This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
What you need to improve Your HTML & CSS Skills
HTML and CSS are basic languages which every developers knows about. Still their are ways where you can improve your skills in both of them to enhance your work.
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Web developers often engage themselves in discussion around whether HTML and CSS are easy or hard. Well, HTML and CSS are easily comprehensible languages as both these languages are straightforward and declarative.
HTML and CSS
However, this does not indicate that they are easy to implement or easy to write. The journey from getting your hands on the basics of HTML and CSS to know it proficiently is not always a cakewalk and can be demanding. Therefore, it can take a long time to master HTML and CSS after you learn it. However, it can be advantageous and enjoyable at the same time.
According to our analysis, most beginners, as well as intermediate coders, are looking for a sense of confidence from looking at a design and knowing how to write the corresponding HTML and CSS.
As with all skills, HTML and CSS skills also get better with practice. So, here we will share some tips to help you improve your skills to work with HTML and CSS.
Practice When You Want
It is essential to indulge in intentional practice. The kind of quality (i.e. practice with willingness) of your practice is as important as the amount of quantity (i.e. the time you dedicate) of your practice. Your practice should not be aimed at something which is not relevant or far too relevant as per your skill sets.
Practicing what you already know is not motivating and can become tedious. Again, working on something that is not within your knowledge is also challenging and can seem to be discouraging. Therefore, the best choice is practicing what is just a bit out of your comfort zone, following the line of which lets you know what you can do and what you cannot right now.
Put You Hands On Real Work
The best way to make your practice interesting and help you in improving your HTML and CSS skills is to work on building a real website. Building an actual website bestows you with the ability to extend yourself, to learn, and grow, where you best find the opportunity to do so.
By doing so, you hone your HTML and CSS skills in context to the website you are working on. It helps you see distinctly and evaluate yourself for the new skills you are acquiring.
Build Your Own Website
The best way to begin your attempt to master HTML and CSS is to build your own website. Although it is not a innovative idea, it is the one which is easily attainable. If you can successfully build a website for yourself, perhaps around your portfolio, or anything relevant to your interests, it would give you the first-hand experience of using HTML and CSS for a real-life project.
Building a website requires planning and engagement
This will provide you some exposure in writing HTML and CSS. This will offer you the context and foundation in which all of your other learning will be built on. Take your own time and focus on completing the website. When you solve your own problems, learning will come organically.
Build a Website for Someone Else
Apart from creating a website for yourself, also attempt building a website for someone else, may be a friend or a relative. This would give an essence of handling a client as their requirements would be different from yours. So, you will need to understand what your friend wants and how you can represent that in the website in the most suitable way.
Design and Develop a Website for a Small Business
Small businesses have different requirements and target audience from the bigger ones. Therefore, building a website for a small business will help you learn the nitty gritty of a client business while providing you with the food for thought on how to drive business growth via a well-conceptualized website.
Keep these 16 things in mind when designing a website for any business or self.
Moreover, many such businesses or institutions have a set amount of budget which they want to invest on their website and its a great opportunity for you to start earning easily.
Attend a Bootcamp
Going out and searching for opportunities to build real websites demands a lot of effort and takes time, which sometimes reduce your time to practice. However, as we have mentioned earlier, practicing is essential to improving your HTML and CSS skills.
Therefore, a feasible option to maintain your practice, as well as gain exposure to real-life scenarios, is to attend a design or development bootcamp. The bootcamps provide you with the projects to build real websites besides offering a well guided curriculum, and a group of like minded people or peers to work around as well.
Bootcamps helps you hone your skills in collaboration. This is important as a collaborative environment teaches you teamwork which, in turn, facilitates you to get a job as a designer or developer. Moreover, learning on your own can be taxing and can make it challenging to practice.
Bootcamps may appear expensive and attending as per the location of bootcamp can be a obstacle. However, if it is economically possible, attending a bootcamp is highly recommended.
Take Action
Whether you follow all the aforementioned steps or not, do date with your coding skills, sometimes. You may not be willing to attend a bootcamp, you may not be wanting to build a website, still, you can hone your HTML and CSS skills just by using a screenshot.
Just you, your code editor and browser of choice, and a screenshot. Practice HTML and CSS by referencing a screenshot of an existing website, preferably a responsive website. You need not build the entire website but work on a small section, (may be just the navigation).
This referencing exercise lets you look at the actual content of a running website and helps you gain confidence writing HTML and CSS. You get used to encountering problems and troubleshooting them.
The best thing about this simple technique of practice is that you are able to take a peek at the code from the functioning website when you are stuck or done. However, keep this in mind that there are different ways in which you can write HTML and CSS, so do not be puzzled if your solution is different from the website’s source code.
The hardest part, when you already know HTML and CSS yet not a pro, is getting started. It takes a lot of effort to cross the threshold. However, if you have determined to master what you know, just start it today.