Hi

 

I've been learning HTML & CSS at Treehouse for nearly 2 weeks (my trial is nearly up) and am quite enjoying it. The markups are quite logical and I've followed along ok so far but when it comes to making a webpage my design skills are pretty poor. Have any of you guys been not been very good at the design side of things like me but been able to get to a decent standard from learning from books/tutorials etc ?

 

http://msh1411.site11.com/ - It's just a little silly project to test what I've learnt thus far at Treehouse

 

A little about me :-

 

I've been selling on eBay for the last 10 years and importing things from China but have only ever earned enough to just get by. I think it's time I tried something else as I'm never going to make a decent living if I carry on what I'm currently doing. I haven't really got any decent job skills to speak of because I spent so long doing the eBay thing. I'm hoping once I've learnt a fair amount of web development I might be able to get a job somewhere and start at the bottom or maybe some basic freelance work to build up a portfolio.

I'm 33 btw so I'm coming at this career path quite late but really want to make a go of it. The eBay thing has slowed to a crawl down so I have plenty of time to learn and build my knowledge.

Based on all I've said above I have a few questions :-

1. Do you think it's worth me dabbling in a bit of everything to see where I excel ?

2. As I alluded to above I'm not very artsy, do you think good design and principles are something that can be learnt if you are artistically challenged ?

3. Have any of you guys started this fairly late in life like me and managed to get a career out of it ?

I'll take any advice I can get my hands on at this point, so please add anything that might be useful or be as harsh as you want.

Thanks for reading,

Marcus

p.s. I've attached 2 pdf's of sites I made a few years ago in Serif Webplus, no coding strictly drag and drop (forgive me).

 

go-vape.pdf

warrior.pdf

I don't have any helpful advice except to say that 33 is not that old

I'm a few years younger than you at 29. I began learning web design around 2 years ago and got my current role at an agency around 6 months ago. My design skills are not the best either, but that doesn't matter too much, My role as a developer doesn't involve any design as that work is done by our design team. Most agencies have people dedicated to their specific roles. Design, front-end development and back-end development. Larger agencies can have even more focused roles than this.

 

My advice is this: Don't try and be a jack of all trades, web design and development covers a wide variety of things and it would be impossible to become an expert in all. Find what aspect you enjoy and are good at then dedicate your time to master this area.

1. Do you think it's worth me dabbling in a bit of everything to see where I excel ?

As far as my experience goes, never avoid something you can't do because you'll never know how to do it. I remember I avoided PHP for years before I finally considered the benefits. As it happens, it was incredibly simple to get started with and is now a crucial part of my workflow in design and development.

2. As I alluded to above I'm not very artsy, do you think good design and principles are something that can be learnt if you are artistically challenged ?

It's all experience. I look at a site I made a few years ago and cringe. Infact, it gets to a point where I look at a site I made last week and feel bad about it, or say that I should have changed that part and so on. What i'm saying is that nobody starts out with an advantage, it's all practice and experience. Don't make direct comparisons between your work and that of award-winning designers or huge fashion e-commerce sites, but DO look at them, see what they're doing and take inspiration from them. One thing you can be sure of, if you stick with the "I'm not very good at this" attitude, you won't get very far. Why not try "Everyones gotta start somewhere".

3. Have any of you guys started this fairly late in life like me and managed to get a career out of it ?

You're not a professional athlete or competing in the tour-de-france, so your age is irrelevant and probably acting as another mental barrier between you and success. If you can remember the basics of coding and can create beautiful web compositions then you could be 50 years old or more and still be successful.

I took a look at your PDFs. I'm not quite sure what to make of them. Rather than say anything inherently negative about either, what I would suggest is that you pay close attention to the hierarchy of information, as well as take a look at other sites selling similar products or services and see what they're doing. While it's true that they could be guessing just as much as you are, some refinements are to be expected with experience. On your warrior.pdf for example, why is products so massive in the footer. Have you ever seen a website with that?

A tip I like to use when I'm designing is "If I was a customer, would I buy from this site?". There are certain traits that somehow make a successful looking e-commerce store, and sorry to say but neither of your PDFs have those traits. It's not a bad thing, remember, everyone has to start somewhere. Just look at other peoples site and learn and move on.

