Website designers and developers are two really sought after professions!  It is not as hard as you might think to get into this industry either.  With a little bit of spare time, a good interest in the topic and LOTS of practice, you could find yourself making a nice income while making amazing websites! Here are some key points to help you make your first steps into web design.

  1. Learn from others – look at other websites and notice how they lay out the menus, the content area and the overall look of the page.  You can use these ideas in your own designs.
  2. Have the right tools – it is worth investing in a good graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator.  Making images using vector graphics is a good way to get the hang of graphic design, so this will be helpful.
  3. Get skilled!  There are a number of skills you will need to succeed:  These include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, SQL and Bootstrap to name a few.  There are a number of good websites where you can learn the skills for free!  Check out Codecademy where you can take whole online courses in coding for beginners!
  4. Create a website using PHP and MySQL.  These enable you to create a website without needing individual HTML pages, but using templates to display several pages with the same design.
  5. Use a dynamic web service such as AJAX to make a better user experience.  Creating interactive web applications will make a great user journey!