Can You Learn Web Design Online?
Web design is an in-demand skill. As the tech industry grows and businesses around the world realize how important their digital presence is, web designers are needed more than ever. But you don’t need a computer science degree to tap into this ever-expanding and highly lucrative service, you can master web design on your own time. Learning web design online only makes sense! With so many learning platforms marketing their courses as the one-stop shop for a design degree- it can be difficult to know what’s worth your time and money. To save you the hassle of sifting through syllabi and endless reviews, we’ve compiled a list of the best online courses to become a web design wizard.
Our List:
- Coursera- Web Design for Everybody
- Udemy- Web Design for Beginners: Real World Coding in HTML & CSS
- Tree House- Web Design Track
- Webflow University- Ultimate Web Design Course
- Udacity- Frontend Development Nanodegree
- edX- W3Cx Fronted Developer Program
- SkillCrush- Frontend Development Course
- Future Learn- Introduction to Web Development
Coursera- Web Design for Everybody
Coursera is a popular and reliable site for learning just about anything! As the name suggests, this is the perfect course for anybody and everybody looking to begin their web design journey. The best course for beginners, you will learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript along with how to build a responsive site. This course has hands-on experience built in! With a comprehensive capstone project requiring learners to create a professional portfolio, Coursera’s Web Design for Everbody sends you off with a useful tool for your job search. Lastly, since this course is taught through The University of Michigan, you know you’re getting a high-quality curriculum from reputable professors. This also gives you the opportunity to audit the course for free, or pay $49 a month for your Coursera membership and receive a certificate/college credits.
Price: Free or $49/month
Duration: Estimated 6 months to complete, self-paced
Certification: Certificate received if you pay $49 for a Coursera Membership for the month
What You’ll Learn:
- Introduction to Web Development
- HTML5 Basics
- CSS Basics
- JavaScript Basics
- Advanced styling with Responsive Web Design
- What is Bootstrap
- Web Accessibility
- Document Object Model
- Learning through hands-on projects, experiments, and reviews
Udemy- Web Design for Beginners: Real World Coding in HTML & CSS
Udemy is another popular and trustworthy site to learn new skills online. Another great course for beginners, this class includes 11 hours of videos and 52 downloadable resources that you can access anytime you like. Taught by educator and professional web developer Brad Schiff, this structured intro course holds up-to-date information and covers the basics of responsive design in 2023. With this experienced professional leading your learning, you’ll be glad to see that the information is broken down into 22 easy-to-understand sections, perfect for anyone completely new to the web design world. By the end of the program, you’ll be able to build a fully responsive site with effects, animations, and mobile compatibility.
Price: $124.99, but sales are offered often- some up to 85% off
Duration: 11 hours, self-paced
Certification: Badge of completion
What You’ll Learn:
- HTML Basics
- CSS Basics
- CSS3 Animations
- Flexbox
- JavaScript Basics and Frameworks
- Sass
- What is Bootstrap
- Text, Forms, Tables, Backgrounds, and Typography Basics
- Adding Media
- Page Structure
- Navigation
- Cross-Browser Compatibility
- Mobile Compatibility
Tree House- Web Design Track
This course is more than a course, it’s a series of courses that come together to create one “Track”, in this case, the Web Design Track. By far the most comprehensive learning experience on our list thus far, this track uses videos and interactive lessons to take you from a newbie to a functioning web designer. Each lesson builds on the last and journies through everything you need to know about HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and Sass. With about 43 hours of content broken up into 45-minute to 4-hour chunks, this skill-building curriculum will not only teach you how to build functional websites but online destinations that fit the vision of any given client. Although you won’t learn any Java, TreeHouse will teach you how to take your skills into the real world with CSS Grid Layout and Flexbox coding. Perfect for determined learners starting from ground zero who want to work their way to mastery, this course series is worth your time and money for sure.
Price: $25/month subscription
Duration: 43 hours
Certification: Unavailable for tracks, only for Techdegree programs
What You’ll Learn:
- HTML Basics
- Advanced HTML Forms
- CSS Basics
- CSS Layouts, Grids, and Animations
- Flexbox
- Bootstrap
- Sass
- Responsive Web Design
- Mobile-first Design Practices
- Tables, Typography, Layouts, Forms, and Selectors
- Prototyping a Website
- The Web Design Process
Webflow University- Ultimate Web Design Course
We see this program as a great introduction to web design, and we love it even more because it’s free! Webflow is a company that provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and its online platform allows users to design, build, and launch sites with ease. This Webflow University course will teach you not only the ins and outs of the Webflow platform, but how to harness HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build your website without templates. Beyond simple web development, the Ultimate Web Design Course will teach you the basics of 3D design, typography, and even SEO! Although this is called an ultimate course, it really is a crash course in web design. With no required projects to complete and only 5 hours of material, this course isn’t as comprehensive as some of the others on our list. Nonetheless, we consider it a fantastic way to dip your toe into the world of design and a great starting point for budding web designers.
