Hello

I started learning web design/development about 6-8 months ago, however I do find myself with limited time to learn enough as I work 11-12 hours a day and do struggle for time - I'm often too tired in the evening to start studying.

I do have a website of my own (which does take a little updating every week) - which I am not allowed to post the link of but it is called Ubereadoolische dot com - so I am getting some practice. I haven't really marketed it at all yet as there is more I want to do with it first.

I have just bought a Sitepoint book about CSS which is my next target, and then I am going to learn Photoshop so I can improve the design of my website. That is my current plan anyway.

However it is the time that is a problem. I want to do this as a career, or at least be able to earn some extra money making websites at some point in the next 2-3 years but I seem to have problems finding enough time.

I was wondering if there exists something like a residential training course where I could take holiday to go study?

What did other people do to learn with constraints of full time working?

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks

James

Hello James,

 

Welcome to WDF

 

You may find some of these websites useful:

 

http://www.lynda.com/ - Online training (this isn't a free service but there's a free trial)

http://www.w3schools.com/ - Good for the beginner who wants to learn the basics in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL and many more. Gives examples.

http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/0 - Online exercises. Learn to code.

http://www.htmldog.com/ - HTML/CSS Tutorials

 

I'm sure there are additional websites that other forum members will be able to provide, along with some useful guidance

 

Hope this helps,

Lyndsey.

Lyndsey has pointed you in the right direction with those resources.

There are literally thousands of learning aids scattered around the web so it shouldn't be too difficult to find the help that you need but your lack of free time will limit you so you're going to have to be dedicated.

 

Here are some additional learning resources...

 

PhotoshopLady - Some great photoshop tutorials covering several different categories/uses.

Team Treehouse - Premium learning materials but they do offer a one month free trial (I've never used them but I've heard great things about them).

Net Tuts+ - A variety of free and premium tutorials covering all aspects of web development. A great library of tutorials although many of them are advanced, they teach a lot about web development theory and why to use certain techniques rather than the common "copy and paste this code, achieve the result and still have no clue of what you just did and why it worked" approach.

Welcome to the forum James. I really get what you’re saying. Learning is hard when you are tired after a long days work. When I started learning webdesign I was running a business and had two small kids. One advice could be to set some small milestones in the learning process and try to focusing on learning one thing at the time. You’re running your own website so it’s probably tempting for you to try to learn grafic applications,HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL at the same time, but it might just be a little too much. Start by learning how to create bitmap graphics then move on to html and a little CSS. For advanced functionality use external js libraries and already published phpscripts (I believe there’s even some available here on WDF)

Russ Weakly at MaxDesign offers 'onsite' training and workshops that you might want to take a 'holiday' on.

At this stage I'm not going to list anymore sites as both Lyndsey and Alluziion suggested some of the best.

 

I'm not a coder so I have been using Treehouse (and to brush up on some skills in general). From a beginner point of view the videos are great (if the presenters are a tad irritating ). You can get a month free as Alluziion has said and after that the price is reasonable. I doubt I would stick with it longer than a month but I do recommend it at this stage.

 

My own view is that you learn faster from your peers. I've already gained a lot from getting involved on this very forum and the people are awesome (yes, I'm talking to you!) Time is obviously a factor and working alone (when you can manage the time) can drag things out as you have no one to 'bounce off of'. Try some of the tutorials from the great links above and get involved here. There's always someone willing to help. Once you build up your ninja skills in those fields, you can then pass your knowledge on to someone else. Marvellous. Oh - welcome by the way

Thanks to everyone for their responses and links - some of which I know already but others which look really useful. I am at the moment reading The CSS3 Anthology, I agree with above advice that it is a good idea to stick to learning one part at a time, no point in confusing myself when this is the first coding I have done in my life.

 

I do intend very shortly to spend a little time learning Photoshop and taking advantage of their trial month, so I can create a logo and some bits of design to improve the look of my basic website.

 

I look forward to contributing where possible on this forum, it seems like there is a friendly and helpful bunch of people here from what I have read.

Welcome matey.

 

I learnt when I had a full time job, less hours than you're doing though. As Nillervison points out trying to bite into every language the web has to offer is a sure fire way to a mental breakdown. IMO you need to learn html 100% as no matter if you advance into back end development, front end design or seo specialist a foundation in html is a sure way to start and for front end or back end css is a given as it makes everything pretty