Where does one begin web development? And am I taking the right route? Early on, when I had just started out the Web Development course on CodeCademy, I asked a friend 'How did you do it?'. Her answer was: 'tutorials, YouTube, Udemy courses but certainly not local courses, because they're too far behind on technology.' There was one that I'd heard people raving about before, but that bootcamp came with a very steep price. Being out of work because of Covid-19, big investments are not even being considered.
I had a browse on YouTube and Udemy and discovered platforms and online teachers.
I got a 3-month Pro account on CodeCademy. I followed the Web Development program, but failed to do the final portfolio-website. Likewise on FreeCodeCamp. So I moved on to Udemy and found John Smilga's HTML & CSS-course. I slowly gained more confidence. And I was reading a lot about the dangers of 'tutorial hell'. Being very wary for not falling for this trap, I stumbled upon Frontend Mentor through Florin Pop. Then I discovered Kevin Powell .
If a website stops being responsive, it's because we've done something in the CSS that stopped this. Websites are responsive by default.
Suddenly, CSS started making a lot more sense. I started connecting the dots of what I'd learned thus far. I found YouTube-video's him explaining things I'd spent sleepless nights wondering about. His approach towards development, is one that I've always used as a graphic designer aswell: keep it clean, structured and readable. It's something John Smilga also advocates for, so I immediately liked their approach.
You should always write your html as such that it still makes sense when CSS fails to load.
Here's my non-exhaustive list of the resources I used in my first (four/five) months learning to be a web developer.
- codecademy
- freeCodeCamp
- HTML & CSS Tutorial and Projects Course - John Smilga
- Conquering Responsive Layouts, 21-day Challenge - Kevin Powell
- CSS Demystified - Kevin Powell
- Frontend Mentor