Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting to test the waters, it’s always helpful to review and practice your skills. Adding new expertise to your repertoire can also help you stand out from the crowd when trying to find new clients.
Whether it’s self-paced programming, in-person workshops, or via webinar adding new skills and brushing up on old ones is a healthy part of any developer’s workflow.
To help you along your road of lifelong learning, we’ve highlighted a few resources below to help you learn, enhance, and practice your web design and development skills. Enjoy!
You might also like: 20 Web Designers and Developers You Should be Following on Twitter.
1. Free Code Camp
Quincy Larson created this free, open source community in 2014. The program offers self-paced coding challenges, along with projects and certificates to work on as you learn. Free Code Camp also helps you connect with people in your community, so you can code alongside someone.
2. Ladies Learning Code
LLC is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2011 in Toronto by Heather Payne, Laura Plant, Melissa Sariffodeen, and Breanna Hughes. Today, the organization offers programs across 30 cities in Canada. Their mission is “to be the leading resource for women and youth to become passionate builders — not just consumers — of technology, by learning technical skills in a hands-on, social, and collaborative way.”
3. Codecademy
“Sign up and start coding in seconds.” Codecademy offers courses on JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, HTML & CSS, and beyond. They have an extensive number of courses, projects, and quizzes in seven different areas. Learn at your own pace with well-organized modules that visually track your progress. Encouraging and often playful copy/examples make learning code with Codeacademy downright fun!
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4. Shopify Partner Webinars
Over the past year, the Shopify Partner Marketing Team has worked with a number of industry leaders and Shopifolk to run a series of free webinars ranging in web design topics. From animation with Val Head, to dirty front-end tricks with Vitaly Friedman, each webinar tackles a timely topic live and is recorded. Find past webinars on our YouTube page and the Partner Session Webinars page.
5. Girl Develop It
Founded in 2010, Girl Develop It is a nonprofit organization located in the US. They have a mix of free and low cost programs for adult women who are interested in learning web and software development. Check out their map, and see if they’re heading to a city near you!
6. Code School
Code School provides a number of courses, practice tests, and progress tracking to boost your web design and development skills. They’ have worked with millions of students, in over 237 countries, and organize their courses into paths, based on specific technology you’re interested in.
7. CSS Tricks
CSS-Tricks was founded in 2007 by Chris Coyier with a focus on CSS. Over the years it has grown to encompass all things web design and development. This site is a great resource once you have a good understanding of the basics, and are ready to expand your web design skills and knowledge.
You might also like: 10 Things You Can (and Should) Do With SVG with Chris Coyier.
8. A List Apart
A List Apart began as a mailing list in 1997 that positioned itself as having a broader view of all things web design. With its first website launched in 1998, over time A List Apart shifted its focus to explore the “design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.”
Bonus: Shopify Product Updates
If you’re building on Shopify, it’s important to stay up-to-date with all the updates and features constantly being added. We recently put together a Shopify Updates page that compiles all the updates that are happening with the platform. Check it out and stay in the know!
There is a wealth of knowledge out there on the interweb. What did we miss? Share your favorite resources in the comments below!
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