Here are some things I (and I know others) have struggled with. I think the web is exploding with resources and information, so I don’t necessarily think we need to explain what a prototype is. There’s better places elsewhere to learn things about UX, but I think we could provide some good resources for not just people new to UX but everyone else too. I’m coming at this from what I wished I would have access to when I was trying to get into the field. I know that /u/uirockstar has some good walls of text that probably should be included as well. Feel free to suggest any changes to what I have here.

I really want to begin a career in UX/UI. What do I do?

Well, first it’s important to know that UX and UI are not synonymous. While many job postings combine them, UI is a subset of UX, just as research and information architecture are. UI is still important and if you can do both, you do increase your value. While many see UX as a research field at its core, the UX/UI title implies that it’s only about creating pretty things.

The first step is learning more about the field, which brings us to…

What kind of education do I need?

If you are still in school, there are more places recently that are offering courses in human-computer interaction. You can even try to create your own internships. There are very few UX specific schools, though they are starting to pop up, like Center Centre and General Assembly.

Yeah, yeah, that’s great. But I already graduated, so where do I start?

Any focus on people or technology can act as a solid foundation for learning UX. Because there has never been a set entrance path into the field, UX roles are filled with people from many different backgrounds. The most common degrees for those in the field though are design, psychology, communications, English, and computer science. link

There are a number of people in the field who are self-taught. There are tons of books, blogs, and designers (here are some helpful resources) which provide enough UX stuff to keep us all busy. When I first started reading about it, I quickly got overwhelmed because there was so much information available and most of it was intended for those who already had a pretty good grasp on things. The Hipper Element’s crash courses in UX and user psychology are great places to get a fairly quick overview.

There are books like The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk and Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug that make for great first books.

UX Mastery has a great eBook for getting started, appropriately titled Getting Started in UX. Kevin Nichols’ UX for Dummies is both very readable, yet detailed. You can even buy the eBook if you don’t want people on the bus to think you’re a “dummy.”

Lastly, Fred Beecher has a very extensive Amazon list of recommended UX books, depending on what area you are looking to learn more about.

Great. I’ve read a whole bunch of stuff and have a pretty good idea how UX works. Now how do I get someone to hire me so I can gain experience?

Hey, easy there. While, yes, there are lots of UX jobs out there, very few are entry level and not many employers will hire someone who has only read about it and not actually done it. You can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job. I know. Frustrating, right?

You have to prove that you can do it. One way to do this is site redesigns.

Go find a website that lacks in it’s user experience and figure out how to fix it. Maybe it’s a small business down the street from you or maybe it’s a feature on eBay you think could be better. Redesigning sites is a good way to practice a process and make mistakes on your own time. If you can involve the owner from that small business down the street, that’s even better because then you can get a sense of the customers (users) that you will be designing for.

Once you have done this, you have (some) experience! Start a portfolio and add to it!

But I have a resume. Why do I need a portfolio?

Resumes are great. But resumes won’t get you a job starting out. It’s a million times more effective to show potential employers what you have done, rather than showing them a resume showcasing that you are a team player and proficient in Microsoft Office. But you should still have a resume that outlines your UX skills.

But I’ve never worked in UX! What should I put on my resume?

You don’t need to put all of your old jobs on your resume if they are unrelated to the field. Most places still want to see some work history so they know you haven’t been living in a cave for the last four years, but they don’t care about how you sold vacuum cleaners or trained circus horses. Maybe you can relate some crossover UX skills to your previous work.

Back to portfolios. They are a lot like elementary math class in that you want to show your work. Potential employers are much more interested in how you made a design decision rather than the final result. If your portfolio just has a bunch of fancy wireframes, that doesn’t tell them how you took specific personas into account and you are simply showing them something that looks pretty. And just because it looks pretty doesn’t always mean it makes sense.

Okay. I have a portfolio with a few unsolicited site redesigns in it.

Congratulations! But I have some bad news. Are you sitting down?

No one wants to hire you yet. You haven’t worked on any “actual” projects that showed how your UX skillz helped a business. I know I suggested you do site redesigns to get practice and you should because that is work you can take to a nonprofit or another small business and say, “here are some trial runs that I’ve done that prove I know what I’m doing and now I can help you for free in exchange for adding it to my portfolio.”

They’ll probably be skeptical and say, “hmmm… I don’t think my website needs this newfangled user experience you speak of and—wait did you say free?”

You both get something out of it and you’re doing it pro bono, which relieves you the pressure of making one tiny mistake. (There is a great site called Catchafire that matches non-profits all over the country with people looking to donate their time and skills.)

Once you have a portfolio displaying your work and some experience, start applying! But there is one more aspect that goes into getting hired and that is the people who will hire you.

Ugh, but isn’t networking just using people for my own professional gain?

I had this same mindset and it probably delayed my entrance into the field. I wanted to rely only on the quality of my work and trusted the rest would follow. I avoided networking and meeting people in the field because I didn’t want it to seem like I was only mooching for a job.

But the fact is people are altruistic in nature and like helping others. Many people also enjoy talking about themselves, and those are the two main principles of an informational interview. You’ll also find that people are excited to help others get started since they remember how difficult it was (see: this blog post).

It wasn’t until I started getting those informational interviews and talking with people at UXPA and MeetUp groups that I learned another side of UX, but also got more familiar with more hiring managers or those that knew them. Whenever possible, people will hire those they know and like. Until you get out and start shaking hands and kissing babies, you will be just another faceless name in a stack of resumes.

Meeting with recruiters/staffing agencies is also a good route as they make money by finding you a job, so they have a vested interest in giving you constructive criticism.

I've heard that you have to live in a big city to get a job in UX.

Move. Just kidding. But while it’s true that larger cities like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle are full of opportunities, there are plenty of other places around the country that have jobs. Here are the top 20. If you live in a tiny city, expect a tougher time finding a position.

Okay, I got an interview. How do I not mess this up?

Some great advice is to go all UX on your preparation and treat the interviewer like a user.

.......to be continued.



Blogs:

• Boxes and Arrows
  
• The Hipper Element
  
• UX for the Masses
  
• UX Mag
  
• UX Mastery
  
• UX Matters
  
• UX Movement
  
  
  Other:
  
  
• uxdesign.cc: Methods and Deliverables
  
• CogLode.com: behavioral and consumer psychology
  
• Good UI: Best practices shown in a “don’t do this, do that” way
  
• UX Mastery’s HUGE list of resources
  
• UXarchive: iOS user flows
  
• iOS Human Interface Guidelines

I'm sorry if the reply turned out a bit too general, but the individual steps depend a lot on the specifics :)

As I said before, it's crucial that you understand the problem domain as good, or better than your customers. I like to think of it as the Fog of War in strategy game maps. I can only effectively perform once I have explored enough territory to see the big picture. Here's roughly how I would try to wrap my head around such a challenge, if the company hired me to help:

Customer

Who are the customers? It's actually possible to think of the customers just in terms of their needs and desires. But it's useful to know their demographic attributes, so you can choose whether your solution is going to be a lateral or a niche one. For instance.. Trello is a lateral solution, because the kan-ban methodology can be applied to many different types of problems. On the other hand, It could be argued that 500px is a niche solution, because it caters to photographers more than meme authors. It's very easy for 500px to figure out where photographers hang out online and in the real world, should they choose to reach out to them in any way.

The job (Problems / Desires)

The customers usually have some sort of job to be done. That job is driven by their desire for a benefit, or a lingering problem that needs solving. Those benefits can range from monetary to peace of mind or social status. And problems can range in severity. Furthermore, different customer segments can rate some problems and benefits as more important than others. This is the combinatorial explosion of stakeholders and their points of view, that informs a strategy of a good product designer, and causes an uninformed designer to arrive at an optimal solution only through brute force or sheer luck.

Solution

Sometimes the solution has to be drawn up from scratch, optimized or entirely re-imagined. So what is the existing solution? What would an utopian solution look like? A complex problem might require a solution in the form of a toolkit of multiple core activities (Like Google, HubSpot or Moz). A focused solution though, can be embodied in a single product (Caffeine.app keeps your mac from going to sleep). If a solution is complex behind the curtains, but you make it simple and gratifying from the user's point of view, it may seem like magic to them.

Business

The things that you do behind the curtains are some core activities, that might require some key resources. That's how the business makes sure it spends less than it earns on a customer (unit economics). It's easy to paint a picture where the world is split between sociopathic capitalists with a greedy agenda & empathic designers, who champion the user's priorities. But a similar solution with a sound business foundation will always be better for the customer, because it stands a better chance of outperforming the economically inferiour solution in the long run. It's the job of a designer to balance between the two aspects. So much so, that the Elements of User Experience places big emphasis on both Business Objectives & User Needs.

Communication

Once you love your people, and you have a way to show it to them, you'll have to start and maintain some sort of relationship. You can identify Touch Points or Channels. If, for instance, your customers are tourists looking for a place to grab a meal before boarding the next train, you can administer your solution right then and there, at the train station. But most of the time you'll be reaching out to your potential users somewhere between you and them, probably through a third party (online publication, app or ad network). It may take multiple exposures in different contexts, before somebody decides to give your solution a try. So a customer might bump into your message at certain touch points, open a communication channel like a newsletter or notification subscription, and only then decide to commit. There's often talk about a multiple stage funnel, through which we try to shove as much of our target market. But you can also look at customer lifetime stages as vertebrae in the cohort spine. For instance.. Slicing out customer segments by lifetime lets SoundCloud identify differences between a newcoming podcaster & a long-time podcaster, and communicate with each of them appropriately, even though most of the people that care about SoundCloud are producers and record labels. Staying on top of communication also helps you avoid conversion attribution mistakes, so you can communicate more effectively.

Here are some resources related to those subjects:

• Value Proposition Design, Alexander Osterwalder: How to map the Customer, their Problems and Desires to a Solution.
  
• The Innovator's Dillema, Clayton Christensen: Describes how disruptive innovators solve existing problems in novel ways.
  
• Minto Pyramid Principle, Barbara Minto: How to communicate the value propositions to a rationally minded customer.
  
  A bit more business related:
  
  
• Four Steps To The Epiphany, Steve Blank: A user-focused methodology for efficiently finding a viable business model, called Customer Development.
  
• Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder: His first book takes a broader look, dealing with booth the business and customer side of things.
  
• Lean Startup, Eric Ries: What Steve Blank said.
  
  Once I have a good understanding, I would focus on Information Architecture, Experience Design, Production & Iteration. I can't spare the time to write about those now, but here are some related resources:
  
  
• Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garret: What a typical experience design process is made up of.
  
• About Face, Alan Cooper: Another take on the whole process, dives a bit deeper into every stage than Garret's book.
  
• Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug: One of the first books to gave the issues of IA and UX design a human, customer point of view.
  
  I might write more about the specific subjects of IA and UX later, when I find the time. In the meanwhile, check any of the three books with italicized titles, if you haven't already.
  
  Peace o/

Hey there! I recently finished this course and also recently got my first offer for a Jr. Front-End Developer role after about a year and a half of self-study. Colt's course is awesome, and I found it to be the best single resource on web development I encountered. So I think you've picked a really good place to start. But, that being said, it is just a starting point (even a full-time $10k boot camp is just a starting point), and you probably will need to look into other resources as well.

I will second what others have said that I found the Rob Percival course underwhelming, but there's a lot of other stuff out there that I would recommend. Note: I'm going to go a bit link crazy here, and I know that might seem a bit overwhelming, but I'm figuring it's better to give you more rather than less; your mileage may vary, and you may not need all of these. These are just the resources I found most helpful.

Free Code Camp is a great place to find practice problems to work through, mainly when it comes to front-end. I can't stand using it end-to-end as a learning path, but others love it. So, different strokes and all that.

CSS Tricks is a really great blog and site for learning how to do advanced CSS stuff. And the site founder Chris Coyier, also hosts a really great podcast called Shop Talk that's all about front end.

John Duckett's books HTML & CSS and JavaScript & JQuery are really pretty and very noob friendly. The JS one does have some errors, so be wary of that, but I found it really helpful for getting a sense of the underpinnings of the language while reading on the train.

You Don't Know JS Is a great book series that is all available online for free and will really help you solidify your JS knowledge.

JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts is another Udemy course that does a deep dive of JS (Udemy always has sales, by the way, so never pay full price for their courses).

JavaScript Design Patterns is a free course on Udacity that is super helpful in introducing you to JS frameworks and MV* design patterns. Note that, while you can pay to do a "Nanodegree" through Udacity, you can also access a lot of their courses for free, so I would recommend trawling through them--there's a lot of good stuff on there.

JavaScript 30 is a 30-day structured course in building stuff with vanilla JS by Wes Bos, who has a lot of other good courses as well (though some of them are paid).

Practical JavaScript This is one I've actually just started working through, but so far, I'm really enjoying it. Again, this is free. It will introduce you to test-driven development and give you a better sense of how to plan your own projects, while also not getting mired in any frameworks.

If you want to go into the bowels of the framework world, though:

The udemy course I did first for React/Redux now seems to have been taken down by its creator so that he can update it. But it was called The Complete React Web App Developer Course by Andrew Mead, and when it comes back in updated form (hopefully soon), I would definitely recommend it. If you like Colt's teaching style, Andrew's has a lot of the same feel (excited, but really detailed explanations, and goes over things 50 times in different projects and contexts so that you really learn them). I've also started doing Stephen Grider's Modern React with Redux, and it seems really good so far (though I'm not that far into it, so take it with a grain of salt).

React Fundamentals is another awesome free course by one of the developers of react-router.

Hey dude! I want to send you a huge long explanation I did a while ago about Wacom tablets (which are "industry standard") that didn't get much love in the original post, but I put a lot of work into figuring everything out for this dude so I thought I'd share it again.

Before I paste in my response to this question someone posted, I wanted to mention a few things about your unique situation.

When starting out in design, it's probably more important to invest in a mouse, the Creative Cloud Suite, and some sketching supplies. I use my tablet all the time, but in my classes only about half of the people use tablets. Everyone else gets by just fine (even in illustration) with a mouse. Trackpads are asses to work with, and a good sketchbook, a set of Micron pens, a nice .5 mechanical pencil and some Prismacolor pens are gonna do you a lot more help than a tablet, especially if you're just starting out in classes. Other supplies you might need include a T-Square, a right angle measure (is that what they're called?), a good X-acto knife and a bunch of blades, a good ruler, some tracing paper, and a case to carry it all around. Oh and a portfolio (one of the cloth ones so you can carry your print work around).

If you're specifically looking at web design, i'd invest in a couple amazon books like this book and this book

In terms of graphic tablets, I'm posting an explanation of all the ones available right now. The person for whom I was originally responding was looking to buy one as a gift for, I think, their SO who was primarily a photographer using Photoshop. And just as I post at the bottom of the quoted message, feel free to PM me if you have other questions about anything that I've mentioned here :) Good luck OP, and sorry for the wall of text!

> First off, it's much easier to navigate the different models via the actual wacom site[1] . Here's a breakdown of Wacom tablets:
Almost all wacom tablets come in different sizes. Typically they are small, medium, and large. Very simple, it just dictates how large the tablet is. On the other hand, it also dictates the ratio of calibration to the screen. Let's pretend that your tablet is 4"x5" and your screen is 8"x15" (for the sake of an example, ignore the absurd dimensions). Since every point on the tablet is directly calibrated to a point on your screen, it'll take 1.5 times longer for your cursor to travel horizontally than it will vertically. Not an issue, but it makes the learning curve for using a tablet a little steeper because you have to learn how to change your hand-eye coordination from 1:1 to 2:3.
Ok so about the different models: Bamboo is an older model that is no longer sold. Now they have Intuos Pro and just plain old Intuos. Bamboo is great, fine, wonderful even, but as time goes on it'll be harder to find replacement stuff (like pens, which I have lost once or twice) for the tablet itself.
Now, in the plain old (newest) intuos family, you've got Draw, Art, Photo, and Comic. Draw, the cheapest one, is not a touch tablet. It won't respond to your fingers on it, just the stylus. The rest are all touch tablets too. All four are considered "small". Draw is the bare minimum. Nothing special comes with it. Next level up, you've got Art. Art is touch sensitive and comes with Coral Painter. Next one (Photo) comes with Tonality Pro, Intensify Pro, Snapheal Pro, Noiseless Pro (and I know nothing about what each program does). Then Comic comes with Clip Studio Paint Pro and Anime Studio® Debut 10 (again with the not knowing what it is).
Next up You've got the Intuos Pro, which is what I use (i'm a senior design student with four years of professional design experience, to put it in perspective I do a lot of illustration and I'm very happy with my Intuos Pro). There's really nothing too complex about these, there's small, medium, and large. That's really the only difference among them.
In terms of which one to get, here's my thoughts. The Intuos Pro family is great, but if he's only editing photos then it might not be worth it to get the more expensive tablet. The bamboo tablets are adorable and easy to bring around, but they jack up the price for absurd programs that you most definitely don't need (Adobe suite is standard in the industry. While he sounds like he's only working with Photoshop, if he ever needs to share a file with someone who doesn't have the programs that come with the tablet, they'll also have to own the software in order to read the files).
I have an older generation Intuos Pro that does not have touch-capabilities. It's fine, I have learned key commands to compensate for my inability to quickly zoom and move around artboards, etc. If you're trying to save money, go for the Intuos Draw. It's a great starter, and within the next year-and-a-half to two years he'll probably upgrade. Or you can drop a hot dollar on the Intuos Pro family and kinda bite the bullet. I started out with a bamboo (back in 2007!) and used it until I came to college. I got an Intuos Pro, loved it to bits, and lost the stylus. For about 8 months I was too lazy to buy an $80 new stylus so I used my 2007 bamboo for all my work, and it went fine! I have since sold my little baby bamboo, but it served me well for a long, long time. The only problem is that the appeal of a new toy is sometimes greater than the practicality and logic of playing with an old one.
Best of luck! Let me know if you have any other questions...

Cost? - FREE

Here is the info but if you need more than that, you can always pm me your questions and if you want me to actually help you as in actually putting together pages and configuring settings, then we can talk about a fee but for now the following info should help a lot.

First you should know I am advocating using wordpress. Some people are not good with it and are worried about that factor. So here are some guides and stuff to learn it.

WordPress Guides

Some guides are created for helping people out. Some are free and some are not. Some are actual manuals and some are video tutorials that get embedded into the dashboard of the website, which I find to be pretty handy.

Free

• Easy WP Guide (PDF and Word - free)(brandable)
  
• WordPress User Guide (PDF low quality - FREE)
  
  
  Paid
  
  
• WordPress User Guide (PDF high quality - $6, Editable Word Doc - $40)
  
• Video User Manuals (video in dashboard - $24/mo )
  
• WP101 (video in dashboard - $19/mo)
  
• Integrated Video Tutorials by WMPU DEV (videos in dashboard - Need a Membership to Use - white label - hosted on their server - always kept up to date)
  
  Now that you have that here is some info on how to build a website.
  
  This is in answer to people consistently asking how to get a website built.
  
