Web Development - Beginner

[Izzywizz]

Hi everyone

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question so I apologise if I got it wrong but I own a Mac and always found this community helpful.

First let's me give you some background about myself. I'm a recent computer science graduate that has kinda fallen into a tester role but I'm a developer at heart and I've let my skills get rusty so I've been working after work to get back up-to-date.

The first thing for me to practice was HTML/ CSS, I bought Jon Duckett book, as well as using W3 Schools, finished CodeAcademy tutorials and have been working on some basic websites.

My goal is build my online portfolio for my CV and showcase the websites I've built and projects/ applications I've made for iOS using objective c so when I go for a developer job, I can show them what I've done and I've been busy.

My only issue so far, is that I really want to get better at designing a website so it looks great, I wondered if you guys/girls new some awesome web design blogs or websites that really help improve/ teach me how to make a good website even better.

Thanks in advance.

 

[olup]

http://tympanus.net/codrops and http://css-tricks.com are great, they have a lot of tutorials and really insightful articles. http://onepagelove.com is good to see what other people are doing, although only single page websites only.

Smashing Magazine, A list apart are great websites as well.

 

[960design]

Your goals are admirable!

To quickly answer your question about web design. For inspiration I google something like best Wordpress Themes 2014, or if I'm looking for something specific I google Best 2014 Minimalist Themes.

Now to the subject. Coding and design are two very separate animals. Very few talented people out there can do both well. Most of us are happy with just doing one very well. Me? I code. My girlfriend is an artist ( oil / acrylic / pen ) and does the front end design. I use her ideas to build/code the front end.

I understand my limitations regarding color/focus/UI/ect and more importantly TIME. Tweaking pixels takes alot of time and talent. I can code an entire custom enterprise level website in a couple of days; refinements to workflows take another couple / three weeks. It will also take several weeks just getting company images / matching color palettes / ect. It really helps to have someone with a little art skill on this part.

What I'm getting at, is for you to focus on one part at a time. Either do the iOS / web development OR design. Try not to do both at the same time. You can cheat ( as I do ) alot by using something like Wordpress with free amazing themes that you can tweak to customer satisfaction, but it doesn't come close to the look / feel a dedicated designer will get you.

We all know that the customer doesn't care how awesome your backend class based websocket ajax handling code saves them three miliseconds per page load. They only care about how pretty the font for their business name looks in that soft focus blue.

 

[Izzywizz]

Thanks for moving the thread, I posted the thread using my mobile and I could only see Mac Programming, probably my HTC phone trying to rebel against Apple haha. Back on the keyboard now!
Thanks for the responses. I have been checking the websites you have both mentioned and they were exactly what I needed, inspiration, tips and guidance. There are some really beautiful websites out there.

You are right 960design, design is crazy tough nut to crack and it has never been my strongest suit even at uni I was more suited to a traditional developer role but I really enjoyed the module on User Interfaces which inspired my dissertation in the end, so I guess I'm trying to inject some life into skills again. I just got so used to doing 'work' if that makes sense and when I had an opportunity to make a simple program in C# to aid in testing an application, I think it was barely above Hello World but it brought it all back to me. God I miss development haha but competition is high in the UK for Developer jobs so I thought lets inject some life into my web skills whilst I'm doing some side projects.

First it is the Web (HTML/CSS/JQuery/JavaScript) then its back to good old iOS development, couple hours a day after work and I should be ok again, fingers crossed. Though expect some funny questions from me in the future I suspect hahaha.
Thanks again!