The best web design classes, bootcamps, & certifications near me

Learning the basics of web development can be a useful skill for novice web designers, and those who want to start at the beginning should consider this HTML/CSS course. HTML/CSS are the foundations of modern website architecture. HTML (Hypertext markup language) tells a web browser how to distinguish between different aspects of a webpage, so it is the language that tells your browser how to distinguish this body text from the header above it. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) tells the web browser how to display aspects of the website, so it controls things like font and color, and it is designed to ensure that all web browsers, whether on a desktop, smartphone, or toaster, display the webpage in the same way. These languages are relatively simple (and they are limited in their scope), but you can’t develop a website without knowing these languages. This course serves as an ideal introduction for students looking to slowly learn the art of web development.

Once students are comfortable with the basics of HTML and CSS, they can enroll in this advanced course that covers all of the more complex and conditional aspects of HTML/CSS. This includes things like positioning, advanced CSS selectors, relative type sizing (px, em, rem), calc() and sophisticated styling with multiple background images, transparent color using RGBA, CSS gradients, shadows, and more. This course will provide students with the training they need to create animated effects and mobile-optimized off-screen navigation menus, as well as a host of other complicated website features using only HTML and CSS. Designers who want to become developers themselves will greatly benefit from learning how to write clean, simple, and effective HTML/CSS code.

Once you are comfortable with CSS, you can learn some of the major tools that are built to assist users in the web design and development process, including Flexbox, Grid, and Bootstrap. CSS Flexbox is used to help lay out and develop individual elements of a webpage, giving users more control over the individual components that make up a webpage. Grid enables users to easily and effectively design an entire web layout from scratch. Bootstrap, which is built with Flexbox, allows for a more dynamic webpage layout design when used alongside Grid. Taken together, these three applications will assist web designers in creating more robust and intricate webpages with only a bit of CSS training.

Once you are comfortable with your HTML/CSS skills, you’ll want to start to learn the fundamentals of JavaScript. JavaScript is the programming language that allows for the creation of dynamic and responsive websites with all of the features that one expects from a modern web application. Students will learn the fundamentals of the JavaScript language (variables, loops, arrays, functions, etc.) to add animated, interactive, and live updating elements to their webpages. This training will also introduce them to the significant libraries associated with JavaScript and their function in complicated web development projects for software, mobile, and browser applications. By the end of this class, freelance designers will know how to write JavaScript code on top of HTML/CSS, how to add interactive and animated elements, and how to prepare their designs for live launch.

Figma, a browser-based webpage layout design application, is among the most important tools for Web Designers, given that it allows them to seamlessly collaborate on projects and create working prototypes of those websites to allow you to test them before handing them off to developers. In this course, students will learn how to create elaborate designs using Figma’s various wireframing tools and how the system allows them to easily and effectively collaborate with one another in a way similar to shared Google Docs. Then, students will learn how Figma can be used to create practical, usable prototypes of their designs with limited interactive HTML functionality. This allows designers to test the websites and gather feedback on their designs in a quick and effective manner, bypassing a lot of the difficulty in getting live user testing taken care of before the formal launch of a website.

High school students looking to spend a bit of their summer learning the art of web design may want to consider this immersive online UX/UI design program. Students will get hands-on practice working with applications like Figma and Photoshop, and they will learn the essential design techniques that are used to ensure that web applications are both informative and functional. Then, students will spend time learning how user experience designers work to create websites that are more accessible and easy to use. All of the lessons are taught by experienced instructors with years of pedagogical and design experience, ensuring that this course will prepare high school students for whatever kind of design projects they pursue, either academically or professionally.

If you are looking for a more focused training session or you just want to get some one-on-one time with a professional web design instructor, consider enrolling in a private training seminar. In these three-hour sessions, you’ll be able to work directly with an instructor to receive hands-on training in whatever subject you feel you need assistance with. This can range from private, guided training on the use of Figma as a design tool to working on more advanced visual design techniques with an eye turned toward your specific project. You can also use this as supplemental training for other web design lessons, helping you ensure that you are understanding course material and learning how to properly apply the skills that you are learning. Since these are one-on-one tutoring sessions, you can even enroll in multiple sessions to help cover different aspects of the web design process, or you can attend a session and see if you want to sign up for another later in the future.

