Table of contents
Background
As a self-taught developer, online resources have been essential to my learning process. My goal has always been to find free/minimal cost, reputable platforms. In addition to taking some courses through the well-known platform Udemy, the bulk of my time has been spent using many other online resources.
But where do you start?
There are so many resources out there that it’s important to find a balance and to understand what learning technique works best for you.
📚 Do you prefer reading material?
👓 Are you a visual learner?
🎧 Do you enjoy listening to courses?
Or maybe it’s a combination of learning techniques? Each person will have a different preference. Honestly, understanding my learning style has been the biggest challenge.
Resources
Below I have listed my top resources for blogs, user interface (UI) design, podcasts, YouTube channels, and other. I hope that you’ll find these resources just as helpful to your learning journey as they have been to mine.
Blogs 📝
In most cases, when searching for the answer to an error or question on how to do something, one of the three websites below pops up. Every article I have read on these three blogs, has provided excellent examples and detail discussing the topic.
UI design 🌈
As a frontend developer, I made the decision early on to learn the basics of UI design. I felt overwhelmed in the beginning. I kept learning about HTML and CSS and just found myself continuing to question how the teacher decided on the layout/design they were using. I really felt that learning a bit more about design would be beneficial and I have found some amazing resources.
Learn UI design - Erik Kennedy
Design tips - Marc Andrew
Podcasts 📻
About a year into learning, I decided to start listening to developer specific podcasts. To be honest, I had no idea what many of them were talking about however, I have found that hearing the terminology even if I don’t understand it entirely is so helpful.
Syntax - More advanced topics
The CSS Podcast - CSS focus
Compressed.fm - Design and development
YouTube 🎥
This is where you can get trapped in tutorial hell and let me tell you it would take a lot of hands to count how many YouTube channels I initially subscribed to. There are so many fantastic developer YouTubers out there. It’s amazing how much you can learn just by watching YouTube videos. That being said, the key is to find reputable channels.
Kevin Powell - CSS focus
Traversy Media - Crash course full tutorials
The Net Ninja - Crash course full tutorials
Other
Finally, a very valuable learning tool are those items specific to the tools you are using. This would include any documentation or the GitHub page specific to the project. I have found that reading the ‘issues’ section of a projects GitHub can be very insightful. And last, but not least, is the Mozilla Development Network (MDN). MDN is an amazing resource providing terminology, examples, and everything you can think of regarding HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Documentation