.. and just like that, we’ve come to the end of our second workshop, this time on HTML and CSS! Thank you to all the amazing coaches and ladies who participated. We are truly impressed by the hard work and effort. 
For the benefit of those who are keen to learn as well, here’s a quick recap of what we’ve covered and where to go next!
The survivors of our HTML and CSS course – well done everyone!
The Plan - we chose to follow with an online syllabus and try a study group model this time around, mainly because we know that web design resources are all out there for you to find, but you just need to have to know what and where to search. It’s also more flexible because we all learn at different speeds and easier to follow for those who get bored of w3c schools.. Thank you Nicole for introducing this video course to us, this is the link to the syllabus that we followed - http://learncss.tutsplus.com/. The idea is to watch 30 videos in 30 days, each averaging 10 mins, so that you can build you own website in a month! Try it.
Design Ideation – We started this course with a quick design ideation session the night before the first study group session, mainly to get everyone to jot down and sketch what they want to build at the end of the course. It’s important to motivate yourself by setting a project / end goal to work on, which is the whole point of the exercise. Awesome also to see that everyone came with an idea of what they wanted to create, whether it was a portfolio, e-commerce or personal blog! If you’re wondering how to go about it, check out this awesome website goal setting presentation by Ester, our guest speaker at our last design workshop.
The design ideation process.
Andrew, our lead coach, also covered the syllabus of what we were going to do in the 4 weeks.
A paper mockup – really cool!
The study group sessions – this was an interesting workshop for us to conduct, because we were following an online syllabus but knew that it wouldn’t be enough. Supremely grateful to all the helpful coaches who came on Saturday mornings to answer questions and offering to give talks for free! Here’s also a crazy awesome list they compiled to for additional resources/inspiration sources / cheatsheets that you can refer to in your journey of learning web design.
Week 1 – Our lead coach Andrew went through the syllabus from Day 1 to 14.
Week 2 – the ladies start the study group sessions. They spent 3 hours each time watching the videos.
Guest Speakers - We went beyond the syllabus in week 3 and week 4 by having the coaches share about their own web development experiences, tips / hacks / resources.
Vinay, who runs Artminister (a web design and UX agency), shared about the best CSS practices to follow.
Vinay’s session on the best CSS practices is really important. The better you are at following these habits, the less confusing it will be when you are designing your site! Check out his presentation on best CSS practices. ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!***
Listening intently to the presentation.
Coach Mei Hui also shared about her experience learning about web design and development.
Coach Ariff – who runs a startup called referoll.com, shared about some basic design concepts and the best resources to look for inspiration. (His slides will be shared later!)
Not a geek and not a girl, but a startup guy who shared about how he learnt to code and why you should do it
Layout, color and typography are all key elements to look out for when designing a website!
Ruiwen, co-founder of HackerspaceSG, came in to share about Windows Azure and hosting your site, registering for a domain.
GeekcampSG organiser, Laurence, talked about speeding up your website using Cloudfare!
Show and Tell – we decided from the start that it is important to have a Show and Tell at the end of the 4 weeks, because having a deadline always pushes people to complete their projects and ship code. This was hands-down, my favourite part of the 4 weeks. Its great to see that the hard work the ladies put in paying off! Here are a couple of the sites that were done by the ladies.
Nadia, who joins us all the way from Argentina, designed a portfolio site for her friend based in Argentina!
Nadia’s site as a present to her friend, who is an artist in Argentina. Check out the awesome lightbox she put in as well with a bit of help from a JavaScript lib. (Click to view)
Samantha, completed 2 sites! One being her portfolio site, another being her attempt at revamping Jamie Oliver’s site!
Check out Samantha’s version of how Jamie Oliver’s site should look like. (Click to view)
Natalie, who is a gamification consultant, had a really cool game concept for her website!
The Winds of Solace is a text-based adventure game, just like the “choose your own adventure” novels from your childhood. Very cool. (To be put up soon)
Eunice, sharing about her site that features the photography that she’s done.
Eunice’s website features all the photos shes taken. (Click to view)
Dilys, who handmakes accessories, decided to do a site to sell her cool stuff!
Little Craft Market features pretty handmade accessories by Dilys and her sister! (Click to view)
Privithi and her portfolio site
A pin-interest styled portfolio site from Privthi
Dora created wandermo.re, a website that help you with music and travel discovery.
Check out Dora’s adorable music and travel discovery website here. (Click to view more)
All in all, it was a really great effort by everyone! We hope you had fun learning and creating these awesome sites. Keep practicing! Till the next time everyone! And a big big thank you to all our coaches, who without we would have never been able to pull this off!! 
