How to learn HTML5 and CSS3
It’s one thing to follow a gifted teacher through live HTML5 and/or CSS3 demonstrations and lessons, clicking here and there on command with hardly a second to breathe never mind moving one’s thinking muscle – and another to have a real good manual in hand on how to learn HTML5 and CSS3 independently and at our own time, where we can make those pauses after a fullstop and allow ourselves to think, connect and – in the best case – understand… before moving on.
Of course, in both cases complete comprehension of the complex matter is never guaranteed, however, we become part of the learning and development process and the new lingo and sometimes wildly abstract scriptlets start sickering in…preparing the terrain for that ‘aha!’ or deja vu experience sometime during our journey through what is structuring the groundwork for future web developments and better, modern web applications and setting new standards.
This process is not completed; HTML5 and CSS3 are definitely works in progress – and as students we are part of it!
How to learn HTML5 and CSS3
You may think that you know HTML inside-out and why on earth waste time on how to learn HTML5 and CSS3?
Getting a good Overview
Well, everything on the Internet is about change… and I believe in getting a good overview first. Very quickly we learn that amongst others:
Structural tags and attributes as well as presentational elements are no longer the same; many are deprecated today and we have to know which to use in order to have clean code and a website that works and is responsive.
On the other hand, CSS3 provides us with some astonishing styling elements that we could formerly only achieve with images we first created in programs like Photoshop, eg. drop shadows and elegant gradients.
Frames – frame, frameset, noframes – were known as a constant cause for errors and problems. Accordingly, they were dropped to improve usability and accessability that are so critical for interaction with readers and customers on our sites.
There is more, much more… and I will provide some insight as time allows. Surely, as dedicated website developers and designers we have our customers’ interest at heart and – especially with the rapid evolution of the mobile web – this means faster, better, easier and more user-friendly websites with high visibility on search engines as well as mobile devices – brief: better user experiences.
This is exactly why learning HTML5 and CSS3 is a must.
To be continued…
