Hi all,
I'm a total beginner at web design, and I'm trying to learn Drupal as part of an effort to make a career change. I've been going through "Using Drupal" (Oreilly), but I'm getting frustrated at the number of roadblocks i keep running into, and I'm starting to think that i need some face-to-face instruction. I'm having a real hard time finding a resource for this right now, and I thought that this would be a good place to go for advice.
Realistically, I probably need to get an all-purpose web design education, with some emphasis on Drupal. I live in Manhattan in Gramercy/Murray hill, and i've taken a look at the Continuing Ed course catalogs for the New School, SVA, Baruch, but I wasn't so impressed with the offerings. Does anyone know of a good school to look at for Web Design courses? Are there private tutors that any of you know of? Even some basic advice about how to get started would be really useful for me (I dont know if i should be learning HTML, PHP, MySQL first?).
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ethan
Comments
To get a solid grasp of
To get a solid grasp of basics on the design end of things, it would be a good idea to start learning CSS and HTML. These two are the cornerstones of web design imho, and will allow you to get an idea of how layouts and text work on the web. Next up I would focus on PHP and Javascript, to allow you to create dynamic content, which is a huge part of today's web development standards.
From there you can get into server-side programming like MySQL and maybe even more advanced stuff from that point.
You can also lean towards learning AJAX and JQuery, which requires a fundamental understanding of JavaScript.
Personally I think academia is a great place to learn basics and get a solid foundation, but I also find that with more advanced stuff it gets frustrating once you get your degree. Eg. the industry is changing so fast that it becomes disappointing when people graduate to find that the stuff they learned 2-3 years ago is somewhat dated and in some instances, obsolete.
It takes a lot of patience as I'm sure you know, and it seems that you really want to know what you're getting into, and how to go about it before you actually get your hands dirty, which is great!
Good luck.
Definitely agree with
Definitely agree with orbgasm. From my experience, I learned HTML as a hand coder without using a WYSIWYG (i.e. Dreamweaver) while interning at a web design shop as a college student. In terms of resources at the time, I used W3C web site (http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/htmlcss) and NCSA (Note: NCSA's "A Beginner's Guide to HTML" is no longer active). Even if you learn HTML, pretty soon there will be a roll out of HTML5 with new tags along with rules and best practices. As orbgasm said, start with HTML and CSS. Once you have the solid foundation down, you can go on to PHP and JavaScript. Knowing HTML is essential to working with PHP, JavaScript and JQuery (check out http://jquery.com/).
If you are looking to invest in reference books to have alongside, I would suggest Dan Cederholm, Eric Meyer, Andy Budd and Jeffrey Zeldman as four authors who I highly recommend. You can also Google "HTML for Beginners" and you will find additional resources online. As for schools, I am looking into a Web Development or Web Design certificate from NYU's School of Continuing & Professional Studies but will wait until 2010 to see if there is anyone I know (either through the Drupal group, or a personal friend) who has taken the courses and can provide feed back.
Lullabot videos
I totally agree with orb's post. This will get yourself well-rounded in the languages/technologies used in the industry and everything he mentioned has Drupal applications.
Specific to Drupal, I'd also recommend checking out the Lullabot series of videos. Some will give you a rudimentary overview of Drupal and there are a few that will show you how the languages mentioned above are applied to things like Drupal theming.
Learning HTML, CSS, etc.
Learning HTML, CSS, etc. sounds about right. But I'm not necessarily interested in going to school full-time, so are there specific courses or tutorials that you could recommend? I will check out those Lullabot videos, as well.
e.
Another resource for tutorials
Depending your preferred learning style, for HTML/CSS/etc. basics you may want to look into lynda.com — it's a video tutorial site that offers a variety of subscription options (including a $25/month option that includes access to an unlimited number of videos).
fureigh.com
fureigh on twitter and g.d.o.
Lynda.com
Lynda.com has a good series of training videos on languages like HTML/CSS/PHP, etc.
Local NYC Courses
I agree with all the comments above. As far as local educational opportunities, NYU Continuing Ed does offer courses in all the fundamentals -- HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, AJAX. I took a Java class there a couple of years ago and it was pretty good. However, their courses are on the expensive side. If you apply yourself, you can learn the same things on your own using on-line tutorials and books -- there are lots of both available.
In terms of Drupal, I've noticed that a slew of books are slated for release across the next few months to coincide w/ the impending (hopefully!) Drupal 7 release: "Dummies," "Teach Yourself" etc. Hopefully these will help close the gap in the beginner-level Drupal documentation market.
Good luck -- Drupal is a bit tough to learn in the beginning but IMHO it gets way easier once you're over the hump and is well worth the effort.
NYU and Lynda.com (and also vtc)
I agree as well. I still consider myself a "noo"-comer, but have been fortunate enough to take a number of courses at NYU. The courses offer,or basically touch on the fundamentals - stuff you could basically learn on your own but in a classroom you are (well I am) more likely to focus and master a particular subject.
The instructors I have encountered are generally knowledgeable and willing to help. Having someone there who knows what they are doing can make a major difference in your progression.
I also do a lot of experimenting. I take on web projects in order to develop a skill... first it was Flash. I discovered the world of CMS and blogs... MovableType led me to WordPress, which led me to Joomla, and now Drupal. I just finished my first Drupal site with an Ubercart shopping cart set up.. I work on this stuff part-time, just for the love of it. Getting paid for it helps me justify to my wife all the long hours that I am up late at night.
I thought I might add another question to this thread though... Maybe someone has some additional advice to share, that I think Solid Goldberger might appreciate as well... How is the industry? I have been considering a career jump myself. I started with HTML and CSS as advised and now - two years later - I am pretty okay at this stuff, and want to continue. I am discouraged (somewhat) though by all the cookie-cutter web site systems that make web design for non desinger seem easy. Like Wix (http://www.wix.com/) and Wild Apricot (http://www.wildapricot.com/). Is there a future for webdesign? Is it already a dying craft?
What kind of income can one expect? Career paths advice anyone?
Thanks!