Ethan Marcotte’s Post

I've been asked, "How do I design a successful website?" I often respond, "Do you know the fastest way to ruin a new website  design?" As you might suspect, the answer is "Lack of proper planning beforehand."    Let's put it another way. In programming, there's an old axiom which states: "The sooner you start your coding, the longer it takes to finish." Planning out your site before you build it is essential. To borrow a technique from the film industry, I recommend that you create a storyboard, which is a type of flow chart of your new site design. You don’t have to be an accomplished artist to draw out your idea, but it’s essential to create it on paper first. On each piece of paper, the goal is to have room for an image at the top, plus space underneath for writing down information. As you might suspect, the first page to start with is your home (or welcome) page, which will typically have the most information as it will contain the page the people visit before they enter your site, and as people go through your site, they will encounter more information (in tiers) as they go down. Typically, the home page links to 5-15 pages below that, which we could refer to as Tier 2. Each of those pages links to another 5-15 pages, which you could call Tier 3. (These are just assumptions. Varies depending on your website)    If you use all of these pages, you’ll wind up with an extensive site of at least 226 pages (including the home page). It's during this process that all sorts of problems will crop up. But it's much easier to solve them on paper than in the middle of coding rather than when you are finished.. If you don’t, you might run into a major problem along the way that would require a “back to the drawing board” complete site re-design. Working things out on paper will give you a much better idea of how things will work and how to fix problems. And, if you have knowledgeable friends, get a second opinion. Once you've completed the on-paper process, and you or your web designer is satisfied with the results, you're now ready to translate it into code. Unless you or your programmer is a pro, I would recommend using templates. These are ready-made design formats. You can choose from several templates by typing “template source” in most search engines. Many of them are free. 

𝗖𝗦𝗦 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 They are the foundation of styling in front-end development. 🚀 Master the basics and start creating clean, efficient styles for your websites. Check out the guide here: https://lnkd.in/eN8UKTNx

🗣 Web Design is HARD... I used to think the same when I was starting out. You are expected to: - Master every coding language before you can even start. - Have an artistic flair to create visually appealing websites. - Spend thousands on web design software. But it’s (actually) really simple: - Today's software is designed for beginners, no coding skills are necessary. - Templates and drag-and-drop features make designing attractive websites easy. - Free and low-cost options are readily available. ❌ Web Design isn't hard, but we've been conditioned to think it is. 📌 As Paul Rand once said, "Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated." But with the right software, creating static and attractive websites can be simplified, even for beginners. P.S. What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to creating websites?

📊✨Thursday Quiz: How do you think CSS contributes to responsive web design? 🤔 Share your thoughts below! 💬

Mastering CSS Pseudo-Classes and Pseudo-Elements: Enhance Your Web Design Skills CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a cornerstone of web design, allowing developers to control the presentation of their web content with precision. In this article, we'll explore some fundamental CSS pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements and how they can transform your web design. 1- Pseudo-Classes :hover: Changes the color of a link when the mouse hovers over it. a:hover {   color: red; } :active: Changes the background color of a button when it is clicked. button:active {   background-color: yellow; } :focus: Changes the border color of an input field when it is focused. input:focus {   border-color: blue; } :nth-child(n): Selects the nth child of its parent.   <ul>     <li>First item</li>     <li>Second item (This will have a light blue background)</li>   </ul> li:nth-child(2) {   background-color: lightblue; } :first-child: Selects the first child of its parent. <div>     <p>This will be bold font.</p>     <p>This is the second paragraph inside a div.</p>   </div>   p:first-child {   font-weight: bold; } The CSS rule p:first-child selects the first <p> element of its parent. :last-child: Selects the last child of its parent.  <div>     <p>This is the first paragraph inside a div.</p>     <p>This paragraph will be italic.</p>   </div> p:last-child {   font-style: italic; } The CSS rule p:last-child selects the last <p> element of its parent. :nth-of-type(n): Selects the nth child of its type.   <p>This is the first paragraph of type 'p'.</p>   <div>     <p>This is the first paragraph inside a div.</p>     <p>This is the second paragraph inside a div. It will be green.</p>     <p>This is the third paragraph inside a div.</p>   </div>   <p>This is the second paragraph of type 'p'. It will be green.</p>   <p>This is the third paragraph of type 'p'.</p>   p:nth-of-type(2) {   color: green; } :not(selector): Selects elements that do not match the selector. This rule will apply the color: gray; style to all <p> elements that do not have the class intro. <p>This paragraph will be gray.</p> <p class="intro">This paragraph will not be affected.</p> <p>Another paragraph that will be gray.</p> p:not(.intro) {   color: gray; } Only the first and third <p> elements will have the color: gray; style applied to them, as they do not have the class intro. The second <p> element with the class intro will not be affected by this rule. 2- Pseudo-Elements ::before: Inserts content before an element. p::before {   content: "Note: ";   font-weight: bold;   color: red; } ::after: Inserts content after an element. p::after {   content: " [End]";   font-weight: bold;   color: blue; } If you prefer a video format explanation, check out this comprehensive tutorial: https://lnkd.in/dzMAV4tY #ultimatemernstackmasterycourselecture11 #ultimatemernstackmasterycourse #textpropertiescss #cssforbeginners #csstutorial #webdevelopment

Task 4: Create a personal portfolio website to showcase your expertise as a web developer. The website should feature an attractive design that captivates visitors, with sections such as a homepage with a captivating headline and professional photo, a summary of your skills, and an "About Me" section detailing your background, education, and professional experience. Knowledge Gained: Enhanced creation of HTML structure and basics of CSS Styling. Github: https://lnkd.in/dScQtQXU #ProdigyInfoTech

📊✨Thursday Quiz: How do you think CSS contributes to responsive web design? 🤔 Share your thoughts below! 💬

As a web developer, imagine you are working on a project and you've spent hours crafting a beautiful layout for your website, carefully styling each element to perfection. However, as you start adding more content, you encounter a problem: inconsistency in the appearance of certain elements. Some text is the wrong color, some buttons are the wrong size, and overall, your design lacks cohesion. Now that's where the inherit property comes in. One of the powerful features of CSS is inheritance, which enables styles to be passed down from parent elements to their children. The inherit property plays a crucial role in this inheritance mechanism so let's discuss this property in details https://lnkd.in/ez9dKiaS

Boost Your CSS Skills with These 5 Unknown Properties A useful tool for managing a website’s design is CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets. Many CSS properties, such as margin, padding, color, and font-size, are well-known to web developers, but there are many other properties that are less well-known that may improve your designs and accelerate your code. With code samples and real-world applications, we’ll delve into five of these overlooked treasures in this blog article. Upon completion, your CSS toolbox will have been expanded with more capabilities that will enable you to produce web pages that are more visually attractive, dynamic, and efficient... Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/dx_9AQEb

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are an essential part of web development. They enable web designers to control the presentation and layout of web pages, In this CSS tutorial making it an integral skill for anyone looking to create visually appealing and responsive websites. #CSS #WebDevelopment #CSS3 #CSSTricks #ITCodeStuff