CSS Foundations: Style Your First Web Page - Web Development (Professional Practice)
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[Beginner] Modern Web Development Foundations - From Zero to Your First Interactive WebsiteThis is the direct path to building professional-grade web development skills. This learning track is a comprehensive programme covering the entire modern front-end stack, engineered to take you from zero knowledge to possessing a practical, portfolio-worthy skillset. It moves logically from foundational web concepts and professional tools, through structuring content with HTML5, styling with modern CSS, and finally, building dynamic user experiences with JavaScript.
This programme is built for individuals starting a career in technology with no prior coding experience. It is the essential curriculum for aspiring front-end developers, full-stack engineers, and computer science students. It also serves professionals in adjacent roles - such as UI/UX designers and product managers - who require a practical understanding of web technologies to excel in their careers.
By the end of this learning track, you will have the ability to build, style, and launch a fully interactive, responsive website from a blank file. You will master the professional developer's toolkit - Git, the command line, and an AI-assisted editor - and write clean, semantic code. This track provides the foundational project and technical skills to confidently begin your career path toward junior developer roles and to build robust personal or business projects.
This is the direct path to building professional-grade web development skills. This learning track is a comprehensive programme covering the entire modern front-end stack, engineered to take you from zero knowledge to possessing a practical, portfolio-worthy skillset. It moves logically from foundational web concepts and professional tools, through structuring content with HTML5, styling with modern CSS, and finally, building dynamic user experiences with JavaScript. This programme is built for individuals starting a career in technology with no prior coding experience. It is the essential curriculum for aspiring front-end developers, full-stack engineers, and computer science students. It also serves professionals in adjacent roles - such as UI/UX designers and product managers - who require a practical understanding of web technologies to excel in their careers. By the end of this learning track, you will have the ability to build, style, and launch a fully interactive, responsive website from a blank file. You will master the professional developer's toolkit - Git, the command line, and an AI-assisted editor - and write clean, semantic code. This track provides the foundational project and technical skills to confidently begin your career path toward junior developer roles and to build robust personal or business projects.
Course Chapters
1. Introduction3
This chapter sets the stage for styling our portfolio. We will connect our stylesheet to the project and establish the core concepts and workflow you will use to bring your design to life. By the end, you will: understand the role of CSS; connect a stylesheet to your project; and be prepared to translate your visual design into code.
Chapter lessons
1-1. Welcome8:24
1-2. Preparing for CSS5:22
2. CSS Fundamentals7
This chapter covers the fundamental 'physics' of CSS. Using simple, isolated examples, you will master the core concepts of selectors, the box model, typography, colours, and the rules of specificity before we apply them to our main project. By the end, you will: master the most common CSS selectors; define and use colours effectively; control typography; understand the box model; and explain how CSS specificity works.
Chapter lessons
2-1. Selectors32:35
2-2. Colours16:57
2-3. Length dimensions37:48
2-4. Typography31:53
2-5. The box model30:46
This is a critical lesson on the core concept of CSS layout. We will use simple examples to explain how every element is a box, and how to control its size and space with padding, border, and margin.
2-6. Specificity24:45
This lesson explains how a browser decides which CSS rule to apply when multiple rules target the same element. Understanding this hierarchy is essential for debugging styles.
2-7. Introduction to responsiveness12:41
This is a conceptual introduction to responsive design. We will explain why websites need to adapt to different screen sizes and briefly introduce the media query as the tool for doing so.
3. Setting Global Styles3
This chapter covers the critical initial setup for any professional web project. You'll establish a consistent styling foundation, ensuring your design appears predictably across all browsers, and centralize core design values for efficient project management. By the end of the chapter, you will master CSS resets, define global design tokens, and integrate custom web fonts to precisely match your design's aesthetic.
Chapter lessons
3-1. CSS reset32:16
Learn to organize your stylesheet for simplicity and apply a robust CSS reset, providing a clean, predictable design canvas across all browsers.