Given the importance of having a solid web presence, every company and institution should be investing in their team member’s web design skills. If you are looking to provide employees with web design training, Noble Desktop offers a wide range of options to help ensure that your team can handle their web design tasks. This training can be a one-day lesson in the basics of utilizing Figma, or it can be an extended web design bootcamp aimed at upskilling your existing web design team. This training can be held in-person at your main office or online in private digital classrooms that your team members can attend from anywhere. In addition, if you want to give your team members other options for developing their web design skills, you can purchase bulk vouchers for any of these courses (as well as many others) to allow your team members to enter open-enrollment web design classes on their own time. This flexible training is an excellent way to help ensure that your team is successful and that all of your web design projects are perfect.

Web design, sometimes called visual design, is a banner name for the process and practice of creating the visual layout of a web application, website, or digital interface. It encompasses all of the non-programming elements of the design process, including the prototyping and wireframing stages, as well as the process of asset creation. Web design focuses on two major goals: ensuring that a website or digital interface looks good and that it is intuitive and easy to navigate. Web design is a form of graphic design, so in addition to utilizing tools like Figma and Photoshop, it also makes use of traditional design principles and practices (including both things like sketching and pre-design and theories of design like typography or color theory).

As more and more of our personal and business activities migrate to digital platforms, there is an ever-increasing demand for web design professionals who can ensure that a company or organization's web presence is memorable and accessible. A bad website can turn off potential clients or customers very quickly, and if your web presence isn’t intuitive and easy to use, those same potential clients may simply look for a competitor with a more well-designed website. You also want to ensure that your websites communicate information in a quick and effective manner, and web design aims to apply the principles of mass communication design to the digital space in order to achieve this goal.

Learning web design can also be useful for anyone looking to build their own web presence, either for personal projects or for establishing their personal brand. Learning the design principles and techniques that professionals use can help you more easily build personal websites, sites for small businesses, and event pages that serve the function you want them to serve (be it advertising an event or housing your CV). You can learn the basics of web design relatively quickly (assuming you have help), and even a small amount of training can be a significant boon to your skills.

Finally, if you are more interested in the creative side of the digital space, you can learn web design techniques that aren’t entirely focused on building commercial websites. The digital canvas offers artists and creatives significant freedom to expand their artistic horizons in new and unique ways. Learning how to create art for a digital, interactive space starts with learning how to use the tools that Web Designers use. These classes will also help you apply practical design theories and techniques in a digital space.

Web design classes primarily cover the practical skills you will need to find work on commercial design projects. This includes learning how to use common professional tools and how to be responsive to the needs of stakeholders involved in your project.

Figma

Figma is the most commonly used digital design application available, owing to its convenient collaboration features and its robust prototyping tools with support for simple JavaScript emulation. This tool lets users create wireframes of websites using a large collection of prefabricated tools and assets, and it allows for easy collaboration and sharing. Since it is a browser-based application, you can work on projects from anywhere, and like Google Docs, you can see the changes being made to the project in real time. While it isn’t the only wireframing tool on the market, it is quickly becoming the industry standard option for anyone looking to work collaboratively on web design projects.

Adobe Creative Cloud applications

Other important tools that web design students are likely to learn include Adobe Creative Cloud applications, such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Before the development of tools like Figma and SketchUp, Photoshop was one of the most common tools utilized to design the look of a webpage, and while it no longer serves that function, it was used primarily because of the ease of creating and designing digital assets within the application. Students enrolled in a web design course are likely to learn how to create assets (for things like banners, logos, buttons, and slideshows) using programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

HTML/CSS and JavaScript

While not all web design courses will include a coding component, it is not uncommon for classes to provide designers with training in the basics of front-end web development (i.e., building the parts of a website that a user interacts with) using HTML/CSS and JavaScript. These languages form the backbone of modern website programming and are vital to anyone who is looking to learn how to build the websites they have designed. This training will also help anyone involved in website design understand the limitations of HTML/CSS and JavaScript programming, which will help them collaborate with developers while working on their projects.

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular online content management system currently available and is somewhere in the ballpark, with 40% of all websites at least partially built using this infrastructure. Learning how to use WordPress and its default templates can help you greatly improve your web design skills, and it can bypass the need to learn advanced coding techniques. If you do learn how to code, you can even build your own templates and digital assets using WordPress, giving you even more control over the kinds of websites you can build using the design platform.

Design techniques

Learning how to use the tools of the trade is essential; if you don’t know what you are doing with those tools, you are going to have a hard time designing a good website. This requires you to practice your design skills and learn the techniques that are most frequently associated with visual design. This includes learning things like color theory, typography, and basic design principles for mass communication. Since most commercial websites aim to communicate with audiences, you’ll need to understand how to get your message across in the most effective way possible. 

