Member Avatar for lunet

please help me i am an absolute newcomer. I am very interested in doing a web design course. I am on the older side and can not take a year off to go and study web design.
I have looked around and came across a company "new horizons" one can do the course online at ones own pace. I would like to know if anybody out there know if they are reputable?

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Practical, compact roadmap for an absolute beginner who can’t take a year off.

When evaluating any paid, self‑paced course (New Horizons was mentioned by ), focus on syllabus and outcomes rather than brand alone: sample lessons, clear hands‑on projects, instructor or community support, assessment or portfolio work, and a refund/trial policy. Prioritize courses that teach semantic HTML (HTML5), modern CSS (including Flexbox/Grid and responsive techniques), basic JavaScript, and accessibility — not only how to drag elements in a visual editor.

Start by hand‑coding to build understanding (advice echoed by , and ). A practical short plan:

  • Week 1–2: small, daily exercises with an editor and browser — basic tags, document structure, links, images.
  • Weeks 3–6: CSS fundamentals, box model, Flexbox/Grid, simple responsive layouts.
  • Next month: small project (single‑page portfolio or a contact form), add basic JavaScript for interactivity, test on mobile.
    Keep each step project‑driven so skills are tangible.

Tool and workflow notes (ties back to the Dreamweaver debate between and ): start with a lightweight code editor and browser DevTools; use visual playgrounds for quick experimentation; use WYSIWYG tools only for mockups once comfortable with the markup. Add version control (Git) when comfortable.

Minimal HTML skeleton to practice:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">
  <title>Simple Page</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>
<body>
  <header><h1>Title</h1></header>
  <main><p>Content</p></main>
  <footer><small>© Year</small></footer>
</body>
</html>

Troubleshooting tips: inspect with DevTools, check for missing closing tags, simplify CSS to isolate layout problems, and keep a short checklist for cross‑device testing. This incremental, project‑first approach aligns with the useful suggestions already posted by community members and is achievable without a year away from work.

Recommended Answers

All 21 Replies

Member Avatar for MelechM

Look for websites on google that are tutorials. Learn the basics etc, then start designing pages. Learn CSS and XHTML and start with that. Don't expect to know it all in like a month however. Took me a year to learn all I know.

Member Avatar for ramseswar

To need to know HTML, I think you do not have to learn the coding. You just have to download Adobe Dreamweaver and make a headstart. Just use the GUI and the code will be generated itself (you may check the code and learn HTML easily). Also, you will need to know CSS which is very necessary for proper positioning of the elements within the document. It may take some time. For form applications you have to learn PHP or .NET. The form applications is pure coding section. Although you may find many reusable code snippets in the internet. And additionally you may need to learn Flash and Javascript to make your website more interactive.

But HTML and CSS, I guess, should not take much time. You have free access to each and every tutorial on every subject in the internet. Plus to check the latest web standards, you can check http://www.w3schools.com/

Member Avatar for peter_budo

You just have to download Adobe Dreamweaver and make a headstart.

Just making point, Dreamweaver is an expensive tool. I know you can get trial version however it may be confusing for beginner. Classic Notepad is sufficient for start and doesn't cost you penny (or what ever is the smallest currency value in your country).

Member Avatar for OS-mind

At W3Schools, you can study everything you need to learn, in an accessible and handy format.

Member Avatar for siriyal

practice with a note pad or any HTML editor, follow the tutorials the best to learn HTML basic, on internet many website for webdesign courses

for bulid a new website photoshop, illustrator, flash, firefworks, dreamweaver are very useful softwares

Member Avatar for Penguin08

You can tray to find a Lynda.com
video tutorials. They are very good and do not take a lot of time to study.

Member Avatar for MVied

To need to know HTML, I think you do not have to learn the coding. You just have to download Adobe Dreamweaver and make a headstart. Just use the GUI and the code will be generated itself (you may check the code and learn HTML easily). Also, you will need to know CSS which is very necessary for proper positioning of the elements within the document. It may take some time. For form applications you have to learn PHP or .NET. The form applications is pure coding section. Although you may find many reusable code snippets in the internet. And additionally you may need to learn Flash and Javascript to make your website more interactive.