  Validate Your Skill Level
  
  Are you currently a web programmer? If no, please do not attempt to become one to code your own dynamic website as security is a huge issue and it will take you years to catch up. It is not a reasonable effort to put forth if you want to keep your sanity, not burn your spare time, etc. Not saying you can't learn it, just saying it takes a lot of work and time that most entrepreneurs don't have to use and in some cases waste.
  
  You can learn how to do html and css within a few months but using a CMS system is much cleaner and easier and if you need something dynamic, you will probably need a developer.
  
  You generally need to know at least php and mysql for dynamic websites unless you want to get into the confusing worlds of joomla and drupal (non exhaustive list of alternatives: Python & Django, Node and ExpressJS, Python and Flask, Python & Pylons, Ruby & Sinatra). I hear decent things about Ruby on Rails though on par with php and mysql learning curve I think.
  
  Want to Learn Web Programming Anyway?
  
  Try CodeCademy for interactive programming learning.
  
  No Coding Skills Start Here
  
  Get / Use the following:
  
  
• Hosting: Bluehost.com
  
• Domain name: Buy through Bluehost and get a privacy option on it
  
• Web Platform to one click install: WordPress a CMS platform
  
• Find an appropriate responsive wordpress theme here: Themeforest.net
  
• Install and configure these free plugins in order: Better WP Security, BackWPup, Akismet, Yoast, Broken Link Checker, FirmaSite Theme Enhancer, Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin, Date/Time Now Button, and Advanced Responsive Video Embedder
  
• Buy other plugins you need here: CodeCanyon.net
  
• Need an affiliate manager?: Use Linksert.net and it's free WordPress plugin.
  
  Need Something More Dynamic?
  
  You have a few options. This list goes from least expensive to most expensive. Just know that most things you want to do already have a plugin or theme designed for them for WordPress. There are however a lot of exceptions to that guideline and that is why you look at the following options.
  
  
• Least Expensive end
  
• Hire someone to develop a WordPress plugin to do that dynamic stuff (cheaper than second option)
  
• Hire someone to build you a custom WordPress theme that has the functionality you need.
  
• Hire someone to develop the site from the ground up.
  
• Most expensive end
  
  The reason why WordPress is mentioned a lot is because it is a CMS aka Content Management System which allows you to manage a ton of the pages and posts and various other aspects of the website. If a developer really needs to, they can modify the core parts of WordPress. Rarely will you need someone to build you a brand new website and honestly you really do want a CMS or you are going to have a hard time.
  
  Some developers can be found here: Elance (freelancers), Matchist (freelancers), and Glowtouch (dev company vetted by Bluehost)
  
  Things to remember with website development
  
  
• Try to use a responsive website themes and plugins so that it can fit any screen size including tablets and phones.
  
• Get familiar with what they call "sticky footer" so that your footers don't end up halfway up the screen on low content pages. Example and info.
  
• Get familiar with the concept of having a fixed header as it will promote a lot of use of your website. Example and info.
  
• Design is important. You have ~2.6 seconds to capture their attention before they bounce. Read this book to learn about it: "Don't Make Me Think"
  
• Best colors to use for design and other design tricks (the best you are going to find): Article and Video
  
  I am actually putting together a series on how to build a website that will be fairly extensive. If you would like to be notified of that you can sign up here and I will send you a message when it's ready.

Oh god where to begin?

***

Well I Like to think there are level of programming understanding that are relatively tiered.

Tier 1 - How to Code

***
This one is tough as there is no real definitive best answer. My personal primer of choice is

• Sams Learn Java in 24 hours.
  
  > Fyi - , that is not "in one day" that is , in 24, 1 hour sessions equating to a hypothetical 4 college lectures a week lasting a month and a half of intensive training. A huge amount of homework is required to accompany that primer.
  
  so now you can write an app, what next? well. to finish the thought:
  
  
  

  Tier 2 - How to Code...
  

  so other programmers don't want to hit you over the head for each line in your longest function screaming CYCLOMATIC COMPLEXITYYYY
  
  **
  
  Here we talk about how to program properly* You want to be looking up Uncle Bob . Head over to
  
  

• www.cleancoders.com
  
  and check out his video form of his famous book:
  
  
• Clean Code....then buy that book.
  
  Now you should be writing code that doesn't make other programmers eyes bleed.
  
  

  Tier 3 - How to Code..To Solve Problems
  

  ***
  Here we talk about design patterns. Now, you will bump into a lot of debate over their value but...that is stupid. that is like some people saying all carpentry should be done with a saw and another group saying carpenters should never use a saw. Design patterns are names for recognised ways to solve problems you will hit every day in your programming. They may not always work in your case but at worst they will have you thinking around a problem better.
  
  For a primer, check out:
  
  

• Head First: Design Patterns
  
  In fact the entire head first series is great, It is like the For dummies series for programming principles. Great for morons like myself.
  
  With that read, get the real design pattern book:
  
  
• Elements of Reusable...
  
  Don't expect to actual understand almost any of this. I read that book cover to cover and it didn't actual click for me till it slapped me in the face when i was in the real world developing business tier applications. Although having read it so many times meant I new which pages to flip to when I was ready.
  
  

  Tier 4 - How to Code... For Users
  

  ***
  
  This is a whole different kettle of fish. Now you may have written the perfect app to do X with only two buttons, you will find quickly that users are adept at licking the buttons in just the correct order to cause your application to explode. You need to program applications so the cast of jersey shore can use it.
  
  I am a fan of the blog:
  
  

• Joel on Software.
  
  Joel (Co-founder of Trello) covers a lot regarding front facing applications and UX that is required reading...even if he a bit cavalier on his approach to testing.
  
  This is the next part. Testing. You are going to want to Learn about Defensive Programming andTesting. There is a wealth of tutorials over on pluralsight for these.
  
  

  Tier 5 - When NOT to Code
  

  
  **
  
  This is a hard step to get to. Realising that copy and pasting code is GREAT!..but for the right reasons. Once you jump over the initial Copy+paste = the greatest thing in the world barrier , most developers grow a level of defiance that borders on the absurd. Preferring to rewrite the wheel instead of using ...the wheel. When you can honestly say you could* program it from scratch, it is perfectly okay to use libraries and apis.
  
  This is where I go to:
  
  

• www.codeproject.com
  
  and hit up Sacha and others. They show you fairly feature complete and interesting implementations of problems, not just the one or two lines you get from Stack Overflow. Granted this is miles more complicated but it shows not only how to do it, but how to do it right and WHY to do it right. and github of course.
  
  

  Tier 6 - Learning From Mistakes
  

  ***
  
  Now that you have climbed code mountain and are absorbing the combined knowledge of all the internet geniuses, it is time to see where you went wrong.
  
  Head over to
  
  

• http://codereview.stackexchange.com/
  
  and post you functional applications. There a number of people will politely tell you not...how but how to do it better, general improvements in design, logic and reusability. take you through the solid principles and much more. Also..say hello to me if you like :P.
  
  You don't even have to learn exclusively from your own mistakes.
  
  check out:
  
  
• www.thedailywtf.com
  
  and cringe at some examples of real software....and if you don't understand why you should be cringing..learn.
  
  ***
  
  

  Tier 7 - How to think like a programmer
  

  
  Now things get a little bit meta. The best way to become a great programmer? don't JUST read programming. Read books like:
  
  

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think
  
  Read anything and everything, exercise your mind. books on architecture, books on carpentry. any kind of design and problem solving with stretch your understanding of how to climb those brick walls you will hit.
  
  Read some of the more general programming blogs, like:
  
  
• http://blog.codinghorror.com/
  
  Read anything and everything.
  
  

  Final Thoughts
  

  ***
  
  Have fun.
  
  Check out:
  
  

• www.commitstrip.com
  
• www.xkcd.com
  
  and..well..here.
  
  I would also say as a personal suggestion, although i left it out of the mandatories up above as it is a bit controversial, I suggest going TDD. Test driven development. It is not for everyone, a hard ethos to get into but in the real world, in business applicable coding...a life saver. Uncle bob is the man for that again.
  
  Finally I am a fan of Rubber Ducking. Great way to work though problems.
  
  If you want some final reading, I left them out because everyone and their brother has these (and most of the above) in their top 50 programming book lists so it is a mite redundant:
  
  
• Code Complete
  
• The Mythical Man Month
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer
  
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
  
  ***
  Enjoy.
  
  
  
  

Head First HTML5 Programming is a very visual book with a ton of review and quizzing and uses practical examples to teach Javascript, it's a little dated at this point, but a really great resource for book learners .

The Odin Project spends a lot of time in the beginning on teaching helpful tooling that a lot of other learning resources leave out, like git, developer tools, debugging and testing, it takes a little while to get to the Javascript part, but everything before that ends up being very useful .

Brad Traversy's Modern Javascript from the beginning Udemy course is a fantastic and thorough introduction to Javascript . Javascript has seen a lot of cool updates in the past few years, and this is one of the only courses that starts out with the "modern" approach, so you don't end up having to relearn a bunch of things . A great course for video learners .

Practical Javascript,A great course that teaches entry level javascript with practical examples that build on top of each other to form a full project . The paid subscription is a fantastic course that goes into a lot of important subjects often skipped in other courses, but can at times be very boring .

Other resources you're likely to be referred to that I somewhat disagree with

Free Code Camp & Codecademy, if you were instead learning to draw, the teaching methods of these courses would be the equivalent of tracing pictures you liked . Free Code Camp has a really great and helpful community built around it though .

You don't know Javascript & Eloquent Javascript really are some great books and deserve their praise, they're just not the friendliest introductions to Javascript if it's you don't already have some knowledge of Javascript or other programming languages .

Javascript & jQuery by Jon Ducket, this book is fine, but I just don't feel it's as good of an introduction as any of The Head First books, while still being just as dated. It is a lot more comprehensive though, but it doesn't build to a project, use as practical of examples or do as much hand holding .

Hi there. I'm a professional web developer by trade. Your website looks like it's from the 1990's...I understand that both of you are working full-time, but I highly recommend completely re-doing your website.
I don't even know where to start, so I'm just going to give you examples, resources, and inspiration, and relevant comments.

Inspiration:

This is by far, THE best website for tea I've ever seen.

DavidsTea

• It's responsive (try resizing the window from 100% to 1 inch - see how well it resizes?), looks modern, clean, fun, creative, and brands the tea/products very well.
  
  
• Design is done by an award-winning designer from Holland, if I remember correctly.
  
  Mid-tiered websites:
  
  Harney&Sons
  
  
• Harney & Sons appeals to a different demographic (yuppie-ish) whereas DavidsTea appeals to hipster younguns. Can you tell by the color scheme?
  
• site isn't responsive and still needs some user interface work, but overall as basic as you can get.
  
• Look at the way they market themselves and write descriptions. Look at the next few sites as well.
  
  Some more sites you can look at:
  
  Adagio Teas
  
  Mighty Leaf
  
  Verdant Tea
  
  Lower-tiered websites:
  
  TeaVivre
  
  Den's Tea
  
  Absolutely not:
  
  Upton Tea
  
  
• I know Upton's is pretty popular here on reddit, but I think the website is just awful. I flat out refuse to buy on that site - it doesn't even look remotely reassuring to me to pay on that website. I'm sure it is secure, but....jesus, that user interface. Absolutely not.
  
  Resources:
  
  
• Html and CSS by Jon Duckett
  
  
• Javascript & JQuery by Jon Duckett
  
  
• UXPin Free Resources [there is a pdf book in this link that shows the latest trends in modern web design, take inspiration from there)
  
  
• Do you use Firefox's Firebug tool? If you don't, just install Firebug on Firebox. Click on the bug icon, and then click on the inspector tool. Now you can hover over various elements and see what properties are being done on them if you need to figure out how something was done. You can also make changes without coding and refreshing your page each time.
  
  Let me know if you have any other questions, thanks!
  

Designing Interfaces is great, and I find myself coming back to it when I'm stuck on something. I should note, however, that the examples focus primarily on desktop applications. It's not a stretch to apply most of the concepts to web apps, but some of the patterns aren't really applicable. However, I primarily do web work and I still think it's worth getting.

A classic Web usability book that's really easy to get through is Don't Make Me Think. Much of what makes for good web design is common sense, but it's nice to have it reinforced/verified.

If you're interested in site architecture (you should be) or some theory behind decisions behind visual design (particularly regarding heavy information), I'd also recommend The Information Design Workbook. Half of it is theory and the other half is examples and case studies. It also has some really nice guidelines for working with clients, such as "What is a design brief? Why do I need it? What should be included in it?"

Designing for Interaction is alright... The interviews in it are interesting, but the subject matter is pretty basic. That being said, it is a good primer. I'd definitely pick Designing Interfaces over this, though, if you're choosing between them.

I've heard good things about Designing Web Interfaces, but I haven't read it myself, so... I can't personally recommend it. (O'Reilly generally has pretty high standards, though, so it's probably a safe bet.)

I'd second useit.com and smashing, but sometimes, nothing beats books.

(If you're interested in getting more into the psychology of it, or are interested in a specific topic regarding UI/UX, let me know, as I have more recommendations... I just don't know what you're interested in.)

Quite frankly, what did you expect? Every one starts somewhere.

http://stackoverflow.com is your friend. It is a great resource and you will be able to find a lot of information there.

Now, in regards to the technologies you want to learn, you need to start with the basics. Javascript is arguably harder than the rest, so I think your focus should lie there. You should be asking questions like:

• What is the document object model? How does it get rendered?
  
• What is the concept of object oriented programming and how does it work?
  
• What makes Javascript such a powerful language?
  
• What is jQuery and how does it make traversing the document object model easier?
  
  After you've learned those basics, you then need to evaluate the trends and topics in your workplace.
  
  
• What are recurring topics?
  
• What are their goals?
  
• Where do you fit in with the team?
  
• What part of their code do they consider the weakest (poorly written/designed)?
  
  Then you can focus on certain things. For instance, if they feel that most of their goals are related to user interface design, you may want to consider learning about more HTML and CSS (arguably the easiest of the three).
  
  However, if they feel like they need to add more functionality to pages and build backend code, you will probably need to learn more Javascript and jQuery. Remember, jQuery is a Javascript library and learning both together is the best route you can take (in my opinion).
  
  Here are a few resources which I used to get a better grasp on certain topics (quite frankly, I never finish books because all of this information is online).
  
  http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-jQuery-The-Missing-Manual/dp/1449399029
  http://www.amazon.com/HTML5-Missing-Manual-Matthew-MacDonald/dp/1449363261
  http://www.amazon.com/CSS3-Missing-David-Sawyer-McFarland/dp/1449325947/
  
  All of the Missing Manual books are fairly well written and will give you a lot of insight on those languages.
  
  However, if you prefer to be taught rather than teaching yourself, some good resources like these may help you:
  
  https://www.codeschool.com/
  https://www.codecademy.com/
  
  Both of these websites are tailored to teaching you to code within your browser. I've found both of them to be excellent.
  
  Some resources which you will want to keep in handy:
  
  http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-30-css-selectors-you-must-memorize--net-16048 - Great tutorial on CSS selectors that may prove invaluable when working with CSS.
  
  http://diveintohtml5.info/ - A very well made web page regarding HTML5, its new features, and some other interesting topics.
  
  http://api.jquery.com/ - The documentation for jQuery. I know this can be found easily, but I can't stress enough how useful it will be to have this page open while you are reading through jQuery code.
  
  ...and much more. You will find more information online everywhere. If you feel like you need more information, feel free to PM me.
  
  Remember:
  
  "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein
  
  This is only the beginning of your long journey if you choose to stay in the development field. Good luck!
  
  Edit: Thank you so much for gold! If anyone else wants more information, feel free to PM me. I don't have anyone to talk to about web development XD

Websites:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

http://psd.tutsplus.com/ There is one for vector illustrations also.

http://www.lynda.com/

Web design podcast

Books

Your new bible on type

Lee Varis "Skin". Awesome book on working with skintones

Photo-compositing

Web usability testing

Fun stuff:

Flash cards, the fun kind to get your brain going

color swatches by Pantone

Calibrate you monitor; you don't know what colors you can print without a baseline

Just realize what you print and what your screen show can be close, but it will never be 100 percent accurate. This also depend on the viewing conditions. Calibrate your monitor, get a backup system in place, read and make your own assignments, and good luck. If you want to buy a bunch of business cards cheaper than VistaPrint or elsewhere with a digital offset waterless system... try

CopyCraft.com

Unless you have money for letterpress cards, but i would only hand those to decisionmakers that sign checks :)

Also i almost forgot... magazines!!!

Many on this list

And i personally like this one

Also you need to make sure your drawing skills constantly improve. I use photoshop for photos exclusively and it speeds up my workflow and helps me with my understanding of light and creating shadows etc. I can't stress maybe a Figure Drawing class (if you have a bad position it is okay to move to a better "view") or something similar to help work through drawings faster and get a better basis of form. These little notebooks are so handy to keep for quick sketches and ideas, and random people that are potential clients.

A Wacom tablet (unless you can afford a Cliniq) is so awesome to have. I have the XL and it is too much... the Large is sufficient unless space. I hear that the smallest size is just too small for most people.

Here is a awesome glove to help with sweaty hands and to keep it smooth, i actually just got mine and it actually helps with my editing on my tablet.

edit: added moleskin/wacom/smudgeguard info

No, problem. As far as advice goes.

• Sit in the front of the class. The back can be distracting. Last year, people in the back would regularly have, very loud, full blown conversations.
  
  
• Attend class. It's not mandatory, but he'll be less understanding when it comes to your grade, helping you, and your final project if you hardly show up.
  
  
• Please stay away from Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver's pretty bloated and tends to be more distracting than helpful as a beginner. It's not too popular amongst web developers anyway.
  
  
• Use a text editor. Sublime Text and Notepad++ are pretty good.
  
  
• Get comfortable writing html and css without referencing any sources. This WILL come up on tests and quizzes. Know what tags go where, how to properly use css selectors, how to position elements with css, and know what everything specifically does.
  
  
• When studying for a test/quiz, don't rely solely on the review sheet. The reviews are helpful, but he will throw some things in that aren't on the review.
  
  
• It's possible to find the book online for free(if that's what you're into). HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites is not required, but pretty good(also possible to get free).
  
  
• Don't forget that we have access http://lynda.com. HTML Essential Training is a good course to follow along with.
  
  
• You're not limited to a "company/restaurant" website for the final project. You can build whatever you want, as long as you satisfy all of the requirements.
  
  
• Don't present your final project in Internet Explorer(unless you want it to look like poop). Open your project in Chrome or Firefox.
  
  
• Start early on your project so you have time to clean it up and make it appealing to the eye. Grid systems are nice, but not necessary.
  
  
• Ha, and the teacher is a guy by the way. He's pretty cool for the most part. He's a grad student and close to our age.
  
  I'm at the point where I'm comfortable enough to start charging to build websites. That's a great way to make money while in school.
  
  If you have anymore questions, let me know.
  

