Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#1

Post by adamselene » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 11:58 PM UTC

I’m a designer who’s long been interested in the dev side, so this year I’ve decided to build a web app from scratch. Problem is, there’s so many different languages and frameworks it’s hard to know what I should focus on first.

What would be your recommendation for something that’s powerful, fairly easy to get started with and hopefully useful career-wise too.

I’m fluent in html/css and know a bit of Python and JavaScript, if that helps.

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#2

Post by mattl » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 12:30 AM UTC

Laravel and in particular laracasts.com has been good for me getting back into it after an extended break.

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#3

Post by ackatz » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 1:20 AM UTC

* Python (FastAPI or Flask)

* SQLite (with Litestream)

* Docker

* GitHub Actions

* Deploy out to AWS or Fly.io

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#4

Post by Moziee » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 2:02 AM UTC

Understanding database management is important when building web apps for sure. Having an organized system to store your data will keep you sane. Of course a huge importance for security and reliability as well.

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#5

Post by moomoo11 » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 2:05 AM UTC

Try using sveltekit. Hit me up if you have questions.

All you need to know is a bit of JS and you can write html + css. You control what shows up on a page easily without needing to learn a million complex things.

If you need persistence that is also simple to set up without having to learn SQL and Go or whatever.

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#6

Post by ilaksh » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 2:14 AM UTC

Call me crazy but why can't you use Python and JavaScript to build web applications?

Especially if you are building for your own clients or web applications, no one is forcing you to use a framework.

I have been building with just basic Express.js and plain JavaScript on the front end for many years. Generally speaking my clients and users could not care less that it's not React or whatever language/framework some developers may think is better.

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#7

Post by rcarr » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 2:37 AM UTC

Personally, given your existing skillset, I would master javascript. Start off trying to build a blog using a simple static site generator like either 11ty or Astro and then take it from there. You might find this site useful:

https://roadmap.sh/

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#8

Post by hnarayanan » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 2:39 AM UTC

What sort of webapp would you like to make? :)

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#9

Post by anon223345 » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:09 AM UTC

Flutter!!!

Re: Ask HN: What should I learn as a 42 year old designer looking to build web apps?

#10

Post by ilt » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 4:47 AM UTC

I hope this post gets more traction and suggestions/resources/references because I am on the same side as you and have just started on bootstrap's pre-made templates to get my first foot into webdesign. I am trying to figure them out and tweak them using dreamweaver in sync with what I want as a Design/UX person. Bootstrap has extensive documentation available online which has been quite helpful as well.