Please don't start learning on Dreamweaver. -_-

When learning HTML, CSS, or any programming or markup language, you need to learn to do it by hand first so that you understand each element that is being used and how to correctly use it. Starting off with Dreamweaver and having it generate absolutely horrendous code is no way to begin. Like others have suggested, start with W3Schools and work on some tutorials and do it all with a simple text editor or a simple code editor like or PSPad.

And yes, I completely oppose the use of Dreamweaver no matter what your skill level may be. :)

Member Avatar for MelechM

Agreed, don't use a program to do the code for you, learn to do the code first, then have the program do it for you if you get lazy down the rode.

Member Avatar for baltazar

Yes, I concur with everyone else. Don't use a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. Instead, use a simple text editor like TextPad (www.textpad.com). Textpad is really nifty because you can get it to highlight your syntax which helps alot.

I swear by w3schools as it is an excellent resource for beginners. I used it to learn HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript and it was amazing.

I suggest you start of by learning HTML and CSS and make a basic webpage.

Then move onto learning Javascript and jQuery and then PHP.

Member Avatar for ramseswar

Well, if so many people have suggested to use notepad, then atleast use notepad++. The software will enable you to see clear formatting with proper highlighting of various code sections. Its available for free download

Member Avatar for hughv

I got started with this class, which has been update many times since then:

There's a zillion web links which can supplement it, so no need to pay anyone for classes.
We'ere always here to help if you get stuck or have questions.
I've always used HTML editors like this one:

The free version is all you need to get started.

Member Avatar for omol

So much bad advice here. I would personally recommend getting a couple of good books before spalashing out on a corse that teaches you webdesign.

It is not as easy as some people seem to think and rather than add to the sea of crap already out there why not learn to create something truly oridginal and inspiring rather than just learning html and creating yet anouther Jesus loves you website.

the Zen of CSS design by Dave Shea dn Molly Holzschlag is a fantastic starting point. It is by far the best book on webdesign as a whole i have ever read. I still read over it again and again just because the princiables are there.

If your learning, Dreamweaver is most deffientaly not the product for you. You need to know what is going on in the code because dreamweaver will really mess your code up if using design view only you will really be banging your head against walls when you need to fix somthing.

There are plententy of IDE's out there and they all do pretty much the same job of managing your code. The one i personally use and recommend is Aptana.

I really hate dreamweaver, the people i know hate using it and the people i know who do use it use the code side only.

I will repeat this here kids, dragging and dropping is not web design. You give the pros a bad name, would you build a house? I would not, would not know where to start. I would not go down to B&Q, ask for a how to build a house book and start selling to the people stupid enough to buy my houses because they would come out as fugly squares of rubbish that would fall down in a years time. Or would i buy premade sides of houses and drag and drop them together because then all houses would look the same, still be crap only with a false face. I would also not go onto a builders forum or go up to a builder and start giving out bad advise. PLEASE STOP IT. I also note, most of you are Indian, yet anouther reason not to outsource any of your companys programming.

Member Avatar for MVied

Ah, but no mention of those of us who actually gave him valuable advice.

I sense a bit of British distaste towards the Indians. Just because there are tons of them immigrating to your country doesn't mean they're all bad at programming.

Member Avatar for hughv

Omol, it's bad form to say others are giving poor advice. None of us has a corner on good advice, possibly including you.
Beautiful sites can be created with Dreamweaver. Although I prefer it, there is also no need to know any code, either.
CSS design is great, and it's the way to go, but this guy wants to learn the basics, and that's what we're telling him.
Have you actually designed any sites (Just curious). Is spell check featured in your editor?

Member Avatar for peter_budo

Ah, but no mention of those of us who actually gave him valuable advice.

I sense a bit of British distaste towards the Indians. Just because there are tons of them immigrating to your country doesn't mean they're all bad at programming.

I'm not sure where you come up with all these nonsense omol did not mention anything about Indian community neither I can see from his profile that he is from UK. Therefore I will advice you stop it now.