I’m a print and basic web designer that’s been making an overhaul towards UI/UX the past few months so maybe I can offer some help. I’m actually working on a mobile app’s case study as we speak! You may have already noticed that UI/UX tends to get many different definitions depending on who you ask. With this said the path I took was focused on research methods (competitor research, demographic research, user testing, etc), UX deliverables (personas, user flows, wireframes, etc), prototyping, high-fidelity design and front-end coding (I’ll touch on that a little more in a bit).

 

When it comes to UX research I found the following resources immensely helpful:


Books (Reading? Yes, reading. Trust me these are worth checking out…pretty short too)

• Don't Make Me Think
  
  
• UX Team of One
  
  
• Lean UX
  
  
  Podcasts (Listen on your commute, while you’re folding laundry, whenever)
  
  
  
• User Defenders Podcast
  
  
  Websites (It’s also a good idea to Google some successful UX designer’s portfolios)
  
  
  
• UX Mag
  
  
• Reddit User Experience
  
  
• “How I Became a Unicorn” <— Seriously check this out
  
   
  
  Basically what UX teaches you is that all design decisions need to be backed by an informed reason. That reason is found by doing proper research and testing.
  
   
  
  Now for UI design. There’s always Bechance and Dribble for inspiration, but a lot of the pieces you find on there lack context and are merely pretty to look at. So don’t get too obsessed. For software, personally, I’m a Photoshop to Sketch convert. It’s $100 but MAN is it worth it. There’s a number of things that make Sketch attractive (vector based, easy exporting, etc) but I guess the simplest way I can put it is that Sketch just feels…lighter than Photoshop. But it’s really personal preference, if you’re a master at using Photoshop for web design then don’t feel like you have to get Sketch. With that said I HIGHLY recommend investing in Meng To’s Design+Code. While it mainly focuses on iOS design, there is a lot of information that goes across the board for UI design, and it will give you an organized learning method (plus a discount on Sketch).
  
   
  
  It’s also a good idea to familiarize yourself with Material Design. Google’s presentation of the topic gets a little too in-depth at times so you may just want to Google search for other explanations of Material Design (that’s a bit ironic huh?).
  
   
  
  Okay so now you know how to design a basic UI right? Well what if you want to make your designs interactive? There’s quite a bit to benefit from actually seeing your designs work (or not work). Over the past couple years there’s been a gigantic influx of prototyping programs. They all have their pros and cons. Personally I use Pixate but at times it can be a little restricting. My iOS developer friend recommends Origami, it has a pretty steep learning curve but I think I may switch to that at some point.
  
   
  
  The key to becoming effective at UI design is the same with any other form of design: practice, practice, practice.
  
   
  
  Okay, now on to coding:
  
   
  
  Depending on your goals you may have to alter your studies a bit. For example, knowing your way around HTML/CSS and jQuery will give you more control of the design process, improve your relationship with developers on your team and make you EXTREMELY marketable. However, in many cases, only a basic knowledge of those languages I mentioned is required (jQuery being more of a bonus). As a designer you may not even touch the coding side of things at all, it really just depends on the team you’re working with. With that said I HIGHLY suggest taking a dive into front-end coding eventually, you’ll hate yourself for not learning it earlier. Ditch dreamweaver too, pickup SublimeText. Team Treehouse and CodeAcademy are fan-fucking-tastic. Learned a lot from their education programs.
  
   
  
  Whew, if that seems like a lot it’s because it is. Hopefully I broke it down into digestible chunks though. Remember, design is a never-ending learning experience. Don’t stop learning.

1. Read everything you can. Lean/Agile methodology books. Don't Make me think. Any and all articles you can find online. The Neilsen Norman Group. There are a ton of half truths and BS floating around the industry, so when you really know every side of the argument that is being discussed, you will impress people. "Well i know people used to say 5 users is the magic number, but I'm much more interested in Jared Spool's ideology that a team needs to be talking to 5 users every sprint". Which reminds me - I use twitter just for professional uses and it helps me get a pulse on what my professional colleagues are thinking and doing. I highly recommend this. I can throw out some good accounts if you are interested.
   
   
2. Do you mean is it easy to break in to the industry? I managed to get an internship at a start-up here in the midwest with a degree in philosophy. Your post makes it appear that you are hungry to learn and interested in the field. That should come out in any interviews.
   
   
3. In my experience, UX practitioners have a very wide range of backgrounds. Yes, if you have an HCI degree, you're going to get an easy job and a great salary. I think you have more than a good chance of breaking in. Knowing the little we do about you, I would say it might be a boon to you if you lean on your technical/mathematics background and focus on learning how to create/run/synthesize good user tests and research. I may be saying that because that's what I want to do.
   
   PLEASE take everything I've said as being directed towards a UX field. If you are looking more into UI design, you may need some additional training/schooling.

How and where to learn web design depends a bit on what your learning style is. If you prefer sitting in a classroom and having someone guide you, then you may wish to take classes. Personally, I do my best learning when I have a book in front of me and can play around with ideas as well as skip ahead or repeat chapters.

One of the best books for designers I have found is this little gem:
http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/

Its a pretty good book for those who know little to nothing about web design. But I think the best part about the book is the way it is designed. You can tell just by flipping through the pages that the author is a designer, not just some code monkey. There are also a plethora of images so you can see the link between what the code looks like and how it affects the look of a page.

HTML and CSS are mandatory for doing web design. Java and Flash are completely optional depending on your job. Java is an actual programming language that allows you to run programs on their own or even within a web browser. It looks great on a resume and you may find jobs that want you to know it, but for right now I wouldn't worry too much about it. Flash is mostly used for animations and user interaction, however, it is slowly being overshadowed by HTML5. It is still a big deal though, so knowing it can be very useful. If you did want to go beyond your basic HTML/CSS my recommendation would be Javascript and PHP. Both are extremely common scripting languages and worth at least being familiar with.

As far as software, you can start designing with a simple text editor really Notepad or the Mac equivalent. But I would recommend something a tad more advanced. For something free and simple I would check out Notepad++ ( http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ ). Personally I use Dreamweaver because I get it as part of my Creative Cloud subscription. It does off a lot of useful features and plays well with Photoshop/Illustrator/Flash, but in the end those bonus features are just that: a bonus.

It's fun, although unconventional. People may have trouble navigating your site because of the layout. The movement of all the site elements also has my eyes bouncing up and around as I scroll through the page. Is it critical that those navigational elements scroll with the visitor?

The design you have to display work progress is clever ( I would love this if I were a backer), but I'm not sure it works in the scrolling format you have now.

An image of a face will draw the attention of visitors to what you want them to do. Right now, my attention gets drawn to the bouncing navigation bar, which fights with the video for attention through movement.

I think what you want the visitor to do is play the demo and then become a backer based on their enjoyment of that. Is that correct? The cute three liner of features does not convert me into a demo downloader. The other box of features gets me a little closer, but I'm still confused as to what your game actually is. The video makes it look like HOMM with more units.

I would think hard about what you want the person to do and then design it around that. You want to guide the visitor down a path that leads them to the single action that you want them to make. Once they go down that path, then they can explore the other site content (like the bestiary and so on).

Here's my take:

Good

• Art style. Games should be fun. This is a fun page.
  
• Font. Makes me think of old-school print ads for games that used to be in comic books.
  
• The icons are fantastic in terms of the art.
  
• Title. Makes me think of a children's book; reminiscent of a Roald Dahl title. I hope it's intended for children, maybe 10-14 -- am I off base?
  
  'Needs Improvement'
  
  
• Font colors are not appropriate for the background. High contrast text is easier to read. I'm OK with the bolds being differently colored, but a designer might disagree.
  
• Iconography is not labeled, and you must mouseover to learn what it means. If I am landing on this page from somewhere else, it's confusing.
  
• The copy is too heavy on features and not enough on the benefits. Few people buy things based on features. They buy things based on what the features will do for them.
  
• There is no hierarchy to the icons on the navigation bar. See 'suggested reading' for more on why this is an issue.
  
• Center orientation is unconventional, but I can live with that because I'm a fan of columns and think more websites need to use them to improve readability.
  
  Suggested Reading
  
  Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
  This is an industry standard book on web design that is still applicable today and is well-regarded.
  
  If you believe that your current design is strong, do a coffee shop usability test where you take a laptop and buy coffee for random people, ask them to accomplish one of your site objectives, give them a short survey, and watch how they do without providing them with any assistance.

Here's a list of all the tools we use at our small studio

Content:
UE4
Maya LT
Substance suite (painter, designer, pro)
Photoshop (we have the suite so sometimes we also use video editing tools, website tools, etc, but not day to day)
Mudbox
Visual Studio

Company related stuff:
asana
perforce

We spend about $80 a month for software, and like $80 up front for mudbox for a month. I spent about $4000 on equipment to startup.

I guess if you learned the stuff in the content subheading you'd be able to make a game!

A personal note: a lot of people (everybody here probably) will talk about programming etc ... but I think that the most valuable time I've ever spent with a book was one on 3D lighting, which taught me behind the scenes what's going on in lighting engines (like UE4) and also general tips for getting stuff to look good.

A lot of writing on game design is crap. But a great great thing to read is the grim fandango design doc

http://gameshelf.jmac.org/2008/11/13/GrimPuzzleDoc_small.pdf

We do not have a lot of these sorts of things in the game business, and reading something like that put into perspective for me exactly how a game is laid out before programming.

Watching the double fine documentary is good, too, and taught me a lot about managing a group of people. Also taught me what a "typical" studio looks like making a game from start to finish.

Here's a great book on color theory/design/how to use tools to color grade film

https://www.amazon.com/Color-Correction-Handbook-Professional-Techniques/dp/0321929667/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483171621&sr=8-2&keywords=film+color+grading

And if you read nothing else on game design, read this:

http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/05164.51146.pdf

And you should read good critical game criticism, here, from andrew plotkin:

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/

He taught me a lot about game design.

I also recommend playing some early text adventures. I learned a lot from playing through two or three.

If I had one piece of advice it would be to design something on paper before you even do code. Lots of people will recommend how to start programming and stuff, but I think that is secondary to design. It's a means, but not really the destination. Once you've spent about a month with a project it gets pretty locked in, so you want to make sure that you have designed something you are proud of before you actually start making the thing

Well, I know UI and UX are not interchangable terms, but if you want to build UI's, either get really good at front end design at a smaller shop and design things yourself, OR go into User Experience Design, Interaction Design, or Human Computer Interaction (there's lots of names for things) and work on larger teams.

And they don't actually "do" any one thing on a daily basis. And differences between stakeholder needs, legacy, scope, and testing methods will radically change a project.

But here are some examples of stuff I've done in my first year doing freelance UX work:

• I interviewed pediatric cancer survivors about their daily web habits and discovered the majority of them use their mobile phones for the bulk of their web browsing. So I wireframed a responsive site with hosted videos and a private comment section for learning about post-remission care and facilitate discussion between patients. I then sent those wireframes off to a front end developer.
  
  
• My cousin's cupcake bakery was getting good traffic from social media (folks on Pinterest love cute cupcakes), but wasn't getting a lot of people actually using their site to order anything. So I organized some "guerilla user testing" offering cupcakes for a couple of minutes of folk's time and found that the online ordering process was poorly documented. I changed some WordPress plugins around on their site, changed the button size and copy on the site to make things more transparent, and checkout cart transactions online went up more than a third.
  
  
• A local museum was in the process of changing their site around, so I helped set up an A/B test using Optimizely to figure out what best drove folks to the membership signup page. I got 50 billable hours out of it and went to a lot of meetings were I had to explain in plain English what I was doing.
  
  So there's no one thing you'd be doing if you dedicated yourself to UI design. There's elements of project management, front end development, graphic design, behavorial pyschology, and marketing in your toolbox and you just need to figure out what works best with what project.
  
  As for schools: My degree is in "Interactive Arts and Media" from a local art school, but my boss on the cancer project studied Ancient Roman History and another UX pal I worked with studied Feminist Literature at an Ivy League school. So there's really no "path" per se.
  
  > I need a structured environment
  
  Well, this is the bad news... design tends to be a passion for people, which attracts self-starters. This isn't really a framework for what we do because it's not an exact science. So you kind of need to be able to discipline yourself.
  
  But don't worry! I was like you too, and I figured it out because I have a passion for it.
  
  My favorite book (and it's a classic) is Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think." I've got like three or four used copies around my house because I loan them out a lot. And if you're close to a big college, they probably have a bunch of used copies for less than $10. But it's a great intro to how people look at interfaces and how folks gets started doing this work, and probably a good starting off point if you think this is for you.

I found Lynda.com to be extremely dry and slow. To me it was the equivalent of those old school mandated educational movies you would watch in classrooms back in the 90s on your faux-wood tv. Take this opinion with a grain of salt though as it has been almost two years since I have looked at anything on Lynda, I hear it may be better today.

If you are looking for web development in particular I would suggest the following:

• Codeademy - Free and very good at introducing basic web development skills.
  
• Team Treehouse - Paid subscription but well worth it in my opinion as they will walk you through everything from the most basic HTML to building advanced JavaScript applications.
  
• CodeSchool - CodeSchool tends to be more advanced and I would wait until you have a strong grasp on your HTML, CSS and JavaScript before investing in their coursework.
  
  In addition, StackOverflow; A general programming Q&A website, has an answer to just about any programming issue you may be running into. If the answer is not already there, then chances are you will have one within 24hours.
  
  I began my pursuit into web development about 2 years ago. In that time I have gone through the resources listed above as well as the following books which have helped immensely:
  
  
• HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites - Ducketts whole series is extremely friendly to the new web developer and will help you build a solid foundation quite quickly.
  
• JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development - Another Duckett book which was just released focusing primarily on JavaScript.
  
• JavaScript: The Definitive Guide - A massive JavaScript reference. It has answers to just about everything.
  
  Some personal career history if you're interested:
  
  In the last two years I have gone from making 18k a year as a Technical Support Representative to 80k a year as a Front-End Engineer building JavaScript applications at a large FDIC Bank. It was only in the last two years that I really dug into Web Development (and programming for that matter) and I really can't see myself ever doing anything else for a living. The job requires an immense amount of learning (which I love) and will keep your mind sharp. I really do get a kick out of problem solving all day. Programming will require a major adjustment to the way you think. I can say that the way I work through problems now is completely different to the way I did before. I feel as if critical thinking has eluded me until the last two years and it has been a major life changing event. By far the biggest contributing factor to my growth has been the team I work with. You have to do your best to find a team that is willing to work with you as a junior so you can siphon that knowledge. Even if that means taking a low paying job, however; know your worth so that you can ask for the right amount of money once you have gained the necessary skills. As a personal rule of thumb, I will not stay at a company where I am the most knowledgable member of the team. This inhibits growth as a developer and will prevent me from realizing my true potential.
  
  Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.
  
  
  

I have recently read this book. I didn't like it at all. Just to give you an idea of my skill level, so you can compare it with where you are at, I've been doing HTML/CSS/Javascript for over a decade. My Javascript skills though have been more script line by line style as opposed to OOP intermediate level stuff. So I bought this book look to increase my Javascript skills.

While the book says its HTML5 with Javascript programming, it doesn't really cover the basics very well for either, even saying you should be familiar with both before reading it. At the same time, it spends half the book, quickly covering the basics, in such little depth, I would struggle to understand who its for.

The second half of the book, just spends one chapter at a time going over the various HTML5 APIs and how to use Javascript with them. For a 600 page book, there is so much fluff here, its unbearable. Its a really poor book. Its not for beginners, but its probably too simple for intermediates.

...

If you need to know HTML/CSS I'd highly recommend http://www.htmlandcssbook.com/

You'll want to install Sublime Text to do your work in it.
You'll want to create a Github account and download the client and learn how to version control.

After you've done the HTML/CSS book. I'd recommend learning about SASS from DevTips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XmUUa_pWw8

You can install CodeKit to make compiling it easier.

...

For Javascript, I recommend "A Smarter Way to Learn Javascript" https://www.amazon.com/Smarter-Way-Learn-JavaScript-technology/dp/1497408180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473808304&sr=8-1&keywords=a+smarter+way+to+learn+javascript

It's a really good, QUICK, and straight to the point book on beginner Javascript. ~250pages

Then... If you want to round it out, I'd recommend Head First Javascript Programming https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-JavaScript-Programming-Freeman/dp/144934013X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473808479&sr=8-1&keywords=head+first+javascript+programming. While being full of fluff, as is Head Firsts way, is a much better book than their HTML5/JS one. With a lot of great examples ~600pages

After that, I'd recommend Learning Web App Development https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Web-Development-Semmy-Purewal/dp/1449370195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473808519&sr=8-1&keywords=learning+web+app+development ~300pages which will start to introduce the full javascript stack to you.

...

I hope that helps mate.

First off, I'd be careful of describing yourself as a WordPress developer if your knowledge doesn't really go past using the loop as far as PHP and WordPress goes. Not because I'm one of these 'you're not a developer' types, but because it could land you in legal hot water because of misrepresentation when it comes to clients.

Anyway, what I would currently describe you being – based on what you've said – is a junior front end developer. You have a good understanding of HTML and CSS, and a you know how to get JS working – even if it is just copy and pasting.

Personally, I would recommend signing up to somewhere like Treehouse as they have a great deal of structured content around WordPress that will take you from the basics of PHP and how they relate to WordPress upto more advanced topics like dealing with WordPress' APIs.

As for the most important skill? I would say that is having a good understanding of how PHP and JS work. Once you understand functions, variables, methods – and to a lesser extent, classes – you'll have a pretty good grasp of how anything works within JS and PHP.

I would then recommend spending some time reading PHP's docs, which are very well written and give examples of how those functions work.

If you're more of the read-a-book kind of guy, I highly recommend JavaScript and jQuery by Jon Duckett (Amazon link).

Hope that helps.

I'm late to the party, but I made a cheat sheet for my boss niece last week: here's all the ressources I can think of to kick butts at matte painting.

The sites where we pay per month

Gnomon Online School
Super school of vfx in California. They have on their site a lot of tutorials from 8 to 20 hours to learn to make your own camera projections. You can either pay (expensive but worth it) for a private class with a teacher via Skype. Or you pay (cheaper) for a bank of tutorials.

private lessons
https://www.gnomon.edu/courses/online


the bank of tutorials
https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials?tags[]=matte-painting


I recommend: All the tutorials of Dylan Cole (vol 1, 2,3), Camera Projection Techniques in Maya, Matte Painting Production techniques, etc.




Plural Sight (formerly Digital Tutors)


a site that has courses on a little everything. This site is very good when you want to learn new programs. Excellent serie on the 3D which becomes more and more present in the matte painting, and some tutorials


https://app.pluralsight.com/library/


related to 3D

Quick start to modeling in Maya (volume 1,2,3)
Professional Tips for Modeling Complex Shapes


related to matte painting

Photo manipulation and Clean Plating Fundamentals
Matte Painting Basic and the Static Camera Shot


Sites where we pay per tutorial (Gumroad, etc.)



