20 Best Web Design Courses, Videos & Tools to Learn Web Design Online

Amy Smith
11 min readFeb 15, 2019

In this article, 20 best online website design courses, classes, Youtube videos and design tools will be introduced for you to learn web design easily at home.

What is website design?

How to learn website design at home?

How to become a website designer?

“How to choose the right website design course?”

How to change from Graphic designer to web designer?

Such questions keep coming to mind, but do not know how to get started as a beginner or graphic designer?

You’ve come to the right place! Take a look at the 20 best web design courses, classes, free Youtube videos and tools to learn website design at home:

What Is Web Design?

Web design, as its name suggests, refers to the design of websites, this includes web layout design, website microcopy design, colors, graphics, images, interactions, animations and far more aspects of websites.

However, as a web design beginner, you should first gain knowledge and skills related to web graphic design, UX&UI design, web development design, etc.

How to Choose the Right Web Design Course Online?

Still not fully sure what web design entails? No worries! The online web design courses introduced in the following section will give you the answer. Before this, however, it is best for you to learn how to choose an appropriate web design course on your own:

1. Why learn web design?

To choose the best online web design course, the first step is to ask yourself what you want from the design course. Is it only for fun, for a web design career, for seeking a part-time job or expanding your knowledge?

Once you’ve determined your goals, you can determine the right course that’s right for you.

In this way, you can figure out your own purpose and criteria, which can be a great help to choose the right design course.

Regardless, you may want to write them all down for future reference.

2. How long will it take to complete an online web design course?

The duration of a website design course is an important factor while choosing web design classes online.

3. How about the cost of the course? Is it free?

The cost of the website design course/class is another essential factor that web design beginners should consider.

4. Check the course description and comments carefully

The course description and comments provide important feedback on the quality and content of the course, helping you make the right decision.

5. Search the institutions behind the web design courses

An online web design course/class associated with a reputable institute/university tends to offer more professional and high-quality contents. Having a prestigious institution on your resume also helps you stand out from the crowd.

6. Contact customer services

If you have many questions about the website design course, consider directly contacting itscustomer support for more details.

Keep these tips in mind and choose the appropriate web design course that’s best for you.

10 Best Free Online Website Design Courses

Below are 10 of best online website design courses for you to learn web design from scratch. Some of them are free, some partially free and some have a fee. So, consider your own need and choose based on your goals:

And it is best for you to choose according to your own conditions

1. Learn Web Design & Get Diploma on Alison

About: Alison offers free online web development courses that show users to plan, build and create their own websites online. The courses include “21 Days to Building a Web Business”, “How to Create Your First Website” and “Web Page Design Using HTML5 and CSS3”, etc.

Pros:

*Most Free courses focus on web development

*The more courses you complete, the higher discounts you will get

*Course details are very helpful and include information, such as the enrolled student numbers, course ratings, levels and career links, etc

Cons:

Not all courses are free.

Conclusion:

It is a good place for you to learn web design from the very beginning and get a web design certificate/diploma.

2. Learn Web Design According to Your Life on ed2go

About: ed2go offers flexible online website design courses. Users can freely choose their courses and learn professional website design skills as well as various industry standard design tools, such as PS, Animate and Dreamweaver.

Pros:

*Training is scheduled around your own life

*Enable users to choose a dedicated instructor based on their own needs

*Most courses last between 24 hours and about 6 weeks.

Cons:

No free trial

Conclusion:

It is a perfect website for designers or beginners to learn website design skills and get web design diplomas on their own schedules.

3. Learn Web Design: Guided HTML, CSS & Design Courses on Treehouse

About: Treehouse offers online web design courses for users to get started creating web pages with HTML and CSS.

Pros:

*The video-based tutorials covering web design and development are very simple and easy to understand for beginners

*7-day free trials for everyone to test before any purchase

*An supportive online community that consists of students to keep learning together

Cons:

Video tutorials can only be downloaded when you choose pricier plans.

Conclusion:

It is an ideal website for beginners to learn web design and development systematically, no matter whether you are learning for fun or for a career.

4. Learn HTML, CSS or JavaScript Free on W3School

About: W3School is a free web development tutorial website for users to learn the very basics of HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

Pros:

*Free to learn HTML, CSS or JavaScript with ease

*Each chapter is paired with examples and exercises

Cons:

The site offers only the very basic skills for web development

Conclusion:

If you want to learn web design only for fun, expand your design skills or something similar, this free web design tutorial website can be a perfect choice to learn the basics of web design.

5. Web Design Courses: Build Websites for Yourself or Clients on Udemy

About: Udemy offers a large number of web design courses for people to freely choose from, including web design, design tools, user experience and web development, etc.

Pros:

*Cover a large number of web design topics to meet the needs of all users, from beginners to experts

*Most courses are beginner level and easy to understand

*Videos can be downloaded

*Include trending or top course recommendation

* 30-Day Money-Back guarantee

Cons:

No free trial

Conclusion:

No matter whether you are a design beginner or expert, you can freely choose your desired online courses and to improve your web design skills.

6. Responsive Web Design Course on Pluralsight

About: Pluralsight offers many professional web design courses for students, including responsive web design courses, AI, HTML5, CSS and Photoshop courses, etc.