As I mentioned before I do not deny that Dreamweaver is helpful tool, however this is the hands of professional and not beginner. Recommending somebody to get Dreamwaever at the start of his learning curve is not a good idea. I seen it with my friends in web design course, I see it at university with programming languages. Give a beginner a professional tool to work with and he will relay heavily on the tool. Questions such as "how do I make roll-over button in Dreamweaver" or "how do I read user input in NetBeans" are the usual silly questions of these that just starting and do not really care for learn the language or the syntax they just looking to cheat they way around the problem. When I first started with HTML I did all through Notepad because lack of technology to use (only Dreamweaver 4 out, but very expensive and I did not liked FrontPage) and I made same with Java and C# (either choosing IDE with no code suggestions or disabling such option). It really helped as I was fast on identifying errors and correcting them. And this is what I would recommend to others

Member Avatar for MVied

I'm not sure where you come up with all these nonsense omol did not mention anything about Indian community neither I can see from his profile that he is from UK. Therefore I will advice you stop it now.

This is certainly not the place I'd pick a fight, and I'm not. Stating an observation:

I also note, most of you are Indian, yet anouther reason not to outsource any of your companys programming.

He said that on the subject of people giving bad advice. Therefore, he's saying that the Indians in this community are giving bad advice and that's why you shouldn't outsource. Clearly discrimination.

On the British subject, he did describe his houses as rubbish. I dunno about you, but I only know a few people that would use the word rubbish.

Member Avatar for peter_budo

My apology, I must over looked that part.

Member Avatar for jb1ker

I agree on starting out with simple Notepad++. Once you master the code, current standards etc... you can switch to software-aided coding.

Grtz J

Member Avatar for MVied

I agree on starting out with simple Notepad++. Once you master the code, current standards etc... you can switch to software-aided coding.

Grtz J

Even then I'd say to do it all yourself. I think most people start to use WYSIWYG editors when they get into the business side of web design and have to meet deadlines. I'm way to picky about usability, standards, semantics, and SEO. I'm a bit of a neat freak, so nothing I release is sloppy. :P

Member Avatar for omol

Omol, it's bad form to say others are giving poor advice. None of us has a corner on good advice, possibly including you.
Beautiful sites can be created with Dreamweaver. Although I prefer it, there is also no need to know any code, either.
CSS design is great, and it's the way to go, but this guy wants to learn the basics, and that's what we're telling him.
Have you actually designed any sites (Just curious). Is spell check featured in your editor?

Ok I made this post last night and at the firm i used to work for I had to fix problems with companys websites that were outsourced again and again because of bad coding, sites had been exploited, the design and layout was very bad and the loss of customer trust had cost some companys very dearly. Because there are not many business laws in India they had lost thousands and in some cases ten's of thousands of pounds and could not recover these losses (Not including loss of earnings). It has nothing to do with valued and skilled people coming to this country but the amount of bare faced lies being told by dev's if you can call them that coming from India. I state and i will state again, this was in no means ment to spark a mass argument and in no way was i being prejudice. I would edit my post but unfotuanlty can not, so please can a mod delete the last sentence or post completly. Sorry for anyone that i may have affended.

The bad advice i was refering to was telling someone to get dreamweaver and learn how to code a website. This is not coding!

By the way, I am the lead dev for one of the biggest web design companys in the world and have designed, coded and managed sites you most probally see and use everyday. And no I can not spall, hence why i am not a copywriter.......

Member Avatar for Bob Walsh

Before you even think about designing pages, you should learn HTML and CSS. These are the foundations needed to design web pages.

As to software, all you really need is a text editor and a graphics program (Paint won't really cut it).

Graphics programs:
GIMP (free)
Paint Shop Pro (medium price)
Photoshop (high end)

HTML editors:
Crimson Editor (free text editor)
CoffeeCup HTML Editor (low priced)
Dreamweaver (high end)

There are literally hundreds of other programs available but the ones I mentioned above do all have a trial version you can download and try out.

Thank You,
Bob Walsh

Edited by Bob Walsh because: Re: Starting to learn website design
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