I quite like your pdfs, and dude don't be so hard on yourself!

 

Your learning quick. Two weeks is no time at all and Like Williams says above you'll improve massively.

 

I would dabble at everything to see what you like and then aim for that. The money is in the back-end (developing), especially in advertisement, RTB, PPC etc. You're definitely doing the right thing, get out of the ebay thing.

 

Best of luck and keep up the good work.

I'm a few years younger than you at 29. I began learning web design around 2 years ago and got my current role at an agency around 6 months ago. My design skills are not the best either, but that doesn't matter too much, My role as a developer doesn't involve any design as that work is done by our design team. Most agencies have people dedicated to their specific roles. Design, front-end development and back-end development. Larger agencies can have even more focused roles than this.

 

My advice is this: Don't try and be a jack of all trades, web design and development covers a wide variety of things and it would be impossible to become an expert in all. Find what aspect you enjoy and are good at then dedicate your time to master this area.

 

I understand what your saying with regard to trying to learn everything but I think I should at least improve my designing skills as it will help when comes to making a portfolio website I would of thought. I think I'll work out along the way what I really enjoy and am better at so I'll have to decide my path a little later on.

 

 

 

1. Do you think it's worth me dabbling in a bit of everything to see where I excel ?

As far as my experience goes, never avoid something you can't do because you'll never know how to do it. I remember I avoided PHP for years before I finally considered the benefits. As it happens, it was incredibly simple to get started with and is now a crucial part of my workflow in design and development.

2. As I alluded to above I'm not very artsy, do you think good design and principles are something that can be learnt if you are artistically challenged ?

It's all experience. I look at a site I made a few years ago and cringe. Infact, it gets to a point where I look at a site I made last week and feel bad about it, or say that I should have changed that part and so on. What i'm saying is that nobody starts out with an advantage, it's all practice and experience. Don't make direct comparisons between your work and that of award-winning designers or huge fashion e-commerce sites, but DO look at them, see what they're doing and take inspiration from them. One thing you can be sure of, if you stick with the "I'm not very good at this" attitude, you won't get very far. Why not try "Everyones gotta start somewhere".

3. Have any of you guys started this fairly late in life like me and managed to get a career out of it ?

You're not a professional athlete or competing in the tour-de-france, so your age is irrelevant and probably acting as another mental barrier between you and success. If you can remember the basics of coding and can create beautiful web compositions then you could be 50 years old or more and still be successful.

I took a look at your PDFs. I'm not quite sure what to make of them. Rather than say anything inherently negative about either, what I would suggest is that you pay close attention to the hierarchy of information, as well as take a look at other sites selling similar products or services and see what they're doing. While it's true that they could be guessing just as much as you are, some refinements are to be expected with experience. On your warrior.pdf for example, why is products so massive in the footer. Have you ever seen a website with that?

A tip I like to use when I'm designing is "If I was a customer, would I buy from this site?". There are certain traits that somehow make a successful looking e-commerce store, and sorry to say but neither of your PDFs have those traits. It's not a bad thing, remember, everyone has to start somewhere. Just look at other peoples site and learn and move on.

 

I definitely understand my limitations as I've just started learning this stuff and don't expect to be making awesome websites within my first 2 weeks of learning, I know it'll be a gradual learning process with bumps along the way.

 

I think I must of came across overly negative in my OP but I'm not really like that in real life and am genuinely quite excited about this new venture/learning path that I am embarking on.

 

As for those PDF's, they where knocked up in WYSIWYG program a few years ago and I knew next to nothing about web design (still don't know much now) so please forgive the primitive design skills shown as I knew no better.

I quite like your pdfs, and dude don't be so hard on yourself!

 

Your learning quick. Two weeks is no time at all and Like Williams says above you'll improve massively.

 

I would dabble at everything to see what you like and then aim for that. The money is in the back-end (developing), especially in advertisement, RTB, PPC etc. You're definitely doing the right thing, get out of the ebay thing.

 

Best of luck and keep up the good work.

 

Thanks, at least somebody likes my 'awesome' designs lol.

 

I already have some good idea's on how to improve my mini-site but need to learn the skills first so I can implement them.