Accessible design

In addition to being sure that your website adequately communicates with your audience, you need to make sure that it is accessible to them. This means accounting for the wide variety of devices that are used to access the internet and the various ways that users interact with and understand your website. Accessible design means ensuring that your website isn’t difficult to navigate or confusing, and it is most often associated with the idea of being ‘user-friendly.’ Learning how to test your prototype websites and respond to feedback is an important skill to learn, so much so that it encompasses an entire subfield of web design.

When considering a web design bootcamp, it’s common to wonder whether this training method is worth the investment. This is subjective and truly depends on the student’s goals and their current skill level. Bootcamps are programs designed to help beginners become skilled in their chosen field, which is particularly helpful for those looking to make a career switch or upskill quickly. The curriculum for these types of courses is practical and hands-on, meaning each participant has a chance to gain real experience in web design practices. These programs cover everything from fundamental skills to working with industry-standard software in just a few weeks time.

While the ability to complete a program quickly is lucrative, there’s also the added benefit of having cost savings when compared to other training formats. These programs often come with a much lower price tag than traditional degree programs, and many institutions have flexible payment options to help lower the initial cost. Most importantly, bootcamps are accessible to a wide range of learners and offer an immersive learning experience without the long-term commitment required with degree programs.

One of the first questions you’ll need to ask yourself when looking for a web design training program is whether or not you want to learn how to code. Most modern web design utilizes JavaScript as its primary language and HTML/CSS as the framework upon which the website is built. Learning the basics of coding will help you launch your own websites (after designing them) and can assist you in finding freelance work or work at smaller firms where the web design and development teams are one and the same.

Learning to code will involve learning how HTML/CSS are used to build and how the languages have evolved over time. These coding languages date back to the mid-90s, and they have become the standard infrastructure for virtually every website. The language is relatively dated, and a website that only uses HTML/CSS will look like it came out of the 90s, but it is an essential language pair to learn. JavaScript is a more complex language that allows for creating more interactive, freeform web assets and adding additional programming functionality to a website. It is one of the most popular programming languages to learn (especially for new users), so learning this will serve as the foundation for later programming training.

Here’s a quick look into some of the most commonly used programming languages aspiring Web Designers may want to learn:

• HTML/CSS: Used to structure content and style websites.
• JavaScript: Adds interactivity and active features to websites.
• Python: Beginner-friendly; used for web development and automation.
• SQL: Manages and queries databases; essential for backend data operations.

The argument against learning to code is that if you are looking for professional design work, you’ll want to focus your training on learning design skills rather than learning coding skills that are helpful but not essential to your professional aspirations. You may want to focus your training on the design and artistic skills that are most immediately valuable to your future career opportunities, saving the coding training for later.

One of the important aspects to consider when you are designing a website is that, unlike most forms of visual communication, designing a website means designing something that users will interact with and need to navigate. This means you’ll need to strike a balance between how the website looks and how it feels.

User interface design is concerned with what a website looks like and how it communicates information to a user. These various techniques and associated tools aim to help users create websites that are clean and memorable and communicate the message that they intend to communicate. This is going to vary from project to project (since the website for a new division of a college will need to look different from and communicate differently than a website for a bait and tackle shop), but learning how to blend form and function is an important aspect of the design process.

User experience design is concerned with how the website feels to use and whether or not it is easy to understand and navigate. Since it is impossible to fully predict how users will interact with your websites, this process tends to involve testing and iterating upon your designs, usually with the assistance of real-world users (either in A/B testing, focus group testing, or surveys). This can inform you whether or not users are actually engaging with your websites in the way that you anticipated they would. Then, the website’s design can be modified with the feedback in mind. This process is more about testing and analysis than other aspects of the design process, and there are quite a few professional opportunities for students who focus on user experience design.

There are plenty of job opportunities for anyone who opts to specialize in web design. The most obvious career path to follow is that of a Web Designer, a class of professionals who work with clients to design individual webpages, entire websites, or other online interfaces. These professional designers will be tasked with designing a company or institution's web presence, focusing on ensuring that their employers or clients receive a design for their websites that aligns with their initial desires. This will involve working with teams of other designers, developers, and potentially other invested stakeholders with the aim of building a website that is both functional and communicates all necessary information to users in a way that is persuasive and easy to understand. These professionals can expect to earn an average of $90,000 in the US.

Web Designers also frequently find work as freelancers, meaning that they interface with clients directly and are hired to work on individual projects on a short-term basis. They may also run their own freelance businesses, which will add to the time and energy put into the work but will also help you choose the projects you actually want to work on and give you more flexibility in how many hours you work during a given week. Freelance designers are more likely to need to learn how to code than their non-freelance counterparts, but the flexibility offered by the position is often enough to make this route more appealing than traditional web design employment.