How to learn HTML and Web design

You will find lot of tutorials online and books in market that teaches you how to use HTML to create your websites. Similar resources are available for those who want to learn about web design. It’s important to know that learning HTML is different from learning web designing. HTML is a markup language used to create web pages. On the other hand, web designing talks about how to create the site layout such that it matches with the theme of the site, looks professional, user friendly and search engine friendly.

When I had started learning HTML, my internet connection was too slow and expensive. Due to this, I used to find it costly to search for websites providing HTML tutorials. Also, there were hardly any books available on this subject in the local market. Thus it was not possible for me to go through online tutorials and learn from them or from books. At that time, I had no idea about web design.

I used a different way to learn HTML. Whenever I used to go and visit a website, I used to save it on my hard disk. After that, in my free time, I used to go through its source HTML code and understand it. I did it on few websites, and after some days I was able to recreate the layout of any new website I used to visit without even looking at its source HTML.

Learning HTML in this way proved useful for me in two ways. First, I came to know how to use HTML practically without referring many books. Secondly, I also came to know how to create professional looking and user friendly website layouts. In other words, while learning HTML, I also learnt about basics of web design.

Recently, I told one of my friend how I studied HTML. When he tried it himself, he told me that using this method he learnt lot of things about using HTML to create professional and user friendly layouts. He said that he had purchased many books on HTML, but still he used to find it difficult to create site layouts.

I’m not talking about copying someone else’s website design or template. You can refer to HTML source of websites you visit to understand the idea behind the layout and to see how people use HTML. After some practice, you will soon be able to create your own original, professional and user friendly web site layouts.