Pros:

*Lots of courses to meet the needs of different people

*Special IQ test to help you choose the most appropriate courses

Cons:

This website does not especially focus on web design and development

Conclusion:

If you are planning to choose diverse online courses, not only web design courses, this website can save you a good amount of time.

Recommendation: 12 Best Responsive Web Design Tutorials to Get You Started

7. Web Design Courses on Coursera

About: Coursera gives you access to online courses covering almost anything you can think of, including web design and development courses.

Pros:

*Online courses cover a wide range of levels, from beginner to advanced

*Offer a wide range of web design courses, including CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Single page design, responsive web design, UI/UX design and design principles, etc.

*Support multiple languages

*7-day free trials

Cons:

This website is not specifically created for web design and development

Conclusion:

It is an excellent website for you to search and choose your designed design courses based on your needs.

8. Online Web Design Training and Tutorials on Lynda

About: Like Treehouse, Lynda offers monthly-paid web design courses to help people learn how to create and design websites.

Pros:

*Offer a wide range of expert-taught video tutorials from web coding to design tools as well as UX/UI basics

*Personalized course recommendations

*Watch videos on your phone or computer based on your own needs

*One-month free trial

Conclusion:

It is the perfect place for you to learn web design and other design-related courses at the same time.

9. Web Design Training Foundation Courses on Web Professionals

About: Web Professionals.org, referred to as the “Word Organization of Webmaster”, is a non-profit professional association that offers support to individuals and organizations that create, manage or market websites. In addition, it also offers web design foundation courses.

Pros:

*Offer introductory courses on how to create web pages, including such topics as HTML, graphics, CSS, web host, animations, e-commerce overview and internet search techniques, etc.

Cons:

No free trial

Conclusion:

This is an ideal online course website for students getting into the web design field, instructors who want to teach web design and working professionals who want to learn web design.

10. Don’t Fear the Website

About: This website offers completely free short tutorials for designers/beginners to learn web design.

Pros:

*Completely free video tutorials demonstrating how to work with CSS, HTML, PHP and more web design techniques

Cons:

Short video tutorials may be not enough for you to improve your web design skills

Conclusion:

If you are on a budget, this website can be a good choice for you to learn web design basics.

Hopefully, these 10 best free online web design courses can help you make the right decision.

5 Best Free Web Design Video Tutorials from Youtube

If all these free online website design courses or classes are not enough, here are 5 free web design videos tutorials from Youtube:

11. A Beginner’s Web Design Tutorial

Views: 131,748

The creator of this Youtube video uploads a series of free web design tutorials helping beginners to learn web design. Every tutorial is centered around solving one specific design question.

Youtube tutorial

12. Web Design — Free Web Design Tutorial

Views: 364,461

This free tutorial shows you step-by-step, how to how to build websites with WordPress.

Youtube tutorial

13. Free Web Development Course

Alt: Free Web Development Course

Views: 1,135,616

This tutorial shows you everything you need to become a professional web developer. It is also a good source to learn web coding and design.

Youtube tutorial

14. Learn Web Design: How to Create Color Schemes

Views: 9,867

Color design plays a very important role in web design. This tutorial will show you how to create color schemes for your websites.

Youtube tutorial

15. How to Organize Colors for a UI Design Project

Views: 34,975

This tutorial demonstrates one method of working with and organing colors so as to make them stand out to in UI design projects. This video is great for learning how to use color in website design.

Youtube tutorial

5 Best Web Design tools You Cannot Miss Out

After checking all these online web design courses, training, classes and videos, here are 5 best web design tools that you cannot miss out:

16. Sketch — draw your web design drafts on Mac

Sketch is a widely-used program offering a broad set of expressive for beginners and designers draft their websites. Since it works only on Mac, it is a must-have design tool if you are using a Mac OS computer/laptop.

17. Photoshop — create your web design drafts on Mac and Windows PC

Like Sketch, Photoshop is a must-have web design tool. This program, however, is available for both Mac and Windows users.

Recommendation: 22 Best Free Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners

18. Mockplus — Prototype, test and share your web design with ease

After sketching out your web design drafts, you will want to test your design using a prototype.

Mockplus, a rapid web prototyping tool, is a perfect choice for you to prototype, test and share your web design with ease and high efficiency.

19. iDoc — Collaborate, test and handoff web designs online effortlessly

Good collaboration is always necessary for a design or product team to create a stunning website. That’s why a good design collaboration tool is imperative.

iDoc, an all-in-one online design collaboration & handoff tool, can handoff designs with accurate specs, assets, code snippets and interactive prototypes automatically. This is the tool for you if you want to collaborate, test and handoff web designs online effortlessly.

iDoc also offers plugins for users to directly import designs from Adobe XD/Photoshop/Sketch to improve work efficiency.

20. Dreamweaver — design, code and publish your websites

Dreamweaver is a leading web design tool that enables users to design, code and publish their website with ease.

Overall, learning to use industry standard web design tools are also essential for beginners to practice and improve their website design skills.

Wrap Up

Learning web design on your own can be simple or complex. The key point is whether you can get professional and systematic guidance at the very early stage. Fortunately, in this technological world, you can easily get such guidance through online website design courses & video tutorials.

So, keep learning and do not give up!

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Amy Smith

UX Design,UI Design, Web Design. I like sharing All thing about design!