(42)
Can anyone teach
Web design without
being technical?

I want to learn how to create my own Web page(s). So I type this Google line:
“web design” “how to” “do your own”
(one line, typed exactly like that, including the double quotes) and I get ‘Thoughts on Web Design by Elliot Chabot (lawguru.com/) dated 19 April 19 1999, among others. I like what I see. The first words are: ‘Web site design – part art, part science, part philosophy, part mechanics. What follows are some of the lessons learned from the development of the US House of Representative Internet Law Library. It is a mixture of some of the common lore of the Internet, suggestions that others have put into print, and some items discovered through trial and error.’

Intelligent.

‘The first key to a successful Web site is to decide on the goal of your site. What is your purpose? What is your vision? The clearer your focus, the more likely you are to achieve it. The vision for your site is the foundation on which it is built. Strong sites call for strong foundations.’ xxx ‘The more original, useful material your Web site includes, the greater the likelihood that your Web site will be a success.’

Okay, I’m sold.

‘For those of you who would like to be able to deal directly with HTML codes, you might want to look at:

A Beginner’s Guide to HTML by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

HTML 4.0 Specification by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C is one of the primary standards bodies of the Internet.

I press Ctrl and click with the mouse pointer over ‘HTML 4.0 Specification’ and I find it too technical – definitely not for beginners. I press Ctrl and click over ‘A Beginner’s Guide to HTML’ and the screen says, ‘NCSA’s “A Beginner’s Guide to HTML” Bounce Page. ¶ ‘We’re sorry, but NCSA’s “A Beginner’s Guide to HTML” is no longer active.’

Arrrrrk!

I click on one of the alternative sites, for W3Schools, and I get ‘HTML Tutorial.’ I read; I understand, but I also I know I’m not getting what I want: I want to design a Web page – I know I have to learn HTML, but don’t tell me about HTML until you have taught me how I can design a page for myself, and how I can change that design. When I say ‘Web page,’ I mean the whole screen, not just a segment of it. First things first. Image by Weave, flickr.com - that's what I mean by Web design, Web page. With HTML as your first tutorial, you are assuming that I am not a tabula rasa – well, I am. That’s why I’m a beginner, you understand? A beginner knows nothing, nada, zero, zilch. Has my Beginner’s Luck run out before I even got to it?

I try the other links: “How to set up a website that works.” It doesn’t work on me. It’s just trying to sell Web design services. I click on “Bellcrest Web Design” and it gives me ‘Frequently Asked Questions,’ among them: ‘Why should I pay a Web designer when I could get my friend to it for free?’ And the answer is: ‘With today’s WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors, most anyone can build a Web site. Not everyone can do it well.’

If I have seen a discouraging word, that’s the one. You see? They are not being helpful; they are just trying to tell me: Hire us! How do they know that 1 million of the rest of us can’t do it better than all of those programmers combined once we learn to do it ourselves?

Can anyone teach Web design without being technical? If no one can, I will, eventually, but first I have to learn it the hard way: technical. I will surf again for “practical Web design” – or I will just have to do it on my own, meaning grapple with all that technical language that only programmers can understand. Well, I’m back to the old adage: If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.