Price: Free
Duration: 5 hours
Certification: Unavailable
What You’ll Learn:
- Webflow Platform
- HTML Basics
- CSS Basics
- JavaScript Basics
- Responsive Design
- Web Structure
- Layout Basics & Advanced Layouts
- Styling Basics
- Buttons, Typography, Links, and Components
- Adding Media Elements
- CMS & Dynamic Content
- SEO
Udacity- Frontend Development Nanodegree
This Udacity course is big on front-end development, aka how users see and interact with your website. As a Nanodegree, the course’s purpose is to give you an all-encompassing learning experience, equivalent to that of a condensed college degree! This streamlined and fast-paced learning style offers in-depth knowledge of the ins and outs of web design including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript essentials. Teaching you advanced responsive web design, up-to-date web APIS, CSS Grid, Flexbox, and how to automate tasks- this course really sets you up for success. Not only does Udacity give you the materials you need to become a skilled web designer, it offers great career coaching services and requires you to create a truly impressive portfolio of useful real-world projects. Although this option is pricey, financing is available for learners that can’t afford to pay in full upfront.
Price: $1,356 for 4 months of access, or $399/month
Duration: 100+ hours of learning, estimated 4 months to complete
Certification: Certificate included upon completion
What You’ll Learn:
- HTML Basics
- CSS Basics
- CSS Grid
- Flexbox
- JavaScript Basics
- Advanced Responsive Web Design
- Modern Web APIs
- Webpack
- Task Automation
edX- W3Cx Fronted Developer Program
edX is an online course provider created by Harvard and MIT, so you know the curriculum is thorough and high quality. This course equips you with the knowledge you need to start your journey as a front-end web developer- such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript of course. Outside of learning the basic coding languages, you will learn how to work like an expert in CSS with modules over CSS grid, and Flexbox. Create visually appealing and user-friendly web experiences with lessons over navigation, and advanced HTML5 APIs like timed text tracks. Not only was edX created by top universities, but this course is also taught by highly qualified professionals working at Microsoft! Dive into web application development as well as the fun side of coding- creating games and apps! This course is great for beginners who are willing to commit a lot of time to learning web design in an extremely in-depth and professional way.
Price: Free to Audit, $895 for Certification
Duration: Estimated 7 months to complete, assuming a 7-hour-a-week pace
Certification: Certificate awarded upon completion if you purchased the program
What You’ll Learn:
- HTML5 Basics
- CSS Basics
- CSS Grid
- Flexbox
- JavaScript Basics
- Modern HTML Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
- Importance of Accessibility and Internalization
- HTML5 for Games and Apps
SkillCrush- Front End Development Course
This front-end development course from SkillCrush covers the need-to-know topics to be a great web designer. Starting off strong as always with coding languages, you’ll be introduced to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Looking beyond the basics of CSS and Java- you’ll become familiar with Flexbox and JQuery, allowing you to create more efficiently and code less. From there you’ll go into full-on front-end mode and dive into Github, domains, hosting, and how to make anything and everything in Adobe Photoshop. This is another great starting point for beginners to gain a lot of skills in a short amount of time.
Price: $549 one-time payment, or $199/month
Duration: 3 months on average
Certification: Certificate available upon completion
What You’ll Learn:
- HTML Basics
- CSS Basics
- Flexbox
- JavaScript
- JQuery
- Git and GitHub
- Responsive Web design
- Adding Media
- Responsive Images
- Domains and Hosting
- Adobe Photoshop
Future Learn- Introduction to Web Development
Yet another comprehensive crash course, beginners will find this Future Learn course to be a quick way to immerse themselves in web design. Covering the holy trinity of web coding languages again, you will learn how to maneuver HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Within these languages, you’ll learn tagging, styling, and how to make web pages interactive. By the end of the course, you will even be able to create a webpage with an interactive quiz feature!
Price: Free for 5 weeks or $279.99 annually for the digital and printed certificate + access to more courses
Duration: 3 weeks
Certificate: Included upon completion with Upgraded or Annual Membership
What You’ll Learn:
- HTML Basics
- CSS Basics
- Javascript Basics
- Responsive Web Design
- Box Model
- Document Object Model (DOM)
- Validation
- Tags, Attributes, and Styling
- Creating Interactive Pages
This Is Your Starting Point
Now that you know the best online courses to get started in web design, go forth and conquer! These educational sites are a fantastic way to get familiar with the basics skills you need to succeed in this fast-growing and in-demand line of work- but don’t forget that they’re just a launching pad. In a creative field, there is no end to education, and the ability to learn constantly and stay hungry for improvement is what differentiates a good designer from a great one. Although these courses won’t make you a master, they will position you at the starting line for a successful career in all things web design. Our designers recommend using what you learn from these courses and applying it to real-life projects you’re passionate about! This allows you to create a well-rounded portfolio and gain hands-on design experience. So, build a website for a friend’s small business, design an info site for a local artist you love, or reimagine an established brand’s site in your own style! What are you waiting for? Get to coding!
Looking for award-winning web designers to transform your online presence? Get in contact with HMG Creative here!