The tutorials of Anthony Eftekhari

Good DMP tutorials that show you the latest techniques and how to do it step by step.


https://gumroad.com/anthonye

The tutorials of Eytan Zana

More concept art, but the main lines apply just as well to the DMP.

https://gumroad.com/eytanzana


Free sites and tutorials


Garrett Fry's blog

He also has a Facebook group that helps each other in DMP, it is THE technical reference for matte painting. His blog is full of technical stuff for camera projections (aka moving your matte painting). A treasure of information.
https://www.gfryart.com/blog



Other


TEXTURES! (Or can we find good textures to make DMP)


CGtexture

http://www.textures.com

Flickr (Matte Painting References)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjframe/sets/72157605581901392/

Flickr (Matte Painting Resources)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dman3d2000/sets/72157629164518650/

Photobash.org (paying a card)

https://www.photobash.org/

Pictures of Jacek Pilarski

https://gumroad.com/jacekpilarski

Books (yes yes, it's a thing)

Digital Matte Painter Handbook

it's old, the drawings are ugly, the photoshop stuff in it is pure candy though. Full of stuff in DMP that I have never seen elsewhere but that is the basis of the trade. Still actual today. The matte painting of the castle in is also an excellent starting point if you start from scratch.

https://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Matte-Painting-Handbook/dp/0470922427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523975893&sr=1-1&keywords=Digital+Matte+Painting+Handbook

How to draw and How to Render

Scott Robertson, a big shot of concept art, shows the basics of traditional drawings, perspective, etc. An essential.

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GWB27RDDYF5E0JG7TTY0

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Render-fundamentals-shadow-reflectivity/dp/1933492961/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=K9W1RK5K9KVWMPY14EAE

Imaginative Realism and Color and Light

James Gurney is an illustrator who specializes in realistic fantasy artwork with traditional mediums, excellent cues on light and color

https://www.amazon.ca/Imaginative-Realism-Paint-Doesnt-Exist/dp/0740785508?th=1&psc=1&source=googleshopping&locale=en-CA&tag=googcana-20&ref=pd_sl_2y2j9az9y9_e

https://www.amazon.ca/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YCNYYJCTNJ4405KD1S6B

Nuke 101

We can make the projection of matte painting in Nuke or Maya. An excellent book for Nuke.

https://www.amazon.ca/Nuke-101-Professional-Compositing-Effects/dp/0321984129/ref=pd_sim_14_8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FNST5YS1F7464SZY3QZV

I've heard great things about Jon Duckett's JavaScript and jQuery - Interactive Front-End Development. Apparently the book's binding completely blows (pages falling out even with very little wear and tear), but the content is supposed to be really great for people just getting started with JavaScript and struggling with some of the core concepts. This book is made for visual learners, who get more out of diagrams, analogies, and examples than from reading long, tedious blocks of text.

In other words, this book seems to be great for JavaScript novices (and programming novices) who just want to jump in, learn some basic concepts from a well designed and easy to read book, and start actually working with some JavaScript in the browser. From the book's Amazon page, each chapter is described as follows:

• Breaks subjects down into bite-sized chunks with a new topic on each page
  
  
• Contains clear descriptions of syntax, each one demonstrated with inspiring code samples
  
  
• Uses diagrams and photography to explain complex concepts in a visual way
  
  Once you're a bit more comfortable, the go-to book for beginner to intermediate JavaScript learners is Nicholas Zakas's Professional JavaScript for Web Developers. It's a much thicker tome, but covers more concepts in more depth.
  
  This book is much more than just "pure JavaScript outside of the browser" (it also contains lots of info/examples for doing real things in the browser), but it does go into great detail about all the intricacies, syntactical oddities, and gotchas of ECMAScript, which you do really need to learn to become a fully competent JavaScript developer. This book is also written well and is easy to read, but it's not designed/presented as nicely or simply as Duckett's book. The Amazon page says the book is written for the following three groups of developers:
  
  
• Experienced object-oriented programming developers looking to learn JavaScript as it relates to traditional OO languages such as Java and C++
  
  
• Web application developers attempting to enhance site usability
  
  
• Novice JavaScript developers

Not tutorials, but I highly recommend the following JavaScript books:

JavaScript The Definitive Guide (6th Edition, Flanagan)

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-Guides/dp/0596805527/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310948024&sr=1-1

Pro JavaScript Design Patterns (Harmes/Diaz)

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Design-Patterns-Recipes-Problem-Solution/dp/159059908X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1310948075&sr=1-1

JavaScript Patterns (Stefanov)

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Patterns-Stoyan-Stefanov/dp/0596806752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310948115&sr=1-1

Object-Oriented JavaScript (Stefanov)

http://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-JavaScript-high-quality-applications-libraries/dp/1847194141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310948145&sr=1-1

Most people swing from Douglas Crockford's nuts and recommend JavaScript: The Good Parts (http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockford/dp/0596517742/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310948183&sr=1-1).

I received a free copy while at Yahoo in 2008 and honestly, I didn't find this book that good of a read. I felt it was definitely geared more towards those with formal CS backgrounds. Keep in mind, I definitely need to re-read it (to see if I feel the same way), but I read it a couple times back in '08 and tossed it on the shelf. The books I mentioned above I've read several times as well and can only say buy them. I'm on my 2nd read of Flanagan's book now.

jQuery in Action is a decent book, but the copy I have is for 1.3, I think. I think I have the first edition and it looks like there is a second.

http://www.amazon.com/jQuery-Action-Second-Bear-Bibeault/dp/1935182323/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310948303&sr=1-1

jQuery Reference Guide 1.4 is also good, but it's for 1.4 and jQuery is at 1.6 now so it's tough for the books to keep up! I think it's pretty much the online/official reference guide as well

http://www.amazon.com/jQuery-Reference-Guide-Jonathan-Chaffer/dp/1849510040/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310948347&sr=1-2

Best thing to do before jumping in is making sure you have an understanding of what it is you're getting into! There are so many different moving parts in the VFX world / pipeline. As someone already said Nuke is for creating shots and is the go to compositing tool right now.

The video below gives you a very basic / general overview of all the different bits that can typically go into a shot.

https://school.rocketjump.com/learn/vfx-container/vfx-core-concepts-101

Plural sight can be good as a beginner because the lessons are typically 10 mins each so it's easy to digest, the flip side is that it doesn't always dive deep enough to get into the real meat of problems you'll typically going to face on any production shot.

FXPHD normally goes a lot more in depth, each lesson being roughly 40mins - 60mins. It's a lot more expensive and is easier to become overwhelmed, especially if you're new. I believe they still do some beginner courses however.

I remember reading this book a lot when I was starting out. Not sure how up to date it is but may be worth checking out.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nuke-101-Professional-Compositing-Effects/dp/0321984129/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

My advice would be to get good at using the interface / how nodes join together, understanding how channels work (specifically the alpha channel) and getting good at roto and cleanup. These are typically junior tasks. The more advanced stuff will come later once you're comfortable with the basics. Just remember everything is going to feel alien for a while but once it 'clicks' it becomes a really awesome tool to use.

Best of luck!

This is the series I used to learn the basics of HTML + CSS. I owe a great deal the author of the series, Jeffery, for helping me kick start my passion for front end development, despite some personal challenges I had to overcome. Anyway, also look at teamtreehouse.com and see if you use a free trial, or sign up. I have learned so much through them too. My advice would be to take it slow & steady. There can be a lot to learn (and that might be intimidating at first) but by taking it one step at a time, you are ensuring that you are building a successful foundation for your future success.

My only other advice is try not to jump right into building full page website layouts without a basic understanding of how HTML & CSS work together. I think it would be best to focus on individual elements OF a car dealership mockup (such as navigation or a header) and then after learning each concept over time, apply it to a full web page mockup. Also make this your bible for the time being. This type of knowledge is invaluable. Last thing- learn it for yourself first and foremost. Don't just do it just to impress an employer, as it will make learning a drag. There are so many "A-ha!" moments that will come along with learning. Cherish those moments as they will provide you with motivation to keep moving forward.

Good luck!

Personally I am a UX generalist and work as a freelancer for early stage startups. I don't seek work on "game changer" projects like Fitbit, Snapchat and Pokemon Go but instead projects to improve processes that make current businesses more efficient and profitable. There is so much money to be made on these projects.

I design the app from top to bottom.

• User Interface (UI) -icons, forms, images, microcopy, etc.
  
• Graphic design - typeface,colors, sizes, etc.
  
• Information Architecture (IA) - layout on a single page
  
• Style guide & Pattern library - UI & IA in aggregate
  
• Usability testing -feedback from users on your design
  
• User experience research - what does the business and the market place need
  
  Here is some of the knowledge one would need to be successful:
  
  App Design Basics
  
  
• Google Material Design
  
• Apple's iOS Human Interface Guidelines
  
• Stephen Anderson's Seductive Interaction Design
  
  Overall Concepts
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
• John Maeda's Laws of Simplicity
  
  Psychology for microcopy (short instructions) and influence in design
  
  
• Richard Thaler's [Nudge] (https://smile.amazon.com/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness/dp/014311526X?sa-no-redirect=1)
  
• Anything by Dan Ariely
  
• Mental Notes Cards by Stephen Anderson
  
  Software needs
  
  
• Sketch by Bohemian Coding $99/yr for basic design work
  
• Zeplin for conversations with clients and developers $15/month
  
• Proto.io $29+/month for prototypes (shows transitions on and between screens)
  
• The Noun project for finding icons $99/year
  
• Zoommy App - for finding high quality Creative Commons 0 (CC0, free) images $4.99 once
  
  Places to see samples of work
  
  
• Dribbble
  
• Codepen.io
  
  My general suggestion is to start by designing something to solve a problem you care about for a business/industry you would want to work in. Don't expect perfection but practice constantly. Build your process and constantly improve for 6 months to 1 year. Then you're probably going to confidence, skills, and samples of work that are good enough to get a job.
  
  Edit: formatting always gets me

I, too, am learning partially through Free Code Camp. What's great about them is that they give you (a) a structure of topics to learn in a certain order, and (b) actual projects to work on.

What you cannot do is learn exclusively through FCC. I see them as a starting point. They will link you to MDN documentation in their challenges, but don't rely on those either. MDN is written for people who already have some familiarity with JS and may not be readable if you do not already understand the basics of JavaScript.

If you're looking to stay with free resources, try looking up YouTube videos that have a high number of views and positive ratings. I stumbled on this channel and have used it a few times. YouTube videos will help you see exactly what the code is doing.

If you're willing to pay for a book, I have found Jon Duckett's JavaScript & jQuery book very helpful. Also try checking out his HTML & CSS book, though I haven't used it much as I am already pretty familiar with HTML (less so CSS, but I am familiar enough with the basics to rely on Google for anything else I need).

Feeling overwhelmed at FreeCodeCamp doesn't mean you'll never learn the concept. What it does mean is that you need to take a step back and really learn the concepts by checking out as many outside resources as you can, then go back to their challenges and complete them.

Good luck :)

Some more learning tools:

• Tuts+ has a number of great coding video tutorials, many of them free. Definitely worth a look.
  
  
• If you like the code-as-you-go kind, check out Code School. It's $30us a month but the courses are more in depth than codecademy.
  
  
• Book wise, Eloquent JavaScript is a good place to start (and its a free download!).
  
  
• Id also recommend JavaScript Enlightenment for advanced beginners, and JavaScript the Good Parts for those with a bit more experience.
  
  
• Another good beginner book is JavaScript & jQuery by Jon Duckett, it's got a great design and is much more illustrative than traditional books.
  
  edited to add links; formatting

Yeah JS:TGP is really required reading for professional Javascripters. I've also heard great reviews of Javascript patterns by Stoyan Stefanov. The sample chapter is good, I'm hoping to buy it later.

Felix's Node Style Guide is good too (basic style guide) and has some good rules to apply to your normal JS as well as NodeJS.

After that, browse through http://javascript.crockford.com/

Learn the module pattern and it's prettier sister the revealing module pattern and understand how it works. I use RVM everywhere by default, pretty much.

Once you've done all the above you should be able to say confidently:

• I understand event driven programming
  
• I understand scope
  
• I understand closure
  
• I understand prototypes
  
  More generally;
  
  
• I understand the importance of separation of concerns
  
• I can choose the appropriate level of abstraction for my objects
  
• My code is written with re-use in mind
  
  General tips:
  
  Install firebug, JSONView. Get a good editor; I've had good experiences with textpad (win), Komodo(mac) and sublimetext(x-platform). Worry more about readability and maintainability than performance in general.
  
  A nice phrase I came up with the other day: Simple code doing clever things is great, clever code doing simple things is bad.
  
  Read other people's code. Read the unminified jQuery source, and other libraries. Try writing pure JS before going down the heavy-reliance-on-jQuery route.

If you can find 2 laptops and 2 rooms you can do user testing.

Find some internal people as your participants (since you don't have a budget it's better to find people that don't bill their hours in your project). Ideally you would like to have people corresponding to your real user personas but it's still better than nothing.

So you're having the computer that will be used by test participants. You can use a free tool like join.me to broadcast sound and screen to the other laptop in another room. You need 1 person to help the participants in the test room. You should be in the observation room (any other room).

Ideally you also record what's happening on the screen of the participant (Camtasia can be useful but you can simply use Quicktime if you're on a Mac).

In one day, you can interview 5 to 7 person (1 hr sessions) and you'll get great insights about potential usability issues.

If possible, have one of the stakeholder spend some time in the observation room so they can experience the value of user testing.

This book is a really good guide on doing user testing on a small budget: https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Yourself/dp/0321657292

Before becoming a developer, I was running a part-time freelance design studio while working at a coffee shop for a few years. That worked out well for where I was at in my life, but I always wanted to move towards working in an agency to get more experience.

I ended up applying for a few designer positions at small local agencies, and finally got an interview... even if it ended up being a job opening for a front-end developer, not a designer (the job posting wasn't very clear).

Although they would have liked to hire me as a designer, they just didn't have the need. They said they would hire me if I learned HTML, CSS and a little JavsScript to do some front-end templating and design. And so it begun.

I bought a couple books and crammed in some late nights learning how to make a simple website. Learning JavaScript (basically how to use jQuery) was probably the most rewarding part of that. A few months later, I came back to go over what I learned and landed the job as a front end developer and designer. I started out at around $20,000.

Fast forward to where I am now, I am the lead developer for a small agency. I held onto that drive I had in the beginning to delve deeper in computer science via MIT's OpenCourseWare on YouTube. Within just a couple years, I've more than tripled my salary, and pushed myself to areas I'd never thought I'd be able to go (or even be interested in going).

I still do a little bit of design, but I found that my real passion is in development and I plan to continue growing my skillset.

I hope this at least encourages somebody to pursue their career in development. If you can't land a job now, just continue learning until you do land that job. I had to wait nearly 6 months before I finally got that second interview, and it changed my career (and really, my entire life). There's a plethora of courses online at sites like Treehouse and of course YouTube.

Good luck!

Best book to get moving: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-WordPress-Development-Brad-Williams/dp/111844227X

Find a few solid plugins, download them, and then start browsing through their source code. Literally start at index.php and follow every function call to see the application flow. There are a million ways to write a plugin, but pay particular attention to ones who use standard design patterns like MVC and the like.

Read through this series of articles to see how WP bootstraps itself. Regardless of whether you'll be working on Core, it will help you understand some of the complexities and might even be useful when debugging.

• http://theme.fm/2011/09/wordpress-internals-how-wordpress-boots-up-2315/
  
• http://theme.fm/2011/09/wordpress-internals-how-wordpress-boots-up-part-2-2437/
  
• http://theme.fm/2011/10/wordpress-internals-how-wordpress-boots-up-part-3-2673/
  
  Read up about Hooks, Actions, and Filters and try using them. For fun, do a default setup and use the 2012 theme or the like. Then make a child theme, and see just how much you can modify content-wise across the site strictly with action/filter functions defined in the child theme's functions.php file. I.E. don't modify any template parts or other .php files except functions. For starters try inserting content above common template tag calls: i.e. use "the_content" action to stick some additional information before/after the content of every post across the site. Then see if you can figure out how to modify the output of a wp_nav_menu call. Continue on from there.
  
  Here's a pretty good article for the business/personal/social skills side of things: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/23/how-to-become-a-top-wordpress-developer/

I would look for a template that you think is good for his content and then adapt it. I'm not saying that you copy it, but you can inspire yourself in another's work. I'd suggest http://themeforest.net/

That said, you are not changing the design, you are changing the position of the content. You could maybe start rethinking the content tree. I would make always available the contact info. It's the best thing to do for the users and clients love to be always available ;)

You could think about the design in little pieces. For example: you have a book gallery to redesign, look for other book galleries that you like and then design stephen's.

This is my attempt. It's super simple. but I think that's what make it understandable.


http://i.imgur.com/VqwTj.png



Ask me anything you need.

I would also change the body text line-height: to 140% to make it more readable.

*edit: I would also make bigger the 'men and women' titles.

I suggest you to read Don't Make Me Think. It's a little old usability book that you could be read in half a day and will blow your mind :)

PS. Sorry for my English.

Don't spend money to build a room just yet, lets take this from the beginning. Having all the right tools in the world isn't going to help you from ground zero.

The software I use to do 85% of my professional work up to 4K/UHD is Blackmagic Resolve, and it is available for 0$. Totally free. Make sure you have a computer that can run it.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve
(Download link on page)

Read the resolve manual included in the installer package. Written by Alexis Van Hurkman http://www.alexisvanhurkman.com/wordpress/

It basically can teach you the fundamentals of color, through explaining features of the program.

His Ripple Training is also very comprehensive and something to look at. http://www.rippletraining.com/products/davinci-resolve/davinci-resolve-12-5-core-training-bundle/

That being said, you should also read the following books:

Begin with this:
Color Correction Handbook also by Van Hurkman
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321929667/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QEGXRDSHFHYDDGD6QTX8

If you really want to go deep:
Color and Mastering for Digital Cinema
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Digital-Cinema-Industry-Handbook/dp/0240808746

All that being said, a basic foundation in color can also be gained through stills manipulation in lightroom or photoshop first. This is how I learned, and I feel like it really gave me a head start.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm
Read EVERY ONE OF THESE TUTORIALS. This site is an amazing resource for all levels of mastery, I find myself going back to it again and again to refresh and then reach deeper into the void.

(Disclaimer: I am NOT Alexis Van Hurkman, he's just a good dude, and kinda unavoidable when it comes to learning Resolve, since he literally was contracted to write the manual. Also hes good.)

Anyway. Once you've chewed through all that, youll either find its not for you, or youll be back for more, and youll have a much more targeted idea of what your first gear purchase should be to help you get the most milage.

You can do a lot of great work without any gear. Learn how to use the scopes, then a monitor can come later.

Hope this helps.

HTML and CSS is a pretty popular book. You mentioned your HTML skills are pretty good but what I like with this book is each chapter ends with a nice example that incorporates styles and markup to give you a pretty good CSS foundation.

