What is this class and why?

This post explains the rationale for the class. It will help you understand my approach to teaching web design, what you should expect from the course, and what we’ll accomplish together.

To start with, I love the web. I started making websites in 7th grade, at that time I used something called Weebly to make sites on whatever it was that I cared about at the time; Harry Potter, BBC Sherlock, and other things of little importance. While those sites are pretty silly in retrospect, what that did teach me, what I’ve been learning and loving ever since, is how incredible it is to own a little corner of the web. Making websites is fun, challenging and in a little way, empowering. I went from drag-and-drop sites, to Wordpress to learning HTML/CSS/JS and making websites from scratch. That is now my job.

But in 2025, the landscape is very different. Most of you would have used ChatGPT at least once, and/or other tools like Lovable, Bolt and numerous other thingamajigs that just “generate” code and “websites” for you. Learning how to make for the web is not what it was, and while it is true that fundamentals need to be learnt, some of the hoops that people had to jump through are no longer required. So what does it mean to learn web design in an age where a cat walking across a keyboard might accidentally “prompt” a website on ChatGPT? What, you might ask, is the point?

Well, in this course, I’d like to be able to do a couple of things for you:

Firstly, leave you with some tangible skills at the end of this course. Regardless of your current level of comfort with design and code, I’d like for you to be able to make websites of your own whenever you want to. You’ll write semantic HTML, style with modern CSS, and understand responsive design principles. We’ll work with a modern static site generator using an existing starter template, so you’ll learn how sites are structured while focusing on customization and content. Don’t worry about where you are now, I will get you to this point.

Secondly, you should have an understanding of how to make for the web; whether you approach it from a systems, design or code perspective. Just as there is a way to think about print design that’s different from thinking about sculpture or painting, there’s a particular way to think about web design that’s different from other mediums. You’ll understand how content, information architecture, and visual design work together in web contexts. The web is interactive, responsive, accessible, and inherently collaborative. Understanding these constraints and possibilities will make you a better designer, regardless of what tools you use and building these hands-on skills will give you the foundation to later understand how your prior learnings of research and contexts shapes decisions in this space, and decisions drive the choices we make in larger projects.

But more importantly, I want try and make you fall in love with the idea of making websites. We live in an era where most of our digital presence is mediated by platforms—Instagram, LinkedIn, Behance, Twitter. These platforms can disappear, change their rules, or decide they don’t want your content anymore. A personal website is different. It’s yours. There’s a growing movement of designers, writers, coders, and creators who are reclaiming that space. They’re building personal websites that are weird, wonderful, and deeply personal. This is what I want for you. In a web increasingly filled with AI-generated content, human-crafted websites, however simple they may be, stand out. They show intentionality, personality and effort that can’t be replicated by merely prompting a chatbot. This is both a creative opportunity and a professional advantage.

From our survey responses, I can see we have everyone from complete beginners to folks with some coding experience, which is perfect. Many of you mentioned wanting to overcome intimidation with technical tools, and several specifically want to build portfolio websites. What excites me most is seeing your creative backgrounds: painters, writers, crafters, 3D modelers, collagers. This creative foundation will be your superpower in web design!

What this course is (and isn’t)

This course is about:

• Learning HTML and CSS as tools for creativity, not just technical skills
• Understanding web design principles: typography, layout, color, and how they work across devices
• Creating something uniquely yours that you can launch, maintain, and be proud of
• Developing confidence to approach web projects from both design and technical perspectives

This course is not:

• A full-stack, zero-to-hero web development bootcamp
• A comprehensive UX research or design systems course (though we’ll touch on these concepts)
• Focused on complex interactive features

By the end, you’ll have a real website you can show to people, the skills to maintain and update it, and the confidence to continue learning. You’ll understand web design thinking, but this is fundamentals—not advanced development. Though I am happy to push you further individually.

How We’ll Work

In the class survey, the highest voted reason for wanting to take this course was career and skill development. Today, the separation between designers and developers is thin, and while you don’t have to be an expert at everything, being conversant with both sides of design and code is one of the most useful, relevant skills you can have.

I believe the best way to learn web design is to actually build something you care about. So for this class, we’ll be focussing our energies on creating a website (a portfolio, a blog, a little corner for you on the internet) for each of us. While you’ll learn HTML, CSS, and work with things like static site generators, the code is always in service of design and creative expression. If you’re already comfortable with code, great—you’ll have more time to focus on the design and content aspects. If you’ve never written a line of code, that’s great too. We’ll start from the beginning and build up together.

We’ll also read a lot of excellent blogs and essays to understand perspectives of creatives, artists, and writers in how they perceive and create such spaces, with the aim of trying to incorporate that in our own practice.

Broadly, this will be our structure:

• Week 1: Getting comfortable with tools, exploring what makes websites feel human, curating our content, learning HTML/CSS through customization rather than all from scratch
• Week 2: Working with Astro, our static site generator, components, and basics of how these setups work, adding our content, and customizing this to represent us and our tastes.
• Week 3: Design systems and polish, refining our identities, finishing touches, optimization, and presentation

Each of us will “fork” (which means to create a copy) and customize a starter template, learning to work within an existing codebase while making it completely our own. Almost every class session combines design with hands-on implementation so that we don’t silo ourselves as designers, or developers, but a fun mix of people who are at least familiar with both. This means we’ll move quickly, but you’ll leave with immediately applicable skills and the confidence to continue learning independently.

Welcome aboard! I’m excited to see what we’ll build.

This could be us by the end of this class:

House Rules

• Prerequisites: No prior coding experience required.
• Attendance is mandatory. The time we have is barely enough, and each day adds something that will help drive your final projects. Missing any day will leave you at a disadvantage. Please try to make it every day. If you cannot, please inform me a day before.
• AI Policy: Please go through this AI Policy Document. I encourage the use of LLMs for coding this class, but all submitted written work must be your own. If you’re using any sort of LLM for Q/A about a technical part of the process and not the written output itself, that is acceptable as long as it is clearly declared to what extent an LLM was used. Again, go through the document.
• Equipment: You’ll need a laptop. All software we use is free.
• Have fun.

Next Steps

Thanks for reading this all the way through. Please proceed to the requirements page to know what you need to have before class starts.