Learning Web DesignMENU

Table of Contents

Learning Web Design is a complete introductory-level course in web design and production. It is divided into six parts: basic background information about the web and web design, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, web image production, and appendices.

For a nice introduction to the book, read the “Foreword” by Jen Simmons

Part I. GETTING STARTED

1. Getting Started in Web Design

  1. Where Do I Start?
  2. It Takes a Village (Website Creation Roles)
  3. Gearing Up for Web Design
  4. What You’ve Learned
  5. Test Yourself

2. How the Web Works

  1. The Internet Versus the Web
  2. Serving Up Your Information
  3. A Word About Browsers
  4. Web Page Addresses (URLs)
  5. The Anatomy of a Web Page
  6. Putting It All Together
  7. Test Yourself

3. Some Big Concepts You Need to Know

  1. A Multitude of Devices
  2. Sticking with the Standards
  3. Progressive Enhancement
  4. Responsive Web Design
  5. One Web for All (Accessibility)
  6. The Need for Speed (Site Performance)
  7. Test Yourself

Part II. HTML FOR STRUCTURE

4. Creating a Simple Page

  1. A Web Page, Step-By-Step
  2. Launch a Text Editor
  3. Step 1: Start with Content
  4. Step 2: Give the HTML Document Structure
  5. Step 3: Identify Text Elements
  6. Step 4: Add an Image
  7. Step 5: Change the Look with a Style Sheet
  8. When Good Pages Go Bad
  9. Validating Your Documents
  10. Test Yourself
  11. Element Review: HTML Document Setup

5. Marking Up Text

  1. Paragraphs
  2. Headings
  3. Thematic Breaks (Horizontal Rule)
  4. Lists
  5. More Content Elements
  6. Organizing Page Content
  7. The Inline Element Roundup
  8. Generic Elements (div and span)
  9. Improving Accessibility with ARIA
  10. Character Escapes
  11. Putting It All Together
  12. Test Yourself
  13. Element Review: Text Elements

6. Adding Links

  1. The href Attribute
  2. Linking to Pages on the Web
  3. Linking Within Your Own Site
  4. Targeting a New Browser Window
  5. Mail Links
  6. Telephone Links
  7. Test Yourself
  8. Element Review: Links

7. Adding Images

  1. First, a Word on Image Formats
  2. The img Element
  3. Adding SVG Images
  4. Responsive Image Markup
  5. Whew! We’re Finished
  6. Test Yourself
  7. Element Review: Images

8. Table Markup

  1. How to Use Tables
  2. Minimal Table Structure
  3. Table Headers
  4. Spanning Cells
  5. Table Accessibility
  6. Row and Column Groups
  7. Wrapping Up Tables
  8. Test Yourself
  9. Element Review: Tables

9. Forms

  1. How Forms Work
  2. The form Element
  3. Variables and Content
  4. The Great Form Control Roundup
  5. Form Accessibility Features
  6. Form Layout and Design
  7. Test Yourself
  8. Element Review: Forms

10. Embedded Media

  1. Window-In-A-Window (iframe)
  2. Multipurpose Embedder (object)
  3. Video and Audio
  4. Canvas
  5. Test Yourself
  6. Element Review: Embedded Media

Part III. CSS FOR PRESENTATION

11. Introducing Cascading Style Sheets

  1. The Benefits of CSS
  2. How Style Sheets Work
  3. The Big Concepts
  4. CSS Units of Measurement
  5. Developer Tools Right in Your Browser
  6. Moving Forward with CSS
  7. Test Yourself

12. Formatting Text

  1. Basic Font Properties
  2. Advanced Typography with CSS3
  3. Changing Text Color
  4. A Few More Selector Types
  5. Text Line Adjustments
  6. Underlines and Other “Decorations”
  7. Changing Capitalization
  8. Spaced Out
  9. Text Shadow
  10. Changing List Bullets and Numbers
  11. Test Yourself
  12. CSS Review: Font and Text Properties

13. Colors and Backgrounds

  1. Specifying Color Values
  2. Foreground Color
  3. Background Color
  4. Clipping the Background
  5. Playing with Opacity
  6. Pseudo-Class Selectors
  7. Pseudo-Element Selectors
  8. Attribute Selectors
  9. Background Images
  10. The Shorthand background Property
  11. Like a Rainbow (Gradients)
  12. Finally, External Style Sheets
  13. Wrapping It Up
  14. Test Yourself
  15. CSS Review: Color and Background Properties

14. Thinking Inside the Box

  1. The Element Box
  2. Specifying Box Dimensions
  3. Padding
  4. Borders
  5. Margins
  6. Assigning Display Types
  7. Box Drop Shadows
  8. Test Yourself
  9. CSS Review: Box Properties

15. Floating and Positioning

  1. Normal Flow
  2. Floating
  3. Fancy Text Wrap with CSS Shapes
  4. Positioning Basics
  5. Relative Positioning
  6. Absolute Positioning
  7. Fixed Positioning
  8. Test Yourself
  9. CSS Review: Floating and Positioning Properties

16. CSS Layout with Flexbox and Grid

  1. Flexible Boxes with CSS Flexbox
  2. CSS Grid Layout
  3. Test Yourself
  4. CSS Review: Layout Properties

17. Responsive Web Design

  1. Why RWD?
  2. The Responsive Recipe
  3. Choosing Breakpoints
  4. Designing Responsively
  5. A Few Words About Testing
  6. More RWD Resources
  7. Test Yourself

18. Transitions, Transforms, and Animation

  1. Ease-y Does It (CSS Transitions)
  2. CSS Transforms
  3. Keyframe Animation
  4. Wrapping Up
  5. Test Yourself
  6. CSS Review: Transitions, Transforms, and Animation

19. More CSS Techniques

  1. Styling Forms
  2. Styling Tables
  3. A Clean Slate (Reset and Normalize.css)
  4. Image Replacement Techniques
  5. CSS Sprites
  6. CSS Feature Detection
  7. Wrapping Up Style Sheets
  8. Test Yourself
  9. CSS Review: Table Properties

20. Modern Web Development Tools

  1. Getting Cozy with the Command Line
  2. CSS Power Tools (Processors)
  3. Build Tools (Grunt and Gulp)
  4. Version Control with Git and GitHub
  5. Conclusion
  6. Test Yourself

Part IV. JAVASCRIPT FOR BEHAVIOR

21. Introduction to JavaScript

  1. What Is JavaScript?
  2. Adding JavaScript to a Page
  3. The Anatomy of a Script
  4. The Browser Object
  5. Events
  6. Putting It All Together
  7. Learning More About JavaScript
  8. Test Yourself

22. Using JavaScript

  1. Meet the DOM
  2. Polyfills
  3. JavaScript Libraries
  4. Big Finish
  5. Test Yourself

Part V. WEB IMAGES

23. Web Image Basics

  1. Image Sources
  2. Meet the Formats
  3. Image Size and Resolution
  4. Image Asset Strategy
  5. Favicons
  6. Summing Up Images
  7. Test Yourself

24. Image Asset Production

  1. Saving Images in Web Formats
  2. Working with Transparency
  3. Responsive Image Production Tips
  4. Image Optimization
  5. Test Yourself

25. SVG

  1. Drawing with XML
  2. Features of SVG as XML
  3. SVG Tools
  4. SVG Production Tips
  5. Responsive SVGs
  6. Further SVG Exploration
  7. Test Yourself
  8. And...We’re Done!

Part VI. APPENDICES

A. Answers

B. HTML5 Global Attributes

C. CSS Selectors, Levels 3 and 4

D. From HTML+ to HTML5