A Question About Website Design

Sorry Dustin, there is no software to make you a web designer. If you’re using WordPress things are much easier then other software to create sites. Best advice I can give is to get some good books on web design. As well as a few on coding with PHP, HTML, Java, and CSS.
Keep this in mind as well, if your a ‘web designer’, and you’re using pre-made templates for your customers ( especially free ones!!! ), you’re kind of ripping them off.
I was looking for a way to edit a PHP file safely last week, and came across this person asking how to add a banner/logo to his site, he included a link to his site in the post. I was floored when I clicked the link and it was to his “Web-Design” site. He was charging people to make their sites, and he couldn’t even add a banner/logo. What a scam!!
I am not trying to be judgmental here, but just because you can edit a theme, doesn’t mean you can be a web designer, and sorry no, there is no software that really teaches you how to code.

thanks for the input. What is the best book that you could recommend?

Reading a book won’t make you a good designer any more then reading a book will make you a good programmer. Both are not easy-to-do things (as you’ve seen with the design side of it).

Honestly, most people that are designers can’t code and most people that are programmers can’t design. That’s just how it goes. The thinking that’s needed for each one is vastly different and seldome meets with any good results. If you’re going to make a serious attempt at starting a business I’d think about partnering with a designer so that they can do the design work and you can do the coding/social media stuff.

Honestly, most people that are designers can’t code and most people that are programmers can’t design. That’s just how it goes. The thinking that’s needed for each one is vastly different and [trying to do both] seldome meets with any good results.

So true. I spent years dealing with the same as an industrial fabricator. Engineers would design stuff, but then my challenge to make it real and to actually work began…and yet neither could I do any engineering beyond a simple sketch. But there is actually yet a third category, and that is the “street-level mechanic” who can figure out how make the coder’s stuff do things the designer had not considered or included, and without actually being a designer or coder himself or herself…and for me, that is the challenge of WordPress!

I was just trying to be honest and give real answers. As far as you can’t learn to code from a book, no you can’t, but even the high end Ivy League Colleges still issue books.
A good book on how things work is a great way to get a feel for what and how coding works. Then apply that to what you are creating. Using the web will give you some good results on how to code a site, but you will have to bounce all over the place and save a ton of pages to favorites, then flop back and forth to get things right. Because a basic site with help creating your site will not explain the big issues i most cases. Sorry, but a few good books on coding will help ease that process as they explain in depth what each command does! You will not find what “li” does in the web! At least not in depth. If you just want the basics, use the “…For Dummies” books. Not the best, but they will give you easy to understand instructions on web design.

I am also trying to figure out what a “Programmer” has to do with web design? Are we trying to program our site to pick up ESPN? Or move the Queen to check? You don’t need to be a “programmer” to make a website. Now, if you wanna make a new MK game…….You do not need to program ( ehem..C++ anyone? ) a website, just learn to code it even if it’s just HTML.

You are right in saying that there’s a lot of good resources out there that can help you learn how to program. There’s also a huge amount of resources for learning design. What I was saying is that reading these alone won’t make you great at what you do. It will give you some basics and give a few pointers and tips, but anything like this is a long-term investment of your time in order to learn it properly. Reading a book or two can’t ever give you everything you need. It takes continuous research, investigation, practice and a whole lot of failing before you figure out how to do things the right way.

As far as I’m concerned “coding” is the same as “programming”. PHP is a programming language, and that’s a big part of any decent WordPress theme. You may not see PHP in the same league as C++ or Java, but when it comes down to it you need to same skillset to program well, no matter what the langauge is. Having said that, I don’t see HTML as the same thing. That’s a markup language, not a programming language – but it still takes time, skill and knowledge to craft it the correct way.