I'm also a big fan of Treehouse which is along the lines of Code Academy or Plural Sight.

Mozilla's Developer Network has great documentation as well.

Hi James!

One of the best books for a novice web developer/designer (and not just novice, for anyone who wants to get up to speed with the newest editions of HTML and CSS) in my opinion is the "Learning Web Design" by Jennifer Robbins. The 5th edition was published in May last year, so it's pretty recent. You won't be learning any outdated stuff from this book.

The book is quite big, with around 800 pages, but the author is really great. She explains everything you need to know and she explains it really good. Throughout the book you'll be building an example web site by doing a lot of exercises.

The book starts with an explanation of how Internet works in general. It doesn't go too deep into this topic, just enough for a beginner. You'll then learn HTML, and after that CSS. There are two chapters on JavaScript, but it covers only bare essentials. You'll need another book(s) for JavaScript, though. The one I would recommend is Head First JavaScript Programming, which somebody already recommended it, too.

The Head First HTML and CSS and HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites (also already recommended by other users here) are also great, but they are a little bit old now, as they are from 2011. Not that you won't learn anything from them. You could read these two, and then the book by Jennifer Robbins, so you get better familiarity with HTML 5 and CSS 3.

I was in a similar boat. I learned A TON through taking the coding bootcamp over at Free Code Camp. You should check them out, you go through several hands of modules and the community is amazing. People are always willing to help. You also have the opportunity to build a portfolio through the years they have you do at the end of the modules.

I would also recommend the book HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites by Jon Duckett

HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118008189/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ExHxDbCEW19Q4

I highly recommend Free Code Camp though. For even more fun and access to a community checkout the #100DaysOfCode hashtag challenge on Twitter.

Good luck!!

I can code HTML5 and CSS3 pretty well, honestly it's really easy for me now. - Once you get the hang of them look at a couple of frameworks - I have used Bootstrap and Skeleton and putting them on a resume is an easy +1.

The biggest thing that has helped with Javascript for me is game development, it's really fun and you have to have a decent understanding of javascript to make a playable game, it also gives you an opportunity to work on a bigger project. (thousands of lines of code) So you can get a better idea of how the overall layout mechanics of Javascript work. - So I would recommend making some simple games using just HTML5 canvas and vanilla Javascript with no libraries.

Books I would Recommend --

1. http://www.amazon.co.uk/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Sites/dp/1118008189
   
   
2. http://www.amazon.co.uk/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-end-Development/dp/1118531647
   
   
   
3. http://www.amazon.co.uk/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockford/dp/0596517742
   
   Youtube Channels
   
   
4. learn.codeAcademy - for Jquery, Modern tools professionals use
   
5. PHPacademy - for PHP, and some other stuff
   
6. DevTips
   
7. Jesse Warden - ( this guy has a GREAT javascript series, I would start with that for Javascript)
   
   

First of all, read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758

It may be old in internet years, but it's still very relevant and one of the best books when it comes to understanding how to create a user-friendly website.

There's definitely a lot more to creating solid website and to be honest, this might be a bit ambitious if you've never been involved in creating a website before. Don't let that stop you from trying though.

I’d recommend checking out “A Smarter Way To Learn JavaScript.” It’s an easy read with clear explanations and even has exercises to practice at the end of each chapter.

A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript. The new tech-assisted approach that requires half the effort https://www.amazon.com/dp/1497408180/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_iJfvDbBD0VNSZ

codecademy.com also has a ton of great resources, many of which are free, that you code along with the exercises. I’m a big fan of this site because you’re not watching videos, you’re actually going through the motions and typing everything out yourself.

Try a few different approaches from a mix of resources. For me, it helps to the hear the same concept a few different times in different ways in order for it all to click.

Good luck!

First up - do you have hosting? Can you install WordPress there? Have you written or edited posts and Pages on a WordPress site? If not, make that a priority.

mrstejdm's suggestions are excellent - much depends on how you prefer to learn (books? videos? articles?) so here are a few to get you started.

Resources
The Codex is surprisingly good, you could start there and supplement your learning with books and courses. Look out for Morten Rand-Hendriksen at Lynda.com and on Twitter. Great instructor.

The WordPress Handbook, also full of great, searchable information.

The Loop

• as discussed, a huge part of WordPress.
  
  The WPMUDev blog (https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/) has some great content too.
  
  Books
  Digging into WordPress by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr could be a good starting point (it's visually very attractive).
  
  Professional WordPress: Design and Development 3rd Edition is also very good.

I started in market research as well before transitioning to a UX Researcher. These are the standouts from the reading list I started with:

The Elements of User Experience - A great intro to the whole field of UX. In-depth and covers the user centered design process.

Don't Make Me Think Short but comprehensive book on usability.

Handbook of Usability Testing Everything you need to know about usability testing.

Interviewing Users This book is great and is one I go back to regularly. The author Steve Portigal, also has a podcast on user research, "Dollars to Donuts" which is worth checking out.

Another comment mentioned the Jeff Sauro book which is very good, and also the Userfocus blog and newsletter. I've done David Travis' courses as well and would recommend them to people new to the field.

https://www.usability.gov/ is a great resource for templates, methods, definitions etc.

NN/g and UIE are my two most read blogs/newsletters.

I like the mix of design and dev. In the position I have one week I’ll be designing a site or interviewing users and the next I’ll be developing a plugin for WordPress.

So, yes technically they’re exclusive but there are positions where you do both.

I started in https://codecademy.com did html/css, JS and PHP.

Then I started freelancing in my spare time building websites right after I learned the basics. That helped me a learn a ton that I probably wouldn’t have been motivated to learn on my own.

Then I was able to use the portfolio I’d built as a freelancer and land a the position I have now.

Now instead of freelancing in my spare time I help people try to take the same path I did.

UX is great to look into as well.

Here’s a few resources I’d suggest:

• https://uxplanet.org
  
• https://www.toptal.com/designers/blog
  
• https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/
  
  Some great books:
  
  Don’t make me think
  https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321344758/
  
  Intuitive Design
  https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999612506/

If you are just starting out or a beginner, it is really hard to learn from youtube videos. It's easy to falsely equate understanding a concept while watching a video with knowing how to implement it from scratch using your own hands. Videos become much more beneficial when you are trying to understand specific, advanced topics later on in your learning process.

There are definitely almost too many resources to learn JS. Because of this, I would recommend getting away from all of them because they will distract you and leave you overwhelmed. Instead, pick up a good textbook and go through it start to finish while practicing what you learn as you go along. A book I highly recommend is Javascript and jQuery. A lot of books teach you javascript without context, but this book is very geared towards actual implementation of JS to frontend development and building websites. As you read the book, don't be afraid to start creating your own websites on the side. Across the board - and I think I can speak for all advanced developers- creating your own projects from scratch is hands down the best way to burn the skill into your brain. Why? Because when you have a problem, you can't just immediately get the answer. You have to search around and try different things. You essentially spend more time with the problem and therefore will remember how to solve it next time you come across it. This is called learning. But you need the fundamentals first, which is why I recommended the textbook.

With that being said, a resource that combines videos with writing code that I really recommend is Codeschool. However, it requires a monthly payment. The benefit of that payment is that it will incentivize you to follow through, which is extremely important at the beginner level. When you are using free resources, you tend to get distracted and change to another one because they are unlimited with no switching costs.

I would advise against spreading yourself too thin by trying to tackle things like the MEAN stack (which has very specific use-cases) , postgresql, MVC and RestfulAPIs. Learn the fundamentals first, and then once you become more advanced you will naturally start learning those other things as you need them. You can only really learn those topics by implementing them in a project anyway.

To recap:

• 1. Learn the fundamentals via one resource
     
• 2. Stick with a resource you choose from start to finish
     
• 3. Use your learned knowledge to build your own websites/projects

I was in your situation a few months ago! I finished Codecademy and didn't know where to go next. I did Shay Howe's HTML/CSS course, which was great because you follow along step-by-step, but are continually building one project so you end up with something nice. Now I'm working through a free Udacity course (not sure yet whether I'd recommend it) and then I'm going to try the Code Camp or Odin Project like a few people here recommended. Also, I bought myself this book, its awesome.

Your new home will be the Chrome Developer Tools. If you prefer Firefox, the built-in tools are also pretty good, but consider installing Firebug too. With these tools, you can debug JavaScript and even interactively run JavaScript commands, but you can also inspect HTML and CSS to find problems. If you ever find yourself randomly changing lines of code and reloading the page to see what happens, you're doing it wrong.

If you don't already know JavaScript, I'd recommend JavaScript: The Good Parts to learn JavaScript as a pure language. It's actually a pretty decent language if you stick to the good parts. A lot of complaints about web development are rooted in earlier versions of JavaScript and earlier versions of browsers that had incompatible DOM APIs - the world is much better now.

HTML itself is pretty easy. It should take you hardly any time to learn HTML by itself.

For CSS, consider CSS3: The Missing Manual. Even if you're not a graphic designer and don't want to do fancy layout, you should at least dive into CSS enough to see how it can be used for things like animation and transitions (so you know what's possible with CSS and don't try to reinvent it with HTML and JavaScript).

The last step is putting it all together - using JavaScript to modify the HTML DOM in real-time using JavaScript, and using software running on your web server in Python, PHP, Ruby, or whatever language you prefer to generate the HTML dynamically. Once you're comfortable with the other pieces, you can dive into this last step - but here's where there's more than one way to do it. Some people prefer jQuery on the front end plus PHP on the back end, others prefer Node.js so they can use JavaScript throughout, then there's Angular plus Google App Engine, and so on.

It took time for me to get used to the mouse 15-20 years ago as well... but now, I can't imagine going back to console-only.



Likewise, I've been using the Win8 preview for a couple of months (since it was first released on the MSDN) and it was a shame that it had no tutorials or tips or anything like there was with Win7... but once I figured things out, it's pretty efficient for working.

A lot of people seem to be complaining under the guise of "usability", even those who appear to be educated or informed on the topic. There is a concept that some people seem to be confusing though. Usability for a website (a-la the classic, and still relevant, Don't Make Me Think ) is not the same as usability for an OS.

• It's not imperative that people know everything about your OS in <1s.
  
• Yes, a keyboard shortcut you used to use is different. That's ok.
  
• Yes, the shutdown button has been moved. You'll be alright.
  
• alt+tab is different from win+tab? Oh noes.
  
• etc.
  
  The valid complaint that I've actually heard from anyone who's used it for longer than few days is that there's no tutorial or guide for new/changed things. IIRC, there will be in RTM. Bitching about the pre-release apps (many of which were written by interns - good jobs on their part, but they're by no means production quality, release-day apps) says nothing about the OS itself.
  
  Like I said: I've used it for a couple of months now (didn't install the RC yet - still on the original preview that now has the disabled store) and I can honestly say that I find little change in my work habits, and I enjoy some of the new features (share charm mostly). It's basically Win7 with a huge start menu.

Ooooh you're a super new :)

Many people hate it but w3schools can get you started:

• http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
  
• http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
  
  If you want to buy books check out:
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/
  
  It's super noob friendly and the book looks amazing.
  
  Note for others: The same authors have a book on JS. Again it's mostly introduction material but it's fun to flip the pages :)
  
  (Not affiliated to the authors).

I agree with /u/Supernovadm I like tutorials where you can type the code rather than just read it. I think treehouse is great, especially when it comes to just starting.
If you pay for a month or two there you can rage through most of the html/css content they have and have a pretty good grasp.

If you're looking for a good book to start on these topics though I would suggest Html & Css: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett.

http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

It's a super simple book. Very Visual and easy to read. Great start. Hope this helps!

Here's my list of the classics:

General Computing

• But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone
  
  
• The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
  
  
• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
  
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  
  Computer Science
  
  
• The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science
  
  
• Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd Edition (aka The Dragon Book)
  
  
• The Art of Computer Programming
  
  
• Algorithms, 4th Edition
  
  
• Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (aka CLRS)
  
  
• Essential Algorithms: A Practical Approach to Computer Algorithms Using Python and C#, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide for Programmers and Other Curious People
  
  
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition (aka SICP, available for free on the MIT website)
  
  
• Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 4th Edition
  
  Software Development
  
  
• Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems by Martin Kleppmann
  
  
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (aka The Gang of Four)
  
  
• Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: your journey to mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  
  
• Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things
  
  
• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  
  
• Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual
  
  
• Hello, Startup: A Programmer's Guide to Building Products, Technologies, and Teams
  
  
• Hacker's Delight, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 3rd Edition
  
  Case Studies
  
  
• The Soul of a New Machine
  
  
• Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
  
  
• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
  
  
• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet
  
  
• Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer, 3rd Edition
  
  Employment
  
  
• Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions, 6th Edition
  
  
• The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job
  
  
• The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally
  
  
• The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
  
  Language-Specific
  
  C
  
  
• The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition
  
  Python
  
  
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
  
  
• Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python
  
  C#
  
  
• The C# Player's Guide, 3rd Edition
  
  C++
  
  
• The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with C++: from Control Structures to Objects, 9th Edition
  
  Java
  
  
• Introduction to Java Programming and Data Structures: Comprehensive Version, 11th Edition
  
  
• [Java: A Beginner's Guide](https://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Seventh-Herbert-Schildt/dp/1259589315/, 7th Edition)
  
  
• Java: The Complete Reference, 11th Edition
  
  
• Core Java Volume I - Fundamentals, 11th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through Objects, 6th Edition
  
  
• Effective Java, 3rd Edition
  
  Linux Shell Scripts
  
  
• The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Wicked Cool Shell Scripts: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and UNIX Systems, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible
  
  
• Mastering Linux Shell Scripting
  
  Web Development
  
  
• Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics, 5th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming, 3rd Edition (also available for free on the author's website)
  
  
• JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
  
  
• HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
  
  
• You Don't Know JS: Up & Going
  
  Ruby and Rails
  
  
• Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails, 4th Edition (Note: this book is somewhat out of date compared to the live version on the author's website.)
  
  
• The Well Grounded Rubyist, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer
  
  
• Agile Web Development with Rails 5.1
  
  
• Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, 4th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent Ruby
  
  Assembly
  
  
• Assembly Language for x86 Processors, 8th Edition

Ok so by reading the about section I understand the intent but I'm not sure how it's an improvement over my address bar in my browser.

I don't want to sound like a jerk. I just want to challenge your idea and if you are serious in any way about this project you'll have answers for this, I'm just curious what they are. Maybe the answer is as simple as "it's a personal challenge" or "I think I can do better than Google or Yahoo/Mozilla for this". And don't get me wrong they are all valid reasons.

Here's my honest (and hopefully constructive) feedback: if you're trying to help the user by limiting the input without explaining what's going on: you're making me think. Obviously you're trying to fix a user experience problem (bookmarks are good for specific content but what if I want to quickly access a website in general) so I'd consider hiring a UX expert.

A common advice in the UX world is: if users keep hitting a wall maybe you should put a door there.

By far, the most beautiful thing I have touched and own to gently bring a mature person into the craft I find great satisfaction from is HTML & CSS by Jon Ducket. I have it solely to share with others, this book isn't for me.

https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

The author guy fucking really cared about order of introducing things and the packaging he put it in. The paper quality-- the book is just nice to touch, there is stonking obvious attention to graphical detail. It makes no sense for me to be saying these things in a normal conversation, I'm not one of those "I love books, you'll tear the crusty pages from my dead hands" guy-- I just don't buy many paper books anymore. I bought this one and it is by far the most luxurious paperback I have ever come into contact with just in book binding and construction alone.

Amazon is charging $17 according to my screen. Worth every god damn penny. Perfect for a mildly computer literate beginner.

Not trying to be mean, but it sounds like you're in over your head. Seriously, if the site needs to be completed any time soon, I'd recommend outsourcing it, or advising the client to go a different route.

If you weren't given a design, and could jam whatever they wanted into an existing theme, then your "little HTML & CSS knowledge" would probably suffice. You're talking about building a custom theme. You need to know some PHP. You need to know how the WordPress templating system works. You need to be able to set up an SQL database.

Luckily, WordPress has some great documentation: http://codex.wordpress.org/ but it sounds like you won't have the time to learn WordPress properly. If you are serious about WordPress, and would like to get a firm grasp of it at some point (and I think you should, it's very popular and useful), you can check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-WordPress-Development-Brad-Williams/dp/111844227X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1409097469&sr=8-5&keywords=wordpress

EDIT: Also, check out /r/wordpress

Does only coming from a sys admin background count as no prior experience to web programming? I just was given access to the static company site about a year ago and was tasked with updating it since then. Fast forward to about 5 weeks ago and I decided to teach myself WordPress + LAMP then LEMP. L(A/E)MP = Linux, Apache/Nginx ("Engine-X"), MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP/Python (bottle.py).

I knew PHP and Linux from system management of random servers at work and through consultations with my personal business.

If you're asking for advice on where to start, it seems that the current best practice is to go on codeacademy.com and accompany that work with the Jon Duckett books on at least front end stuff including HTML/CSS/JS and maybe some jQuery.

http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/
http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647/

Cloud9 and GitHub are great first destinations for starting in development. You can go my route if you're feeling confident with system management and go for Amazon Web Services EC2 with a free (for a year!) micro instance that you can load with all kinds of stuff, including a basic Ubuntu server with LAMP (MySQL, PHP) that in-all takes less than an hour to get comfortable with and ready for a new page or even WordPress.

A significant amount of people here swear by laracasts.com as well once you're through the basic front end tech :)

Get the free version of Resolve. It's free, so why not? And it's got a very solid and pretty standard toolset.

The best resource I've found personally is Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook - it covers theory well, and includes practical details in a generic sense as well as going into the specifics of some popular tools.

He has also written the manual (literally) for DaVinci Resolve.

A few assorted musings...

I was looking at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance website yesterday and I was thinking that Lisk could benefit from its own business alliance. Is marketing trying to accomplish something similar?

Also, it seems like Lisk will be in a perfect position to offer well-established businesses something that Ethereum cannot: a platform to build their own blockchains. Would love to hear from the marketing team if this is something on their radar at the moment.

Finally, I got this in the mail yesterday and I am super excited to jump in with both feet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1497408180/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers everyone!

Hi Jaspar,

Note the following:

1. Is your app doing something that differentiates itself from the other apps that perform similar functions:
   
   1. Is your app limited to a subset of functions that other apps are already providing?
      
   2. Is it providing the exact same functions as other apps or does it do something unique that distinguishes itself?
      
   3. Is it providing a function that nobody else has thought of to do in a particular way?
      
2. Is your app presenting information succinctly:
   
   1. Is it easy to figure out from a glance and without reading any instructions?
      
   2. Does it require people to have any experience with other similar apps?
      
      1. I myself know a lot about programming but I know nothing with regards to Elo (I had to look it up). Only after I had read about Elo did I finally start relating to some of your screenshots and the description of your app. THAT is a problem. Your app should present enough to get me by without me having to look up how something is supposed to work.
         
