Dear Super Duper Web Designers....

I am a complete and utter novice in website building. I have no experience whatsoever. I want to make a niche social network. I have looked at the websites with templates like ning.com but I want a fully customisable one. I am happy to take a course to learn website design but there is so much about this on the internet that I don't know where to begin.

 

I have a domain name and I have a (rubbish) free web host that came with it. This is the extent of my website design/building knowledge .

 

Where can I learn to create my own website?

 

Even better, i'd love my own mentor or tutor to teach me this stuff... :tv (2):

 

First off: hi, welcome to WDF. If you want to learn about web design, you've come to the right place. There have been a few good threads already on resources for beginners, hit up the search tool to find them.

 

Secondly: in order to do everything yourself, you're going to have to learn a helluva lot of different disciplines and skills. I don't want to pour cold water on your aspirations, but it's not really practical to learn all those skills in order to build one site - that's not an efficient use of your time. If you plan to pursue web design as a career it's a different story, because all the time you put into learning the skills (10,000 hours to reach expert level in any particular skill) is repaid with every project you deliver. Creating a social network is going to take a number of different skills, and there are increasing numbers of people working in the industry who are choosing to focus on one particular discipline because keeping on top of everything is just too much to handle.

 

Look hard at the time you'd have to spend bringing yourself up to scratch. If all you want to create is this project, you're better off putting your time into finding or raising the funding to hire the expertise you need, because your project will only have to cover a tiny fraction of the cost of someone else's learning and professional development rather than the whole of yours.

pretty much everything RD said.

 

Its one thing doing a basic 3 page brochure site (difficult with little to no skill), and quite another building a social network.

 

Imagine a car mechanic saying he wants to learn rocket physics to send something into space? Its quite akin analogy.

Welcome to WDF!

I've got to re-iterate what the guys above have said. You could totally learn how to build a social network yourself BUT it will take a long time and a lot of dedication.

 

First port of call would be HTML and CSS, these are the languages that are the building blocks of websites, HTML is the bricks and mortar while CSS is the paint (it's a lose analogy but it'll do for now). Social networks also depend on a database (MySQL), database query language (SQL) and a language that takes all of this and spits out the HTML (PHP).

 

In short, at the very least, you'd need to learn (other languages are available, these are just the most common)...

• HTML
  
• CSS
  
• MySQL
  
• SQL
  
• PHP
  
• Javascript
  

...and that's before you factor in things such as graphic design and SEO.

 

In short, if you want it quick, get a professional to do it, if it's something you're interested in learning for fun or maybe even a possible career (and you've got plenty of time!) then it's completely possible to learn.

To add to Mike's list:

• Design theory, especially typography
  
• Content strategy
  
• Information Architecture
  
• User Experience Design (Usually abbreviated as UX)
  
• Accessibility (a11y)
  

http://commons.acquia.com/ ?

What is it that makes you want the social networking aspect? Is it key to the idea?

 

An easier option, if it works for your idea, is to create an article and informational based site on your niche with an associated forum to encourage interactivity between different users. A social network style site is going to be incredibly difficult to create, I'm sure even a lot of people here would struggle to put something together quickly, so as a beginner you have little luck unless you put the hours in and study it, but a simple informational website and a forum would work very well together. You could even consider some form of blog instead, along with a forum.

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your replies! I really appreciate it!

 

Fran, in response to your question, the social networking element is essential as I need members to be able to sign in and engage with the website for my idea to work

 

MikeChipShop, Jamesosix and Renaissance-Design: I see where you are coming from. But the reason I want to learn it thoroughly is because I want to be in control of my site- there's no use in having it created for me and not knowing how to use it because i'll have to go to the developer any time i want to make a change! And I don't know any web designers to go into partnership with

 

I'm not afraid of a challenge and am happy to put the hours in to learn it (I just finished my law degree from Cambridge Uni which has pretty much prepared me to take on anything ).

 

I just need some guidance as to the best place to learn about it?

 

I understand that there's some open source software called Drupal which has the capacity to build a social network - but there's no point in even trying to use that if I don't understand the list of things MikeChipShop and Renaissance-Design have listed.

 

Thanks again for your replies

I've been learning, or probably better described as been involved in, web design/development for about 5 years and I feel only now am I just about getting to what I would call a professional level and certainly no expert. My point is it's going to take you a fair amount of time to learn the skills needed to start building websites, particularly websites that need to function like a social media site does. You'll need to execute the site build well to make your idea work so it isn't a case of learning a few specific things for the job I don't think.

 

As has been said, if you're up to it then go for it, get learning but just be aware, in my opinion at least, it isn't simple. There's a lot of skills, concepts and techniques to learn. I wouldn't be comfortable developing a social media website, I don't think there's too many who could deal with both the design and development element of that. Not trying to put you off but worth thinking about.

