itself. So the way I see it you have a couple of choices...

Track 1

Learn WordPress - This track is designed to teach you all about setting up and running a wordpress site. It teaches you the actual operation and maintenance of the CMS(content management system) that is WordPress. It goes through registering a domain, installing WordPress and then covers all the stuff in the Admin Panel which is where you as the site owner will be doing all the stuff that you need to do on your site like managing posts, dealing with comments, creating menus and navigation categories, installing themes, accessing all the different options and such.

It also covers things you need to consider in regards to your content as in how to create a plan for content development and how to manage your site/blog as well as how to find all the answers to questions you may have by using the WordPress Codex. This has no actual coding involved. It's all about using WordPress. This of course you must know if you want to actually develop for WP.

Then...

Track 2

PHP Development - WordPress is mainly PHP based. In order to develop for WordPress you will have to know the basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript since those are the core 3 languages of the web as a whole, but WP specifically uses the backend language of PHP for all of its core bells and whistles for its themes and plugins.

In this course you WILL be taught the HTML, CSS and JS(edit: actually the PHP track only has JQuery basics so you'll want to use the supplementary list below to learn JS) just as you would in the Front End Development Track and Web Design track. They have the some of them same exact deep dives in there for those languages -- including the JQuery deep dive.

The difference is that this course, for the design aspect, only gives you the basic foundational knowledge of CSS, HTML and JS. If you want to learn the more advanced stuff -- which you will seeing as how you want to develop for WordPress -- you'll have to take additional deep dives in those areas to get the deeper understanding -- the really cool stuff -- for those.

Those additional deep dives would include

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Supplementary

For HTML

• HTML Forms - You're gonna need to know how to build and style forms. It's a big part of WordPress development and you'll be using the PHP & JS to make those forms work(interact with the user and the server)
• HTML Tables - Tables... learn em, love em. Don't abuse em lol.
• HTML Audio & Video - Media is a huge part of the web and not knowing the basic skills of how to implement them on a web page will be detrimental. It also gives you some foundational knowledge on how to create custom video players via a popular JS media plugin out there. It is recommended that you take JQuery Basics first(listed below) though. I did take this course without having taken the JQuery Basics deep dive and the final part with the custom media player just drove me nuts.

For CSS

• CSS Selectors - Advanced CSS Selectors. This opens up a whole new realm of being able to select and style your elements and it's a must have knowledge base if you want to have a ridiculous amount of specific control over what you're doing when styling elements within your document.
• CSS Layout Technique - How do I get this element to move over here? How do I make this go vertical instead of horizontal? How to make columns and dynamic sizing and shifting of the elements? All that cool cool stuff -- which is must know -- is all in here. Absolutely necessary for anyone looking to design layouts and themes.
• CSS Responsive Layout - Everything is all about responsive design these days. Most people now browse from one form of mobile device or another and it's vital to know responsive layout in order to accomodate the different sized devices that are out there. Google and other search engines even penalize you for having sites that are not responsive and mobile friendly. If you're gonna be doing anything on the web where it matters how your site ranks -- and since you want to develop for WP that will matter in a big way -- then you need to consider your SEO. And responsiveness is a big part of that.

For JavaScript

• JavaScript Basics - Fantastic course that gives you a very complete and thorough understanding of the foundation of JavaScript and how to use it. If you'll notice in the PHP Development Track, they shoot right into JQuery. I don't know why they do this *shurg* but I think it's a little odd to just go right to JQeury without actually covering the JS Basics, but you will notice that when you go into that course, it tells you that it recommends JavaScript Basics and JavaScript Loops, Arrays & Objects be taken first. And for good reason.

Dave is fantastic at explaining everything and there are a lot of practical examples and mini projects within the course to really make sure you know what you're doing.

• Loops, Arrays & Objects - pretty critical stuff to know if you want to move beyond the basics and truly make your pages dynamic. A lot of people will tend to skip over such things and "just get me to JQuery" but you'll be at a great disadvantage without truly knowing what the jQuery is doing with all of its functions and fancy shenanigans. Dave is great at really getting down to the nitty gritty and explaining things in clear and concise language with plenty of working examples and a couple of projects to drive the material home.

• Interactive Pages with JavaScript - This is the next course after you've done those previous two and taken the JQuery Basics deep dive (that is included in your PHP Development Track). It teaches you all about manipulating and getting around in the DOM (Document Object Model) as well as using event handlers and such. Disclaimer: I have not learned PHP nor WordPress development so I'm not sure if PHP handles all of this stuff in WP. I just know that PHP can do this stuff and is the defacto "big guy on campus" in WP development... however, they DO have the JQuery basics deep dive in that PHP Development track so this is the next logical step in your JS education.

If anyone wants to clarfiy, that'd be great.

After all that, there's of course...

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Track 3 (w00t!)

The WordPress Development Track - Aaaand this is your ultimate goal there. I haven't learned WordPress development as a skillset but it's its own little world with its own procedures and rules and things you have to know like hooks and heirarchy and how to use the API and yadda yadda. So this here is your endgame. But, ya gotta know (or should know) that other stuff first so you're not just like "whhaaaa?" lol.

Fin

So, there you go. The way I'm looking at it I'd say your path looks like this...

1. Learn WP Track

2. PHP Development Track

   begin supplementing with additional HTML, CSS & JS courses when you get to that point in that track. (i.e. finish the HTML Basics course in the PHP track? Good... go do the Forms and Tables deep dives. Finished the CSS basics? Good, go start learning the more advanced CSS deep dives. Get to the JQuery Basics? Whooo tiger... go learn the pre-requisites first and then come back.)

3. WordPress Development Track (Goal!)

Just remember that it's a lot to learn and you don't have to be ON a track to learn something. Stick with the tracks that provide the most clear direct path to your end goal (WordPress Development) and learn the additional stuff you need to know by pinning/bookmarking them to your home page and starting the courses. You can always do a little bit in the track and a little bit of a course that's "in progress" on your homepage and now that they've made the additional changes to the way your individual courses are listed and tracked on your homepage, keeping an organized progression through supplementary side material while still maintaining your Track progression, is a breeze.

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Well, I hope that helps and I look forward to hearing back from you on what you decide to do.

If there's anything that others disagree with or would like to correct me on, please do! I'm by no means a master and this is just my opinion on what the best course of action would be.

Cheers,

Huck -

Jumping into Track 2 then. Thanks for the replies.

huckleberry - thank you so much for your reply! If I could give you Reddit Gold, I would.