   3. There is a book called "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. Read and understand it. https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758
      
3. Did you take the time to build this app or are you rushing?
   
   1. Are you doing this to make a quick buck for yourself??? If so then you are thinking this through wrong... you should do this because its fun for you and you are ok with days, weeks, months maybe even years of pain before you get any kind of financial reward.
      
      1. Your immediate reward is the "coolness" of making something that makes you feel proud of yourself.
         
   2. For every "Yes" on your app was there at least several "No"? Did you reflect before doing something? On wether or not its been done before, and wether or not you were doing something new and exciting?
      
   3. Did you ask other peoples advice? Not just other developers or programmers but actual people who love music and who will eventually be the users of your app?

From one web designer to another, i tend to find that while it's nice to design for designs sake, with something like this you should be designing for functions sake. Things like the toolbelt bit on the left do admittedly have a charm to them, but they are unnecessary and end up looking a bit tacky instead.Same goes for the backgrounds on the different sections. a simpler background with transparency works much better for things like this.

Also, i'm struggling to really know which button i should be pressing to do certain functions. Is the red arrow bit a delete/drop button? If so, use tried and tested iconography. Stick an x in it instead of an arrow and stick it on the other side of the box in the corner so there's no chance of mistakenly clicking it.

The other buttons carry similar burdens. In the loot, you have a green tick and a grey arrow. Common sense and logic are telling me that the green tick is to put it in the inventory, and the grey arrow is to put it in the backpack. But then the same buttons appear over the coke can. The grey arrow still feels like it performs the same function, but now the green tick seems to embody a 'use' functionality.

Number one rule is "Don't make me think". You should read the book if you haven't already. It's very useful reading for web designers.

Aside from that, good first draft. I look forward to seeing your revisions after your feedback from the community :)

https://www.amazon.ca/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

HTML and CSS are typically complete different from JavaScript. I learned HTML and css first, but I see no reason why you can’t do concurrently. Just note JavaScript these days is pretty much using frameworks such as jQuery, Angular and React.js.

Regarding CSS being buggy, it’s something that just comes through experience and some stack overflow. I do use an IDLE such as Coda (for Mac) that helps me fill in the blanks for css.

Also, w3schools.com is my best friend.

Anyways hope that helps!

I'd not recommend jumping straight into React if you're not familiar with programming languages and frameworks yet. That would be like trying to learn how to build a house before you even know a thing about plumbing and electrical.

Take the online courses other posters have linked, or if you like to go at your own pace, buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647

Then, make some HTML elements and try to play around with them in JS. Like change their CSS properties.

Then, play around with JS by itself in the console. Do some basic math, some string concatenation. Use a built-in data structure like an array or object literal and play around with their built in functions.

Then start writing your own functions. Make them do functional stuff like take two numbers and output the sum.

Then play around with objects and classes. Make some object with real life properties and methods. Like an animal.

Get more and more advanced. Start building simple webpages with custom animations and modules.

Eventually, get to AJAX and API calls.

THEN pick up React, to put everything together to make a dynamic web app.

did you try code academy? building a website or the like might be fun, I did a course there where you build AirBnB. Although I feel like hand holding, but good learning through fingers and visualizing.

A great way to get exposure through small short lessons and lots of online lessons is A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript by Mark Myers:

https://www.amazon.com/Smarter-JavaScript-tech-assisted-approach-requires/dp/1497408180/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1519871652&sr=8-3&keywords=a+smarter+way+to+learn&dpID=512KPmZIG7L&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

he has books on HTML/CSS and Python too. Have done the former, and also the JS book above. doesn't make you an expert or pro by any means, but it will give some comfort atleast of having processed each small lesson and take you through motions.

you could start with dreamweaver, but its not free and you'll have to learn it - however knowledge of it pays off. But there are alternatives...

beginner HTML - check out kompozer - http://kompozer.net/ this will let you get away with not learning anything...

more advanced? - lot of my developers use HTML-KIT http://www.htmlkit.com/

In the agencies I've been in - no one uses Dreamweaver, they're all in things like HTML-kit (which is really popular it seems) and some were using plugins for ECLIPSE.

CSS - without question. start here: http://www.csszengarden.com/
Read this book if you can: http://www.amazon.com/Transcending-CSS-Fine-Art-Design/dp/0321410971/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255578225&sr=8-2

avoid tables at all costs unless you have data that actually needs to be in table form..but don't style with them.

Read this book if you can: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255578275&sr=1-1

as far as flash goes, its a fantastic thing to know. are you into code? if so learn AS3 - its where all flash is going. If you want easier flash to learn, the "timeline based" standard flash would suit you well.

Also - check out javascript animation - things like JQUERY make stuff possible that looks like flash, but isn't. very cool.

and if you don't want to do any of this - just go get a template somewhere ( http://www.templatemonster.com/ ) and fill it in. get some photos from istock and poof - Mcwebsite. slap some google analytics code into the site and you now have tracking for your Mcwebsite.





My experience? - I produced quite a few large company websites (+$80,000.00 sites), and have worked with and hired designers and developers many times. I personally don't do any of the things they do, but I know what tools they choose to use in professional situations.

This book and this one

I bought the first one a little while ago (a few weeks) and have really only sat down at my computer and worked through some stuff for 2 or 3 nights a couple hours a night and have my site up already. While it's suuuper basic and there's going to be a lot more to come and probably a lot of design changes, it's exciting to know that you have a working website up.

I'm a full time student with a part time job and I've been working on webdev in the little free time I have and it's awesome. Start with some books, see if you're interested, then continue. I don't have any info on colleges or anything, sorry, that seemed to be what you're looking for.

Also, /r/webdev and /r/web_design are great resources! Good luck!

For UX:

'Don't Make Me Think' by Steve Krug. --> This is a great book for UX and design fundamentals

Link to purchase
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321344758/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=33857011795&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5285549020583777492&hvpone=22.79&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9tu6h5g71k_b

For Graphic Design Fundamentals:
'Creative Workshop - 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills'

Link to purchase
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972

For Design as a whole!
'The Design of Everyday Things'

Link to purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107

The UX book and Design as a whole books are shorter and will be quick to complete. However, the graphic design book will be quite challenging, especially if you aren't familiar with Adobe CS. But I assure you that you will be a much stronger designer afterwards. (When I first started off doing graphic design, I wish I had this book to give me projects to work on)

Overall, expect to spend ~$40 on all this, but these would be a great place to start I think. 1 month time to finish reading the books, and 3 months to finish all the graphic projects.

Hope this helps, good luck!

• Stephen, Student Advisor @ CodingDojo, a 12-week bootcamp for aspiring web developers in Seattle & SF (more info at http://codingdojo.com/l/info/r ).

First of all, don't worry too much about a single interview. A lot of interviewers don't really know what they're doing / why they are actually asking the questions they are asking. Usually, they're programmers--not experts at hiring people.

Having said that, you definitely want to be familiar with common "gotchas" and major issues in the languages/frameworks you will be using.

For JS, I recommend two books in particular: JavaScript: The Good Parts and JavaScript Patterns. I found these helpful because they cover all the major issues with the language and they are quite concise. These don't cover any frameworks like jQuery or Angular though--that's another matter altogether.

Also take a look here: https://github.com/h5bp/Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions
There's a good chance the interviewers will straight up copy questions from this list and you researching the answers will be a great learning experience.

There are tons a great resources online like http://css-tricks.com, http://marksheet.io (this one is great for beginners) .. play around on http://codepen.io .. Lynda.com was a great help for me when I first started, and if you're more into books.. it doesn't get much better than this ... https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

Have fun!

Good news: there's no need to be scared.

It was a previous version of this tutorial from Themeshaper that got me started on WordPress myself. Like anything else, just play with it until you're comfortable.

User roles are the last thing you need to worry about. Here's the summary from the WordPress codex. I'd actually recommend reading it from bottom to top. I make clients editors at most; I've never had one insist on being an admin.

What you'll really want to focus on is learning PHP if you haven't already, and WordPress themes.

If it's a good book you're after, the best one out there I've used is Professional Wordpress: Design and Development

Edit: Although it's good to build a couple themes from scratch — meaning creating all the template files yourself to understand how they work — eventually that'll get tedious as you'll find yourself constantly adding the same elements over and over. Underscores remedies this perfectly: it basically gives you a blank theme with everything you need ready to go. It's not a framework, just a head start. Highly recommended for picking apart and experimenting — and for building themes.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz. I totally disagree.

Most of the programs offered by schools are years behind in terms of technology and standard practices. Honest to god, watch YouTube videos -- not because it's free, but because the information is of much higher quality, it's more recent and relevant, and the speakers will teach you how to use the best tools and practices.

No one values a degree anymore. They want proof of your experience and to see how diverse and detailed is your thinking. The best way to do that is put together a portfolio, jump into the first agency role that accepts you, and then you'll get real-life experience working on 40-50 projects per year. You'll quickly learn how the real world works and use that experience and feedback to sharpen your axe.

NOTHING beats Real-life experience.

And honestly start here.

Hi. Great looking site. I really don't have too much to say on the design front, since I'm not really a designer.But here are few things I noticed as a user:

1. As a user, I'd like to know what is your site from the moment I'm on it. I really don't want you to make me think. I shouldn't have to click 2 times ( homepage->shop or homepage->picture) to know that its a e-commerce site and that you are selling handbags.
   
   
   
2. The shop button in the navigation bar doesn't throw up any drop down menu or any information about what store I'm entering. Again, as a shopper would you just enter a store without even knowing they sold?
   
   
   
   
   
3. The picture on your homepage- the lady in blue holding a bag, doesn't really give the idea that you want me, as a customer to focus on the clutch. I frankly thought the focus was on the blue dress the lady was wearing until I clicked on it.
   
   
   
   
   
   I'd recommend you check out this book, Don't make me think by Steve Krug. Some of the advice might be really outdated now. But generally they are solid pointers to really build a great website.
   
   
   
   All the best and keep us posted!
   
   Edit: formatting,etc
   
   Edit2: Another point if I may add, you might want to move the "Free Shipping for all orders" text to somewhere below the shopping cart symbol. The space next to your logo could instead be used to mention something about your brand/your slogan,etc

I'd be glad to. To start, here are some terms to look for:

1. IxD / Interaction Design
   
2. UX / User Experience Design
   
3. HCI / Human-Computer Interaction
   
4. Goal-Directed Design
   
   "The Crystal Goblet" explains the aim of print design, which is a good precurser to reading about interactive design media.
   
   As far as books go, I strongly recommend About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. It's a fairly long book, but it's worth reading to build a strong foundation of understanding in IxD.
   
   A lot of IxD is about effectively using visual design to achieve goals. If you want to understand the visual tools of IxD after finding the theory interesting, you might read the mistitled Layout Workbook (or any other overview book; it's not actually a book about layouts — nor a workbook), followed by Bringhurst for advanced traditional typography.
   
   Rocket Surgery Made Easy and other Steve Krug books are commonly suggested for more IxD topics, but I haven't gotten around to reading them. It's likely they're lighter reading than About Face 3.

Definitely looking better. I still think you need to cut the word count, especially on the services page.

One of the first things my web design theory lecturer taught me was: no one will ever read your website. That's really hard to hear because you want everyone to know what you're trying to get across. But look at a lot of the big .com businesses and they use so few words, or they break them up. For a site like yours, selling services, people are just too lazy to read.

I'd cut your services word count in half. It's tough but possible. Use big headers for each section, one short sentence and then some bullet points or something.

I recommend reading 'Don't Make Me Think' - it's a great book that explains this sort of stuff. It looks at the usability aspects of sites and you can apply that knowledge to any type of company site. It's really short and easy to read and probably one of the best web architecture books I've read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334241134&sr=8-1

This may be a little off topic, but since you are starting to learn I wanted to give some advice!

I've been doing HTML/CSS for about 3 years but never touched Javascript/jQuery. Boy, what a mistake. I just bought a book: "JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual" (recommended by someone on here!) and it's so great. There's also some courses on Codecademy :)

js/jq work together to make your website look really fresh and most of the examples you see in this thread will use them. js/jq allow the website to respond to user actions without loading a new page; and this (to me) is one of the biggest signals if a website is "up to date" or not.

I highly recommend starting to learn js and jq.

Bonus: To stay on topic, check out the winners of the Webby awards here! Although many aren't made with simple HTML/CSS there is some serious talent there.

Honestly I don't think there is a need for this since there are a few excellent javascript books. But they are hide to find among the many many crappy books out there.

JavaScript: The Good Parts is pretty much the most important Javascript out there. It basically shows all the quirks of the language and gives tips on what to avoid and best practices.

JavaScript Patterns continues and goes into more depth and covers more advanced usage.

High Performance JavaScript goes into great depths on how you can make your js code more efficient and fast.

Depends on what you want to do — UX is a pretty broad field. I'm a user interface designer with a UX background, which means I've designed sites, web apps and mobile apps, but there's plenty of UX positions that don't require any sort of visual design or front-end development experience.

For example, there are labs that conduct user research and interviews, run focus groups, or do user testing. Hell, you could even apply to be a user tester at a site like usertesting.com. Not sure how much money you can make from that, but it's something.

Also, there are UX positions that go from beginning research and discovery for projects up through the wireframing, which doesn't require any visual design experience. You'll usually hand off your UX work to a designer or a developer to implement.

Some good books to read about UX are:

• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
• Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug
  
• About Face 3 by a couple people
  
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
  
• The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper
  
• The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett
  
  There's also plenty of online resources about UX. Smashing Magazine has a ton of articles on it.
  
  If you are good at puzzles, love solving complex problems, and contain any shred of empathy, user experience could be a good field for you.

It sounds like you don't understand the basics of programming logic, and not JS / JQuery. There are fundamentals you need to first learn before you take on any kind of programming and that is how it actually works and how things are manipulated.

The difference between HTML / CSS and any programming language is that HTML / CSS are declarative languages meaning you say what you are going to do (i.e. background-color: blue;) whereas programing languages are dynamic. It will take some time for you to get used to, but like all things it requires a lot of practice. I would also suggest reading some books. I bought and read JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development and it helped me make sense of things.

Others have said build something instead of just doing codeacademy and I completely agree. Though it will be confusing and hard to begin with, it will help you understand the basics. A few good things you could build could be:

• A functional web calculator (probably the best)
  
• Randomized quote of the day (onClick or load, storing strings as variables and push to an array)
  
• Buttons that do different tasks (open a hidden item, make something bigger, etc)
  
• Rock, Paper, Scissors (I think codecademy does this).
  
  I would say do the web calculator, you would have to do the HTML / CSS (yes make it look pretty like the calculator on your phone), and then build the functionality.

Hi there,

If your primary interest is in blogging, I would recommend an existing platform like Ghost to get you up and running quickly. However, it sounds like you're more interested in web programming, with blogs being an interesting application.

These days, a lot of web applications are written with scripting languages, primarily Python, Ruby, or Javascript[1]. Each of these have many web frameworks to help you write your server application, but the big ones are:

• Ruby: Ruby on Rails
  
• Python: Django
  
• Javascript: Express.js
  
  If you're already familiar with one of those languages, obviously you should heavily consider exploring its frameworks. Alternatively, you should research the languages and their frameworks on a high level and get an understanding of their core differentiating features before choosing one.
  
  Personally, I'm a lover of JS and node since that allows you to write your entire stack in Javascript, but there are those in this subreddit who call me a fanboy :)
  
  Regarding your client, any behavioral logic is going to be done in Javascript, the markdown will be in HTML, and your layout and style will be in CSS [2] - no way around that, so you better get familiar.
  
  Excellent intro to modern HTML/CSS
  
  Excellent intro to Javascript
  
  [1] Javascript executes in a unique server environment via Node.js, utilizing Chrome's v8 JS engine.
  
  [2] Of course there are languages like Coffeescript and Compass that compile to JS and CSS, this is probably beyond the spirit of the question.

Two of the best books on beginning web development are those by Jon Duckett IMO. They are an absolute master class in simplicity and understanding for those new to web development.

https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647

The physical copies of these books are absolutely beautiful, the typeface, margins, and colors are very well thought out and done.

The book isn't structured like typical programming books. There is an emphasis on completing projects every chapter rather than "theory."

If you are a beginner I would definitely recommended it. Please look in the "peak inside" on amazon. They are definitely unique and well made.

If I could do it all over again, I would:

1. Buy HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett
   
   
2. Buy JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development by Jon Duckett
   
   
3. Build stuff. I cannot emphasize this enough - I literally can't, Reddit won't let me. But this is where the rubber meets the road. You can read all the books you want; take all the tutorials but nothing will grow your skills quite like developing something from scratch.
   
   
4. Know this: being a front-end developer means you will always be learning (and if you're not, time for a new job). Good luck!
   
   ** I am not Jon Duckett but I do love his books.

I think it's more common to go from web design to UI/UX, it's a natural transition. There's a lot you can learn from web design that applies to UI UX.

As far as straight up knowledge goes:

Nielsen Norman

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Material Design

Smashing Magazine

As far as practice goes I'm currently doing something that has helped me immensively lately. I'm copying an app or web site UI that I like every day in Figma, but you can use any design software - like Sketch, XD, Photoshop, etc. And then at least once a week, I make something original with the knowledge I've gained from the practice.

Hey Joao,

I've started with codeacademy html/css courses and then I bought the Jon Ducket's 'HTML and CSS: Design and build websites'' book. Those gave me a great base and six months later I'm glad to be here at reddit giving you those tips even if I'm not a webdesign ninja (yet!).

Here's some links:
http://www.codeacademy.com
http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

Feel free to PM me if you need more tips and good luck!

www.w3schools.com is my go-to favorite for learning basics. There are courses laid out to learn the basics of HTML, CSS, Java, and more scripting, and is pretty well done if you're the kind of person who needs to do it yourself to see it work. Other than that my new favorite book is HTML & CSS that is super well laid out and newbie friendly.

Don't make me think - The seminal book on web usability

The definitive guide to HTML5 - Great book to cement your current knowledge of HTML,CSS,and jscript while preparing you for more advanced concepts.

White space is not your enemy - I think this is the book every non designer should start with. It's the best introduction to the art of expressing through visual communication and introduces concepts that you'll start tweaking on your own as your repertoire and skill grows. It also introduces some valuable habits necessary of all designers.

Naturally these are just the books I would reccomend. I would also supplement them with up to date standards like Opera Web Standards Curriculm and active javascript practice that sites such as Codeacademy offer.

