So you’re looking to learn some web design and development, but where do you start. Here are a few great examples of online learning with a focus on video tutorials.
Lynda.com
Lynda.com is a great online resource for not only web design and development but for a lot of other skills as well. They have a full range of tutorials ranging from PHP to how to properly light a photo shoot. Their tutorials are well made and take you through a concept
from the beginning to the end, sometimes even a bit painfully, if you already know a little about the subject you might be better off skipping the first few chapters of a title. Overall I’ve been using Lynda.com for years and I’ve been happy with them.
Pros: Through well thought out video tutorials taught by people who are experts in the field.
Cons: Sometimes the basics seem like they take forever to get through. Because they have good production value and cover a topic from beginning to end, they are often a little behind the times on the latest and greatest technology.
Price: You can get monthly or yearly subscriptions to their service with or without downloadable content. Personally I’ve never found the need to pay for the extra downloadable content.
Treehouse.com
Treehouse has a fun style and an easy to use interface using a badge style reward system to make it feel less like work, and more like a learning game. Their content library isn’t the most intensive, but if you’re looking for web design and development, that is the bulk of their courses.
Pros: Their video learning then quizes are a great way to make sure you’re learning the content and not just watching someone else do it.
Cons: They host their videos themselves which is nice, but I’ve noticed a definite lag in some of their videos, sometimes making me watch a little then wait, then watch a little more.
Price: Treehouse has a $25 a month plan and a $49 a month plan. I have only tried out their $25 and thought that it was enough.
css-tricks.com
css-tricks is the website of Front-End developer Chris Coyier. It is an overall smorgasbord of different font-end website technologies ranging from CSS to Javascript, to Git and Pre-Processors. Chris’ style is a bit rambling but his content is up to date and always relevant.
Pros: css-tricks has a lot of great examples of how to fix tricky situations and gotchas.
Cons: There is no specific path that the lessons follow, if you’re looking for a beginning to end tutorial you might need to look elsewhere.
Price: Free
Youtube.com
Youtube is a biggest video depository on the planet, which means there is a good chance someone has done a video about whatever it is you want to learn. The question is how good is it. I’ve seem both amazing tutorials and ones that don’t make any sense. Youtube is a great place to start you search for knowledge on any topic, including web design and development.
Pros: The biggest selection of videos on the planet.
Cons: The biggest selection of crappy videos on the planet.
Price: Free / your time sifting through videos.
codeschool
codeschool is a great way to learn if you like games and fun graphics. They also have a very up to date course list including Git and CoffeeScript.
Pros: I tried their free course of rails for zombies and though it was both fun and informative.
Cons: If you want to learn about other aspects of web such as Photoshop, or UX design look somewhere else, this is just about coding.
Price: $25 a month