Intro to Coding for Designers
Megumi Tanaka
Intro to Coding for Designers teaches foundational web development with HTML and CSS. Over six weeks, you will create a website using the code editor as a design tool. In hands-on workshops, you will gain a deeper understanding of the handmade web. Expect lively weekend classes, a group of like-minded peers and an activity-driven learning environment.
To guide our study, we’ll ask questions like, What is the role of default design in web development? What are designers better at coding, compared to non-designers? How can we design a website directly in the browser? How will our design practice improve by becoming a double threat—a designer who can also code?
Learning Outcome: Students will learn foundational web development and gain the ability to code static webpages from scratch. Students will learn to create fluid websites that are responsive by default.
6 Weeks
Saturdays 3 – 6pm EST / 12 – 3pm PST / 6 – 9pm GMT
April 17 – May 22
Instructor Bio
Megumi is a designer and educator from the Bay Area. Currently, they are researching digital gardens, data privacy, and sustainable web permaculture. In a previous life, they were a UX Designer and Product Manager in Silicon Valley. Megumi studied at UC Berkeley and California College of the Arts.
Syllabus
Week 1: Intros
HTML Foundations. Introduction to the web browser and code editor as design tools.
Week 2: Styles
Apply styles with CSS. Un-learn pixel-based thinking and design a system of constraints.
Week 3: Layouts
Create fluid layouts and control the flow of content with minimal code.
Week 4: Customization
Break out of linear layout constraints, paying attention to accessibility and browser compatibility.
Week 5: Typography
Harness the power of variable fonts. Customize features such as ligatures, stylistic sets, and tabular numbers.
Week 6: Polishing
Add final flair, including transitions and animations. Share the final project—a completely handmade website.
Resources
Rediscovering the Small Web
“You really only need two things: a web host and HTML (and basic CSS for formatting). And you don’t need to make it “user-centered”; much like the early webmasters on Geocities carving out their own corner of the web, you can express yourself any way you want. It's the difference between product and art.”
A Handmade Web
“I evoke the term ‘handmade web’ in order to make a correlation between handmade web pages and handmade print materials, such as zines, pamphlets, and artists books.”
Scholarships
We are offering a number of free, need-based scholarships to this course.
Index scholarships are designed to benefit underrepresented groups, BIPOC members of our community, and those for whom the class price is not accessible. These need-based scholarships will go to the candidates who best demonstrate why they should be chosen for the free spot to our class based on the following criteria:
The selected applicants:
- Belong to groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the graphic design and creative industries
- Do not have jobs that would pay for these courses as professional development
- Cannot independently afford the class at list price
- Share our value of intentional community
The number of selected applicants chosen is subject to the discretion of Index and the instructor, but every course will select at least one.