EDIT: Apparently, Opera's updated it's standard and donated them to W3

Interaction Design

• About Face 3 by Alan Cooper
  
• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
  
• Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell
  
• Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
  
• Making Things Talk: (2011) (2007) by Tom Igoe
  
  Interior Design
  
  
• The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden, Jr. Codman
  
• Domino: The Book of Decorating by Deborah Needleman
  
• Design*Sponge at Home: A Guide to Inspiring Homes by Grace Bonney
  
• The Vintage/Modern Home by Katherine Sorrell
  
• The Fundamentals of Interior Design by Simon Dodsworth
  
  Landscape Architecture
  
  
• Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards by Leonard J. Hopper
  
• Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
  
• Landscape Graphics by Grant W. Reid
  
• Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg
  
  Lighting Design
  
  
• Stage Lighting Design by Richard Pilbrow
  
• The Architecture of Natural Light by Henry Plummer
  
• Painting With Light by John Alton
  
• Made of Light by Anthony Tischhauser
  
• Color, Environment and Human Response by Frank H. Mahnke & Rudolf H. Mahnke
  
  Product Design
  
  
• Sketching: Drawing Techniques from Product Designers by Koos Eissen
  
• Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
  
• The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
  
• Mythologies by Roland Barthes
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
  Product Design
  
  
• In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara
  
• The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore
  
• Universal Methods of Design by Bruce Hanington & Bella Martin
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
• Mental Models by Indi Young
  
  Sound Design
  
  
• Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein
  
• Designing Sound by Andy Farnell
  
• Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen by Michel Chion
  
• The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers
  
• Sound Theory Sound Practice by Rick Altman
  
  Urban Design
  
  
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
  * Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
  
• The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
  
• The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
  
  Web Design
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
• HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites by Jon Duckett
  
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird
  
• Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS by Ben Frain
  
• Hardboiled Web Design by Andy Clarke
  

In that case, I recommend:

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
  
• Game Design Workshop
  
• Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug
  
  That last one is technically a book about website usability, but a lot of the things in there carry over (in addition to some advice on e.g. user testing).
  
  As you don't have much programming experience, I highly recommend GameMaker (There's a free version if you scroll down and find the 'Lite' version download). It's a surprisingly powerful tool, and also has a scripting language.

I'm no professional either but I'm graduating in a year with a concentration in web...to help myself out on the side I got this book this summer.
http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345693534&sr=1-1&keywords=html5+and+css3
I knew a lot of things from the book, but it goes into great detail and even I learned a lot. I think it's a great resource to learn the basics and even some advanced things.

I rather like this book, but I read it many years ago: http://www.amazon.com/CSS3-Missing-David-Sawyer-McFarland/dp/1449325947/

As for fonts, it's okay to use 2 fonts, but generally don't use more than that. Less is more. Here's a good website that lists good Google web fonts (and some font pairings): http://hellohappy.org/beautiful-web-type/

Also for medium/larger sized projects, I recommend using a framework like Bootstrap, follow their markup and you can restyle after. This way you can have more consistent look.

This PDF will give you a pretty basic understanding of print design, and creating a portfolio, and it's free!
http://www.portfoliohandbook.com/PortfolioHandbook_UCID12.pdf


i've grabbed a stack off my shelf, i'll list a few here

[Thinking with type] (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695) (Typography)

[Layout Workbook] (http://www.amazon.com/Layout-Workbook-Real-World-Building-Graphic/dp/1592533523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116370&sr=1-1&keywords=layout+workbook+a+real-world+guide+to+building+pages+in+graphic+design) (Typography & Page Layouts)

[Production for Graphic Designers] (http://www.amazon.com/Layout-Workbook-Real-World-Building-Graphic/dp/1592533523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116370&sr=1-1&keywords=layout+workbook+a+real-world+guide+to+building+pages+in+graphic+design)
(This one is more technical, Printing, Final Art Production, Etc.)

[Designing with Type] (http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Type-5th-Essential-Typography/dp/0823014134/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116474&sr=1-1&keywords=designing+with+type) (Typography)

[Type & Image] (http://www.amazon.com/Type-Image-Language-Graphic-Design/dp/0471284920/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116510&sr=1-1&keywords=type+and+image) (Combining Typography & Imagery)

[Color & Type for the Screen] (http://www.amazon.com/Color-Type-Screen-CD-ROM-Digital/dp/2880463297/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116649&sr=1-1&keywords=color+and+type+for+the+screen) (Web Typography)

[The Element of User Experience] (http://www.amazon.com/Elements-User-Experience-User-Centered-Design/dp/0321683684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116686&sr=1-1&keywords=elements+of+user+experience+by+jesse+garrett) (User Experience/Web Design)

[Don't Make Me Think] (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374116719&sr=1-1&keywords=dont+make+me+think) (User Experience/Web Design)

There are also a ton of threads here on Reddit about Design books alone, and there is still the rest of the internet!
These are most of the books I got from my first two years at well respected design program, some are more helpful than others. But it doesn't hurt to read!

Also if you really want to give this a shot, work your ass off! Know that there is someone out there that is willing to (and probably is) working harder at it than you! Design is just like any other field of business, you gotta put in the work to get what you want.

\> "The thing which might be getting in the way is your attitude."

​

I have a big ege and also ADHD. See: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcr3tdUCbQaZGyjf0Bp9E6gj2pWxLrVw

​

If you hire me, you also get my ego and my ADHD (mental health related) because those things are part of me.

​

\> "but if it does, when you leave out an impression of very annoying type of beginner/junior who probably gonna be resistant to learning anything."

​

I am annoying (I got it from my mother). I like attention. That being said, I can learn a lot really fast.

​

See: https://twitter.com/JohnReedForPres/status/1107447298043375616

​

Because of my attention span, I can hyper-focus on things that I am interested in and cram really fast. I don't really consider myself junior at say Bank of America because I wrote and provided the setup instructions, tutorials, educational resources, and even the plan for a new microservice, and people maybe 15 years my senior followed what I layed out. Because of my obsessive cramming of technical information, I can become a subject matter expert. I can also write a lot of code very very fast. For example, in college, I wrote maybe 15,000 lines of Java code in a 7 day (168 hour period) in coordination with a friend who added (I dunno 7k lines of code). I did the backend and he did the frontend.

​

\> "who probably gonna be resistant to learning anything."

​

Because of my ADHD, I don't listen to verbal commands well, but I do accept reasoning in written and textual formats. For example, I communicate better over text than spoken word, and I can text super fast on my phone. My texting is as fast as my computer typing, and I also take email, Tweets, and other form of text-based communication.

​

\> "I think this highlights it in particular. Provided it showed up in somewhat generally condescending context. It appears that instead of thinking that there is a reason for it, you write it off as something stupid."

​

I don't mean that the fact that people want braindead simple stuff is stupid. I think that is great. I think that most people are unintelligent relative to me, and also technologically inept, and so the design has to be made with that in account. "Don't make me think!".

Definitely learn a client side framework as conservative_punk suggested, but I won't take for granted that you even know HTML. You need to learn HTML before anything else, and then some basic Javascript.

Read this book in less than a week and then move on from HTML:
https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

Consider something like CodeSchool for its JavaScript path as well (which includes frameworks like React/Angular). It also has an ASP.NET Core MVC course. Good luck.

Don't Make Me Think is a great book on usability, I'd start with that. If you try to make your interface easy to use you'll often end up making it look better. Beyond that my best advice would be analysing things other people have made and trying to work out which techniques you can appropriate for yourself.

Oh, and whitespace is your friend. Give stuff room to breathe, even if it means you end up needing more space.

Thanks a ton for the sub, glad you found the video helpful :). Not sure of any tutorials off the top of my head, but this book is a fantastic companion for anyone looking to up their HTML / CSS skills:

https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

Very clear and easy to understand explanations, I haven't come across a better resource yet.

My route to building websites was basically Codecademy for HTML/CSS and then these two books (probably out date here):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Website-Missing-Matthew-MacDonald/dp/1491918071/

&

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-WordPress-Development-Brad-Williams/dp/1118987241/

and any foundation knowledge gaps from these two were plugged by searching the Wordpress Codex which is the knowledge base: https://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development and quite often WP Beginner: https://www.wpbeginner.com/

I also saw this posted here which I bookmarked as I though it was useful: https://medium.com/@adamchodson/barebones-approach-to-developing-a-modern-wordpress-theme-6fc44ab7a25b?sk=0511e966debf50d4b6e88a966c7791d7

I didn't really use YouTube although it's undeniably has the potential to be a great learning resource.

Only disclaimer I have is that I'm a hobbyist Web Dev and don't do it as my full time job. There's people out there who can definitely recommend a better approach to take to learning WordPress then what I've written. YMMV.

I think this might be better in /r/editors

Meanwhile Alexis Van Hurkman's book is fantastic.

Tao of Color has a great free newsletter that'll help you get your feet wet.

MixingLight.com is a great (paid) resource.

You need a calibrated monitor (not a calibrator - most screens will not work for correction) - FSI Monitors

Some people might sometimes recommend Javascript: The Definitive Guide but that one's really more of a tome or reference book. It's sort of the be-all, end-all of Javascript, but really REALLY not fun to learn from. Very dense and dry.

I've heard really good things about JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development. Or you could get the combined HTML, CSS, JS set.

I don't know those first-hand though. I've just heard good things and the design is beautiful. First-hand, I know that JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual is good. I really like The Missing Manual series in general.

This is what I have been using. It's not an idiots guide but the layout is very easy to follow and before starting a new section the book will show you the functions and what they are intended for. This is a great place to start. Half of the book covers html, the other half is for css. However, the book only touches on html5 as it was not implemented widely yet.

For more in depth tutorials, check out this site. It is a gold mine of information and has really helped me

Cheer.

I've recently been working on my JS skills and heres a few resources I've found super useful:

Books:

Javascript Patterns

Javascript: The Good Parts

Javascript: The Definitive Guide (While an exhausive resource on the topic, this one is a bit verbose)

Web:

Mozilla's Javascript Guide (One of the best free online javascript guides/references.

How to Node (Tutorials on server-side Node.js)

Daily JS (Interesting JS related news)

Echo JS (Similar to above but updates less frequently)

Hacker News (This is more general tech news but there is a ton of useful web stuff, especially as node.js is currently a hot topic. Reddit actually spawned from HN)

Online Videos (free)

Douglas Crockford's Javascript Lectures (I would recommend these to anyone getting into javascript)

Not annoying. It's a good question. Every icon has three states, default, hover, and active. The importance of these states is to give feedback to the user. There is a book called Don't make me think and it explains that the user should be able to navigate a site without thinking. This is done by meeting user expectations.

When a user hovers over a button it should react in some way to inform the user that it is indeed a button and they can click it. When a user clicks the button it should again react so that the user doesn't have to think about weather their click worked.

The button does turn your mouse into a pointer on hover, but that is not the expected reaction. The mouse should stay the way it is and the button should change. That is what all users have come to expect.

Some possible ways to achieve this.

• Change the button color on hover then change it to a different color or back to the first color on click.
  
• Change the opacity to something like .7 by default, .9 on hover, 1 on click.
  
• Make the button get bigger or smaller on hover then change again on click. (This one is complicated because you have to make sure the other buttons don't move if they're float left or display inline.)
  
  They are many more options like adding borders, shadows, etc. Pretty much anything that css has to offer.

I'm going to be blunt, but point you in the right way. Honestly, this footage is all so crushed/blown out I wouldn't hire you. I do think, however, that there is a world of low and no budget filmmakers who would love to have your services (no pay) as it's a step above magic bullet.

I'd recommend trying to maximize the data and pulling a look out of it, instead of forcing one onto it with curves and gamma corrections. Less is more in most cases. Alexis Van Hurkman has a great intro book called Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema.

• A posh old Englishman
  
  
  
• Most "oh god, I would never be seen with this in public" (this one was hard as I'm pretty ok with being seen with anything from my lists)
  
  
  
• Most phallic
  
  
• Geekiest
  
  
  
• Would most help me achieve a goal
  
  
  
• Best to bring to a deserted island (in Kitchen & Food list)
  
  Thanks for the fun contest!

Eloquent Javascript

You Don't Know Javascript

Wes Bros (not all are free, but lots are and he has lots on Youtube. if you want some of the paid ones, there are ways, Yarrrrrr. But if you can, buy it as it's not that expensive and he's a kick ass teacher. If you can't afford them, yarrrrrrrr! Then when you get a job, go and buy them so you're not a dick.

Advent of Coding - Great fun, you'll likely only get the first few to start, but you can read other's code to see how "professionals" do it.

There are a number of other sites for coding practice like... I think... leetcode? Something like that. Codewars. There's a ninja themed one as well. Do a couple google searches and you should have tons.

Oh, and the book JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development is a great book for starting out, it's dry as hell, but it's full of everything you want to know. The link is not an affiliate or whatever, I get nothing, just read it.

First of all, for any software development questions you may have, I suggest you post your questions on Stackoverflow because the people there will surely provide you with answers.

Now, for a list of books I recommend:

JavaScript

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide; if you're new to JS, start with this one.

JavaScript: The Good Parts; not a beginner's book, but a must-read if you are going to use JS

If you are going to be using JS, you will most probably be developing using a framework, and for that I seriously recommend mastering jQuery because as they say, you will write less and do more!

CSS

CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions

Web Usability

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability; the book that shows the users' perspective when viewing a website

Performance

High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers and Even Faster Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers;if you want to get serious about performance for your websites

Are you a visual learner?
There’s Jon Duckett’s HTML & CSS

I would say this book is an oldie, but a goodie because even though this was published almost 8 years ago, it’s a good book to learn the fundamentals and it has good visual aids that go along with the concepts being taught.

There’s also Jennifer Robbins’s Learning Web Design

This book teaches you HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It’s a good book, it has plenty of exercises and from my experience, it’s a good reference book for concepts.

Not all web dev work is making websites from scratch. Plenty of companies have websites already that they would like to add functionality to.

If you do have clients that want you to handle design you can subcontract without cutting into your costs too much. Designer hours are cheaper than programmer hours. If you really want to do it yourself, I'd recommend Don't Make Me Think for usability and The principles of Beautiful Web Design for making it pretty.

Other suggestions here are good. Use bootstrap and Kuler.

Don't learn flash.

From your link, I'm guessing you're looking for aesthetics. The main idea is to think about how paper based content is layed out. Structure, hierarchy and usability heurisitcs will in turn make your sites look better.

Colours, fonts and the like are subjective; but you can't beat content which has great usability.

My course book for Web development was Web Design: A complete introduction, the technology it mentions is somewhat outdated but the design principles hold up well I found (2006).

Here's a list of books for web design by Creative Bloq:

http://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/books-web-designers-11122782

My personal favourite:
Content Management:
http://www.amazon.com/Content-Strategy-Voices-That-Matter/dp/0321808304/ref=sr_1_1?tag=georiot-cbq-20&ie=UTF8&qid=1352287559&sr=8-1%3fie%3dUTF8&ascsubtag=hawk-884446355-21

Usability:
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/?tag=georiot-cbq-20&ie=UTF8&ascsubtag=hawk-318142612-21

I wrote this previously to answer the same question someone else was asking—

​

This is what many of the cool kids (and your new competition) are doing:

• GA UX Design Immersive: https://generalassemb.ly/ (I've met a bunch of 'grads' of the GA course and they all seem decently well equipped to tackle junior level UX positions, although GA's course seems weak on tools and stronger on process.)
  
• Jared Spool's: http://centercentre.com/ (Jared Spool is one of the industry leaders in UX)
  
• Interaction Design Foundation (One of the mods of this subreddit has bad things to say about IDF. I've reviewed their content before and it seemed fine at a glance.): https://www.interaction-design.org/
  
• University of Michigan UX Micromasters: https://ai.umich.edu/portfolio/user-experience-micromasters/
  
• University of Washington Certificate in UX&Visual Design: https://www.pce.uw.edu/certificates/ux-and-visual-interface-design
  
• IDEO+Acumen 9-Week Human Centered Design course: https://www.plusacumen.org/courses/introduction-human-centered-design
  
  There are a lot of programs around right now to help career-changers get their foot into UX Design. Do not follow the advice of youtubers. A lot of the core of UX you cannot really learn without being hands on. Moderating user tests, ideation sessions, conducting interviews, and group/team activities like journey mapping, persona building, affinity diagramming, card sorts, etc. all need to be done in collaboration with other people.
  
  Additional knowledge in subjects like Human Factors, Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, User Interface Design, Motion Design, User Research, is also attractive in someone who is transitioning into UX Design.
  
  Otherwise, start reading through this list: https://designerhangout.co/books
  
  The first two on the list are especially good:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/1452654123
  
  A side note: As a UX designer, you'll likely have to wear even more hats. And be better at wearing them too.

Html & css:
https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

Also I assume you mean Javascript? Otherwise that's a pretty odd combo. A good Javascript book is this one by the same author:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1118531647

Used both of these for school. Very easy to read and surprisingly comprehensive. Very pretty as well

PS: people don't generally call html and css programming languages

Yes, It's a lovely 8 bit monitor. ruxxS said he(?) wants to learn colour grading. You simply can not grade with an 8 bit monitor.

I did recommend a monitor that is actually not that far off his budget - compared to what colour grading monitors usually cost. Yes it's almost double what he wants to pay but it will support him in his goal of learning.

I remember when I set out to learn the flute. I borrowed one from the school and shot ahead of everyone else. So, I was asked to teach the other wannabe flutists. They could barely make a note on their instruments. So I tried to play their instruments and I could barely make a sound either. That's when I learned that giving a student a 'student grade' instrument is a very bad idea. If ruxxS wants to learn, I want him to at least not be sabotaged by an inadequate instrument.

ruxxS, while you are at it, you may want to see if you can find a copy of this book. It is basically THE textbook for colourists. Good luck.

I'd start by reading the bible ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314175129&sr=8-1 ) if you havn't already. Even the second edition is getting a bit old now but the lessons in it will always be true.

With ios development, things are a bit easier in terms of UI. Mainly because of the touch gestures (touch what you want, pinch to zoom etc.) but I think the thing to make sure about is clear navigation. Whether your making a game, information or utility app; getting to where you want quickly is key with iphone users.

> Learn enough Wordpress / CSS to build myself?

This is the book I used to learn HTML/CSS: http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407007366&sr=8-1&keywords=html+and+css

After I read the book I did this tutorial in about a week: http://courses.tutsplus.com/courses/30-days-to-learn-html-css

After that I knew enough to mess around and edit Wordpress templates and actually got a job "building Wordpress sites" aka just customizing themes with CSS.

The reason I really like that book is it's great for a beginner. It's not overwhelming at all. It's basically left page is code, right page is what the code will look like. Later on I went back and read 2 books that were more like textbooks on HTML and CSS to get a more in depth understanding.

Hope that can help.

I agree.

1. branding doesn't seem professional. Seems more like a mirror of the piratebay than a decentralized currency. The pirate theme has overtones of illegitimacy and illegality which are already inferred in the domain of exchanges and don't need further emphasis.
   
   
2. Simplify the value proposition. In 10 words or less, why do I need safex?
   
   
3. Clarify the use cases and provide examples.
   
   
4. Roadmap is buried near the bottom. Should have link to roadmap on top and or bottom of site.
   
   
5. Clarify which use cases can be done today with safex and what features are in progress.
   
   There's a race towards decentralized exchanges, especially for crypto currencies where ownership of your own keys and assets is essential for security. If safex doesn't do a more effective job at both communicating its value proposition and delivering features, other projects will gain an entranched foothold in the space (e.g. waves, block, bitshares).
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758

I basically agree with Synthetic88. I'd ditch the Flash site altogether, though. I didn't realize there was an HTML version until I went back to the "start" page and scanned carefully. The HTML page is a lot better, I think. I'd set that as your main page, though it definitely could use a palette change. Check out that close-up picture of those mallets for inspiration. Also, to make things more obvious links should be a different color than plain-text. In the links section the "launch related site" link is redundant as clicking on the link preceding it will take you to the same destination.