3-2. Global CSS variables39:56
Establish a centralized design system by defining global colors, font families, and spacing units as CSS variables, directly from your design for consistency.
3-3. Web fonts18:40
Integrate custom web fonts, like Google Fonts, into your project, ensuring your font variables correctly display the intended typefaces.
4. Layout with Flexbox6
This chapter introduces Flexbox, the essential tool for modern layouts. We will use it to arrange and align the components of our portfolio page, transforming our vertical stack of elements into a professional layout that matches our design. By the end, you will: understand the core concepts of Flexbox; align items horizontally and vertically; and build the main layouts for our portfolio's header, hero, and skills sections.
Chapter lessons
4-1. Introduction12:22
This lesson explains the 'why' behind Flexbox and introduces the core `display: flex` property. We will cover the main concepts of the main axis and the cross axis.
4-2. Aligning flex items15:55
We will learn how to control the position of items along both axes. This lesson covers justify-content for main-axis alignment and align-items for cross-axis alignment.
4-3. Header layout56:49
This is a practical lesson where we will use Flexbox to style our portfolio header, placing the logo on the left and the navigation links on the right.
4-4. Hero layout39:19
We will use Flexbox to create the two-column layout for our hero section, placing the headshot on one side and the name and tagline on the other.
4-5. Skills and projects grids24:22
This lesson uses Flexbox with the flex-wrap property to create the responsive grid-like layout for our skills icons and project cards.
4-6. Footer layout12:55
Construct the portfolio's footer, integrating copyright information and social media icons. Learn to use Flexbox to create a responsive, cleanly aligned footer for both mobile and desktop views.
5. Styling the Components5
With our main layout in place, this chapter focuses on styling the individual components of our portfolio. We will add the visual polish to our project cards, experience table, and contact form to make them match our design. By the end, you will: style the project cards with spacing and colour; add hover effects to interactive elements; and apply styling to make the experience table and form readable and professional.
Chapter lessons
5-1. Styling project cards
This lesson focuses on making our project cards look professional. We will use padding, background colours, and borders to style the <div> containers for each card.
5-2. Understanding pseudo-classes
This lesson introduces pseudo-classes, specifically :hover. You will learn how to change an element's style when a user moves their mouse over it.
5-3. Project hover effects
We will apply our knowledge of pseudo-classes to our project, adding a subtle hover effect to our links and project card buttons to improve user experience.
5-4. Styling the table
We will learn how to apply basic styles to our <table> element, adjusting padding and borders to make the data clean and easy to read.
5-5. Styling the form
This lesson covers the basics of styling form elements, applying consistent styles to our input fields and submit button.
6. Element Context3
This chapter deepens your understanding of how CSS manages element placement beyond the standard flow. You will master controlling element positioning, layer order, and isolation, crucial for complex interfaces. Master CSS positioning, control stacking context with z-index, and leverage Block Formatting Contexts for robust element management.
Chapter lessons
6-1. Positioning
Master CSS position property values (relative, absolute, fixed, sticky) to control element placement, understanding their impact on the document flow.
6-2. Stacking context
Demystify z-index and stacking context. Learn why certain elements appear above others and how to explicitly control the layer order in complex layouts.
6-3. Block formatting
Understand Block Formatting Contexts (BFCs) and their role in containing floats, preventing margin collapse, and managing overflow for robust component isolation.
7. Conclusion2
This concluding chapter summarises your significant achievements. We will review the fully styled, responsive portfolio you have built and look ahead to the next logical step: making it interactive with JavaScript. By the end, you will: appreciate the professional, styled, and responsive website you have created; and understand the role of JavaScript in bringing your static design to life.
Chapter lessons
7-1. What you built
This lesson provides a comprehensive recap of your journey, from an unstyled HTML document to a complete, professionally styled, and responsive portfolio page.
7-2. Your next step
This final lesson serves as a motivational look ahead to the next course, 'JavaScript Foundations,' where you will make your navigation menu and contact form fully functional.