I just need some guidance as to the best place to learn about it?

 

Impressive that you're not intimidated by everything everyone above has listed. You have a very steep learning curve ahead as you not only have to learn how to code, but the fundamentals of good design as well. You won't complete this website you desire on your own anytime soon, but if you're still serious about learning, here's a list of some good resources (both free and online, and books) to get started with.

 

On a side note, I personally preferred reading books instead of online documentation, so my website list below may be a bit lacking

 

When it comes to learning about the various coding languages, you're going to want to do so in a certain order so to speak. (As Mikechipshop said above, these are the common languages, but not the only ones)

1. HTML / HTML 5
   
2. CSS / CSS3
   
3. Javascript / JQuery
   
4. PHP
   
5. SQL / MySQL
   

Book Resources:

• Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML: Honestly, I haven't read this book but I'm told it's a really great introduction and beginners guide. I chose to learn HTML with online resources, actually
  
• The Ultimate HTML Guide (By Sitepoint): A little bit dated, but an amazing reference for HTML.
  
• The Ultimate CSS Guide (By Sitepoint): Same as above but for CSS.
  
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design: It's like an art course specifically geared towards web design. Highly recommended
  
• Simply Javascript: A great introduction and overall book about javascript
  
• PHP and MySQL Web Development: A good book php / mysql book overall. It's beginner friendly as well
  

Website Resources:

• http://htmldog.com/ (html/css tutorials)
  
• http://www.w3schools.com/ (html/css/javascript tutorials. This is more "reference-like", however)
  

 

 

 

Good luck. After you learn all the languages everyone has mentioned above, you're probably going to want to delve into more specific topics.

Edited August 6, 201214 yr by Pete Prosper

Gotta go with what Pete said above.

 

My two favourites being...

Book form: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design (http://www.sitepoint.com/books/design2/)

Web Form: http://www.htmldog.com

Thanks Pete and Mike,

 

I've got my first two books on HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript. Just finished the chapter on basic formatting, now moving on to inserting links. Web building/design is something I have always been interested so i'm going to take my time to learn it, but you're absolutely right in terms of not getting it done any time soon so I may need to find someone who can build one for me based on existing models! I've just looked at the source code of Facebook and i'm literally like "What the H!!!" but I still think it'll be fun to learn!

 

I don't need or want something as sophisticated as Facebook as i'm looking for a niche social networking site, plus i'd not even bother trying to compete with Facey B, (i'm looking for something more akin to a dating site format) but I want it to be more customisable than those template based ones.

 

 

Do you guys do web design for a living?

• Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML: Honestly, I haven't read this book but I'm told it's a really great introduction and beginners guide. I chose to learn HTML with online resources, actually
  
• The Ultimate HTML Guide (By Sitepoint): A little bit dated, but an amazing reference for HTML.
  
• The Ultimate CSS Guide (By Sitepoint): Same as above but for CSS.
  
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design: It's like an art course specifically geared towards web design. Highly recommended
  
• Simply Javascript: A great introduction and overall book about javascript
  
• PHP and MySQL Web Development: A good book php / mysql book overall. It's beginner friendly as well
  

 

These seem great. Once I've learnt a bit about the basics i'm going to buy "Principles of Beautiful Web Design"

Can't speak for everyone, but yup, i do web design professionally as do many on this forum and in this thread.

 

If you're interested, there's a piece of Software called 'BuddyPress' that integrates with a WordPress install that basically turns a normal install of WordPress in to a social network.

Might be of some use to you, even if it's just to familiarise yourself with the idea.

Can't speak for everyone, but yup, i do web design professionally as do many on this forum and in this thread.

 

If you're interested, there's a piece of Software called 'BuddyPress' that integrates with a WordPress install that basically turns a normal install of WordPress in to a social network.

Might be of some use to you, even if it's just to familiarise yourself with the idea.

 

Sounds good - I will have a look at that and suss it out.

 

Also checked your website- you have made some beautiful, clean and crisp sites! Wish I could do the same some day, but currently my life (and family) are encouraging me to stick with law!

 

Do you charge by the project?

Also checked your website- you have made some beautiful, clean and crisp sites! Wish I could do the same some day, but currently my life (and family) are encouraging me to stick with law!

 

Do you charge by the project?

 

Thanks very much, appreciate that.

I charge various ways depending upon the client or agency i'm working for. Everything is broken down in to hours in my head anyway.

 

Obviously law will take up a lot of your time but everyone has to have something to blow cobwebs out of their mind, maybe for you that's web design? You never know!

The nice thing with web design is you can learn how to do it for free and using some fantastic resources so it's a great thing to do on the side if you're usually otherwise occupied.