It may be worth investing in a book on HTML (this looks like a good one) so you can have finer control over your site. It may seem like a daunting task, but it's really quite easy to get a static site such as yours up and running in HTML once you get the syntax down.

I can't recommend anything offhand, but I'm there's bound to be books aimed at someone in your position: coders who have to produce decent web/web application interfaces.

Robin Williams' (no, not the actor) books like her Non-Designer's Design Book are good introductions to basic principles of layout.

Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability and Krug's Don't Make Me Think cover principles of good interface design. This looks promising too: Designing The Obvious.

Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema by Alexis Van Hurkman

Colorgradingcentral.com

Lynda.com

I prefer Davinci Resolve Lite as a starting platform but many of the techniques you learn in resolve apply to things as simple as the Fast / 3 Way Color Correctors in Premiere, Final Cut, and Avid. The difference being the color handling, ability to isolate secondaries, masking / tracking, etc.

Learn scopes first, then how to color correct (where skin tone should be on vectorscope / waveform), then learn the creative part of grading.

Grading your images before your shots match is only going to make it worse.

Save yourself time in post: invest in a color checker / gray card /spyder system (a must if you are matching different cameras).

The way you are able to grade also depends on your footage. If it's raw, you can process it differently than if it was shot highly compressed.

I would put color grading up there with sound design. It's complex, time consuming, and adds a ton of production value when done well. BUT, on most full scale productions, it is handled by a team of people.

Use a light touch. Be subtle. "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

I would add that if they go with Django, Two Scoops of Django is a really good book for helping to go from a website that works, to one that takes advantage of what Django can do. I would also recommend Test-Driven Development with Python which is a free online ebook that can really help you figure out how to build tests.

I started out learning by reading this book, HTML and CSS. Then I did a bunch of free tutorials on Tutsplus.com as well as watch a bunch of YouTube videos. After that I went back and bought another HTML/CSS book but it was more "textbook" like so I could learn it further in depth.

After this I had enough skill to get hired at a company doing HTML/CSS work, it wasn't great pay but it was a job and it allowed me to further learn on the job.

Then I did the same thing with Javascript, using this book first, Javascript & JQuery, followed by free tutorials online, then purchasing a more "textbook" type book on the subject.

Also for some of the "textbook" type books I ended up buying, I just recently got a membership card at my local library and they had those book there so if I'd known that when I was learning I could have checked out those books for free, so check and see what your local library has.

Also another thing I did was check out my local community college, they had really cheap classes that I ended up taking online.

These two books are what started me on my path. I already had bags of experience working with a multitude of programming languages but both of these books will assume zero experience and you should be able to learn the basics of everything you need. Read them in this order as all you need to actually make a static website is in the first book.

HTML & CSS - John Duckett

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Sites/dp/1118008189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342981331&sr=8-1

Learning PHP, MySQL and Javascript - Robin Nixon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-MySQL-JavaScript-Animal-ebook/dp/B0043D2DZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342981357&sr=8-1

Bearing this in mind, it is now possible (just as it was when I wanted to learn) to learn everything you need to know online for free. There are loads of websites that get talked about on this subreddit that will teach you how to make websites. A couple I hear a lot are:

http://www.htmldog.com/book/

http://w3schools.com/

Good Luck!

Its hard to advise you because I’m coming at this as someone who did a CS BS and went right into the job market. I would spend some energy for the next 6 months on learning to write code which is useful for your PhD program. Two good resources on this are https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Scraping-Python-Collecting-Modern/dp/1491910291

I would join a django/python meetup because a solid chunk of that community comes from a journalism or academic background and they’ll be better able to help you think through where to go.

Thanks! One of my friends told me I need to read up on typography as well. He recommended me reading THIS and also THIS before I even start college to get a better understanding of it all. Regarding HTML and CSS, hopefully we'll learn that during the Web design I, II and III during the course. Otherwise I know a college in town where you can get a Web Design diploma (2 evening classes per week) in just two months and that is basically ONLY html, css and dreamweaver. It's dirt cheap to do as well so I might do that if I dont get enough html/css experience from college.

Yeah, WordPress.org has a learning curve.. don't let people tell you otherwise. The web is full of bad advice and out dated blog articles. The Codex is a good place to start, but even that has problems at this point. It's old tech with some weird parts.. very useful, but not modern. And there has recently been a push to modernize it.. that's great, but it's even more confusing to learn now, imo.

I read a useful book about WordPress aimed at developers just to help me wrap my head around the weirdness of WordPress. It isn't complete, but it was a good start for me (helped me sort through the trash pile that an open web search produces).

WordPress for Deb's

I agree that http://www.w2lessons.com/2011/04/you-dont-know-javascript.html is a pretty good read for a beginner to go through.

In there he uses this pattern, (function(){})() which is very powerful and useful. He is however using what Crockford calls, "The dogballs pattern", and suggests that you do this instead

(function(){}())

although that seems to be a minor style point. I would also recommend reading js patterns and the book Javascript Patterns, this is of course after a more in depth review of The Good Parts. There is some really good stuff on YUI Theatre. It isn't just about YUI, and has some really great talks and lectures. Also you don't have to join an open source project, but you do have to keep hacking. I would recommend you to get a github account and start working on some basic js demos to show off. Then maybe come back and make a post here with the link and ask some people to review your code. You can learn a lot by making mistakes and people telling you. PM me if you want me to look over anything.

Beginner: HTML/CSS

Intermediate and up: Read up as others have said, A list apart, Smashing.

Javascript: I read Head First jQuery and Head First JavaScript

Check out Head First HTML5 Programming: Building Web Apps with JavaScript as well.

You could also look into take an online class at Udacity (Free ones) .

I HIGHLY HIGHLY Recommend Pluralsight as I have been using it for learning ASP.NET MVC and Kendo UI but they have so many classes available with full exercise files and hold your hand from beginning to end. There is a 10 day free trial and it is $49/month.

I'm so glad you brought up that book. It's recommded by Mike Bostock too. The guy who did this. Amazing stuff. His source code is outstanding too.
https://d3js.org/

While we're at it, might as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758

Any any resource you'd recommend, since you seem like you know what you're doing. I want to get even BETTER with giving users a better experience. No one should use bad software.

Sounds like you're looking for something like this. I bought it and it's really good, but really the best way to learn is to figure out what you want to make, and then figure out how to make it by Googling. If you really want to learn Wordpress in the thorough way you're describing, I'd have thought you'd want to start with PHP.

Well the number one rule is to try to touch the html/css as little as possible. Store references to html nodes, pull nodes out of layout if you're going to modify them heavily, use timeouts if you have a long running operation, use requestanimationframe for dom manipulation, etc.

There are more, but those are the big ones off the top of my head. You want to STAY in the javascript space as much as possible.

There are some great articles about making the javascript itself performant, but I found this very short book to be really helpful: http://www.amazon.com/Performance-JavaScript-Faster-Application-Interfaces/dp/059680279X

It's a couple years old but absolutely still relevant.

JavaScript and jQuery by Jon Duckett

Amazing book for anyone starting JavaScript and jQuery. Great examples and clear explainations. Wish Duckett wrote more JS-related books. I'd buy them all!

Advanced

Medium

Old, but probably still relevant

Yet to be released, but you can get the in progress pdf from the publisher

Docs

The one that everybody recommends

HTML5 spec

HTML5Rocks

Latest Webkit News

Other than that build build build. Make demos and play. Ask questions here or on stackoverflow and read other people's code. Also, lots of great old JSConf videos out there.

If you have some money and time and want to go full time, there are places like http://theironyard.com that can get you a solid foundation and entry level jobs.

Otherwise https://www.codecademy.com is a great place to get started. /r/learnjavascript is a also great resource as they are open to all questions no matter how "dumb" they are. They go through a lot of things together as well, great place to learn. I'd also really recommend this book.

The hard part is getting the experience to know the best way to do things. I am doing some backend stuff as well (node.js and mongoose) to speed things up.

Once you get enough knowledge and get dangerous my biggest suggestion would be to get a recruiter and do a bunch of random contract work. You'll not only learn faster, but usually there will be smart people to learn from.

Definitely more beginner, but I loved Jon Duckett's books when I was starting out. If you're looking for intro level, front-end stuff, they're very visual and easy to grasp.

HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites

JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development

I think everyone who does anything on the web should have a copy of Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is a nice overview of how to make useful and aesthetically pleasing websites for those without a design background (like myself).

Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek gets really deep into the subject of design and how it impacts society.

There are a lot more out there, but these are the ones off the top of my head that I found especially helpful.

The UI is the largest performance bottleneck in software. Who cares if you can shave a few milliseconds off your algorithm when the user has to spend 20 minutes googling for how to set up a certain feature?

A couple good (and short) books on this topic are Joel Spolsky's User Interface Design for Programmers and Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think

It's not about making the UI pretty to look at, it's about how easy and obvious it is to use.

Yeah, I used one node to match exposure using the scopes and then a second node for color using the color wheels. Super easy if you have image wipe on to compare. Learn the absolute basics of color correction and grading and you'll be able to do this in 10 minutes.

I learned from this book and have heard good things about this one as well.

Don't buy books on PHP, JS, or HTML. There are TONS of great references online. From that group of technologies it sounds like you're doing web development. Along with some of the excellent computer science books other people have recommended you should pick up some HCI stuff. Thinking about design is not just for designers any more. I suggest starting out with Don't Make Me Think: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758 It's a quick, kind of fun read.

Great that you've been reading Psychology, good start. Here's a few resources that might help. These are in order as I'm not sure what stage you are at in terms of research/learning.

16 Must-Read Articles for the UX Newbie

Springboard UX

Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug

Collection of Free eBook by UXPin

Read Steve Krug's: Don't make me think.

There's also a case for web underdesign. Also, learn the practical implications of

Fitt's law

Principles of Design.

Rules of Gestalt

There's maybe a few more things, but if you can do this, you'll be pretty well off. Also, The last rule is functional trumps pretty. Something ugly and working is better than something beautiful and a pain to use.

While I agree with /u/MatthewMob for the most part, I think that a book like this one might be very useful for someone starting off:

https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485557790&sr=8-1&keywords=html+and+css+book

It relies heavily on graphics to describe the components of the html markup and does a great job with CSS properties.

When it comes to CSS, the biggest hurdle for people is understanding the position property (relative, absolute, fixed, static) and how it ties into the box model.

Personally I would suggest you learn flexbox from the get-go as it makes layouts incredibly simple.

"Don't Make Me Think" is probably outdated but it used to be the best book on the subject. http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0321344758

The Smashing Books (there are four now) are fantastic. Worth the money every year. You can also subscribe to the entire Smashing Library. https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/smashing-book-4-ebooks.html

"Stop Stealing Sheep" is an excellent typography book: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0201703394

Not focused on Node.js, but the following helped me a lot:

• John Papa's Angular style guide
  
• Eric Elliott
  
• Javascript Patterns
  
• Javascript: The Good Parts (by Douglas Crockford)
  
  ​
  
  As already said, not so much focused on actual Node.js, but those helped me to have a better understanding on what was "under the hood", so applying what learned to Node was automatic.
  
  
  Edit: oh i forgot https://www.codingame.com/ to look at others people craziest things in JS :)

I am entirely self taught.

So the best advice I can give is to diversify your learning path. I used each of these resources:

• (W3Schools)[https://www.w3schools.com/]
  
• (Free Code Camp)[https://www.freecodecamp.org/]
  
• Codecademy (I found this to be the least helpful and a lot of times quite restrictive).
  
• (Colt Steele's Web Developer Bootcamp)[] on Udemy
  
• (JavaScript and jQuery by Jon Duckett)[https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1545182459&sr=8-5&keywords=jon+duckett]
  
• Also, any number of youtube JS tutorials.
  
  While I have successfully found employment, it did not come easily. I had to apply to several hundred different jobs and received three separate job offers. I had no experience and while the job market is booming where I am, there's a universal saturation of junior level prospects, which makes entry into the field that much more difficult. That said, I am not on my second job and I'm absolutely loving my work. If you're passionate about it, keep working but don't do yourself the disservice of underestimating the effort required. It will help you tremendously if you're in an area of high demand for tech jobs (more jobs == more opportunities) and even more importantly, if you know someone already in the industry that can give you a referral for an interview.

I learned basic color grading through a FCPX course I took.

I'm a big fan of books and this is the one I'll work through next: Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema.

Best wishes and happy grading!

It's called web scraping. You can do that with many programming languages like Python, C#, Java, C++ and more. Python is the easiest way to scrap the web IMO, take a look at the BeautifulSoup library. I also recommend the book [book Web Scraping with Python: Collecting Data from the Modern Web] (https://www.amazon.com/Web-Scraping-Python-Collecting-Modern/dp/1491910291/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481884244&sr=8-1&keywords=beautifulsoup) which is a great introduction to web scraping with python

That's a very logical reason to learn Java and C.

My motivation actually started with web design, I always thought the internet was shit and I wanted to make it a more attractive and navigable place. That led to learning how the back end of those internets worked, and at the same time I really got into early FPS and thus learned a bunch about servers.

How I got to that point sounds very cliche but experimentation, and trial and error. Spoiler alert: if you write something, and it just works the first time, something is fucking broken I swear to you. Design should always be in your mind if you are designing something with an end user. If you'd like a very good resource for changing the way you think about usability I suggest the book Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. Here's a free iOS sketch template.

Hands down in my opinion the best way to deal with thinking about design inherently is to draw that shit. You don't have to be good at drawing, but you know what you want it to look like in your head, just mock it up a little bit. I might also suggest mocking up your idea a bit in HTML5/jQuery if you could, just to get a nice process flow going.

Sorry if that was kind of ranty, I could wax poetic for days just answering the questions of user experience.

Waffles duhhh, specifically Belgian.

Without seeing the site, I can't really tell you how to properly make it fit the page. I would assume the other poster is probably correct (or close).

As to the question about learning... I'd start with either a place like CodeAcadamy or http://teamtreehouse.com/.

If you don't mind spending 40$, I also really like the 'HTML and CSS: Design and build websites' book. It's a great starting place for learning proper markup from a beginner level.

Hello! sure, first of all you'll need to read the bible lol
https://www.amazon.com/Color-Correction-Handbook-Professional-Techniques/dp/0321929667/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

I learned by doing and by asking, specially at liftgammagain.com, there you'll find people who have movies in hollywood, cannes or running tv shows... they won't say anything about that but you can google them haha

To grade in an efficient manner... calibrate your monitor and learn to read the scopes and If you are shooting try to use at least a grey card.

He also wrote a book called [JavaScript and Jquery]
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1118531647?cache=3e10930602aec822ac1b09f06d245fb8&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1413723858&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1) , which is an awesome book. Beautifully designed and easy to follow.

I recommend this book highly. Great illustrations, and it covers a great deal of information.

I commented before, but I misread your question, sorry.

When it comes to design, Hack Design helped me out a lot. You can either read it all at once or get easy to tackle sections in your email inbox every week. If you like books, HTML & CSS by Jon Duckett touches on design a little bit but is also a great reference resource.

This book has some fairly positive reviews: https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1118008189&pd_rd_r=P0R19VFP1MJ26HQG8BJN&pd_rd_w=CQ3Th&pd_rd_wg=2Jtkr&psc=1&refRID=P0R19VFP1MJ26HQG8BJN

If you're looking to start with Photoshop, XD, or Sketch maybe try a video tutorial site like udemy.com.

It could be non-religious related.

What materials/methods are you using to learn JavaScript?

I'm a web developer and there are times where I find myself struggling to learn something. I've noticed I do a lot better with videos than reading a book. I also do better with some book/video authors than others. It's nothing personal to those authors, it's just like high school sometimes you do better with a particular history teacher than another one.

I'd suggest trying the trial versions of different video services. You might want to look into Safari books online. For $15 a month you can rent up to 5 books. You could try out other authors and see how it goes.

I'd also recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647

Jon Duckett is a really awsome writer!

This was where the first big gap in FCC was for me - you need to know the DOM and jQuery to do these challenges. This is where Duckett's Javascript & jQuery really helped me. There's a good free intro to jQuery on codeschool.com, also you'll need to read up on DOM manipulation to get through this part of FCC. Good luck!

Royal blue is a good colour to start with. Also have lots of white space. The white space guides the eye.

I am sure that the engineers are smart enough to understand web design. I have no doubt of that.

Can I suggest the book "Don't make Me Think' as a good start? http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758

Feel free to PM me the result for critical review by an reasonable web dev.

Cheers!

"camo style" is not really a thing that your internet browser recognizes. You'd have to create a picture and set the rules to point to that picture instead. You'll need to upload an image (you can do that on the same page that you edit the stylesheet) and then tell reddit you want your background-image to be something.

You should ask your parents to buy you this book: HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites. It's one of the first books I read and it really helped me figure this stuff out. I know you sort of just want to get your website to look how you want, but you're figuring this stuff out on your own, which means you could probably do a lot more! People like us get paid to sit at the computer and make websites look how we want, and its a lot of fun. I worked for a video game company and got to do this all day!

I would actually recommend Don't Make Me Think, Revisited and maybe Rocket Surgery Made Easy, both by Steve Krug.

The first book is a fantastic introduction to the core mindset you need to have when approaching interactive user design (like that you find with websites and mobile interfaces). It's also an easy read - you can easily digest it within a day.

Read the first book and if you find yourself having more questions about the actual execution of usability testing, pick up the second one.

This is a huge topic, an art and science blended so finely together.

Check out Color Correction Handbook by Alexis Van Hurkman
This goes really deep into the fine knowledge you need to know about color.

For practical software usage, I say checkout Colorgradingcentral.com, TaoOfColor.com, MixingLight. They've got a bunch of information, an archive of newsletters, and some paid tutorials as well.

Check out DaVinci Resolve Lite. It's a professional color grading program that's free.

HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites is a fantastic book to start with. It has a beautiful layout and is the top choice from Amazon when searching for html books, with almost two hundred reviews at a 4.5 rating.

Look into Pluralsight, Lynda.com or O'reilly learning paths. There's loads of free content online but some teach incorrectly which really annoyed me when I started. Those providers are around 30 bucks per month and usually you can try for 7-10 days free.

This is a good starting point if you want to learn from a book. Really breaks down the stuff:

Duckett HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites - https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/

Word of advise you don't have to learn everything. Enough to build site up and you can just learn stuff when needed. Stackoverflow is a friend when you get stuck.

A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript

Best introduction to programming in general that I have seen.

I wish every learning resource was constructed the way he did it.