Comment On Unfinished Tutorial

[BillysProgrammer]

Ok, so lately ive been working on a web development tutorial for website development noobies. I was just wondering If I could get some suggestions or comments on it. Thanks

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/020109/5 1082_WebDesignTut.php

Thanks Again Newgrounds

[TheAutocrat]

I think it looks pretty well done. Just finish it up.

[BillysProgrammer]

Hey, thanks, its good to hear some good feedback from you guys.

[J0Rel]

At 1/2/09 02:11 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: Ok, so lately ive been working on a web development tutorial for website development noobies. I was just wondering If I could get some suggestions or comments on it. Thanks

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/020109/5 1082_WebDesignTut.php

Thanks Again Newgrounds

Looks descent :D

[BillysProgrammer]

Thanks a lot. Hey, anyone got any suggestions on what else I should add later on?

Aswell, if this was finished, what would you rate? or review?

[Expectrum]

It looks pretty good in my eyes, at least as far as presentation goes, because I'm too busy to go over all that text at the moment :o

At 1/2/09 02:36 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: Hey, anyone got any suggestions on what else I should add later on?

Well I think you should add a section dedicated to external resources/other online tutorials, perhaps add a link to the Programming Forum, and next steps to take after the viewer finishes your tutorial (you know, some guidance).

Remember that when making a tutorial you should expect the person to not have any previous knowledge about the subject, or at least indicate if it does. Also read it as if you didn't knew it's contents, to get a feeling of what the viewer may experience.

Oh, and some screenshots of the outcome in a browser is a must.

Aswell, if this was finished, what would you rate? or review?

I'd probably vote 5 due to it's good format and presentation. It also brings an informative and educative value. I'd review based on the contents, which are not yet complete, so...

[Magical-Zorse]

It's not very visually apealing

[BillysProgrammer]

Well, what im doing is instead of screenshot, im actually putting up pages onto my website where they can view the actual results. I think that is a better way.

And thanks a lot, I really enjoyed reading that.

[Expectrum]

At 1/2/09 02:57 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: Well, what im doing is instead of screenshot, im actually putting up pages onto my website where they can view the actual results. I think that is a better way.

Oh, that sounds better.

And thanks a lot, I really enjoyed reading that.

You're welcome ;)

At 1/2/09 02:57 PM, Magical-Zorse wrote: It's not very visually apealing

Well, it's not a fashion magazine. It's a tutorial.

[BillysProgrammer]

Lol, thanks a lot.

[ProfessorFlash]

Boring. Who is going to read all that? The noobies? They press X after first wall of text.

[BillysProgrammer]

To bad you dont like it. But thats not my problem, im just trying to help.

[K-Guare]

I have a super short attention span, so,
i didn't read much of the HTML tutorial you had.
So i have no way of knowing weather it was legit or not,
but i certainly know of one thing;
it was incredibly boring.

No offense or anything, pretty much every tutorial is boring to me.
So it's most likely my fault, not yours.

[Steff]

It's cool I like it, also really helpful for those who want to learn some html or other shit.
And walls of text, not good idea.

[BillysProgrammer]

Ok, thanks K-Guare.

Question, how do you think I could spice it up, and for what you read, did you think it was ok so far?

Heres a small update, ive been working on the example pages on my site. First 4 work in the HTML examples page.

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/020109/5 5666_WebDesignTut.php

[ProfessorFlash]

At 1/2/09 03:10 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: To bad you dont like it. But thats not my problem, im just trying to help.

Instead of taking that crappy attitude, why don't you make your tutorial more appealing? I feel like I'm reading the wikipedia page on the subject that's cramped on frames and made into a flash.

You don't seem to know what your target audience is. People who read tutorials in flash are not the type who read wikipedia pages. They won't read through your tutorial, and thus you've helped nobody.

Don't take this the wrong way, I think it's great that you want to help but you need to put some effort in it.

[Expectrum]

At 1/2/09 03:09 PM, ProfessorFlash wrote: Boring. Who is going to read all that? The noobies? They press X after first wall of text.

Wow.

See, if you had at least provided an idea on how to make the tutorial better I wouldn't bash you, but you're acting just like an ignorant teenager with ADD. What did you expect a tutorial about coding to be? A nice fable with shiny pictures? Of course it's going to have text, and lots of it.

It's not like everyone is supposed to watch it. If someone didn't want to learn about it, of course they wouldn't read it. Did you throw away your math books because they had a lot of boring numbers? I wouldn't be surprised.

[BillysProgrammer]

Professor Flash, I didnt mean to make my attitude like that, I meant it in a good way.

But, I asked K-Guare, and now I can ask you.

How do you think i can spice this up to make it more for the newgrounds target audience, which is flying colors lol.

Artistically, this tutorial is not good, I know, but im working on it.

[The-titan]

mmm it's definetily too dark, and if someone REALLY wants to learn Web Development i strongly recommend - http://www.w3schools.com/

[Expectrum]

At 1/2/09 03:31 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: How do you think i can spice this up to make it more for the newgrounds target audience, which is flying colors lol.

Artistically, this tutorial is not good, I know, but im working on it.

You should try to enhance the ambient. Unless you plan on summarizing the content of the tutorial without taking out quality, there isn't much that can be done with the amount of text. BUT, you can make everything more organized and appealing so that it doesn't feel like there's only text there.

Then downside is that there isn't much in to be shown graphically in a tutorial about website coding, but you can add more eye candy to the layout. There's also the music that you haven't added yet. Try watching other tuts here and see what you come up with.

Since you're using an animation program to make a tutorial, there might as well be some animation, yes?

[BillysProgrammer]

Well, thanks for the info, Im not that good at animation, but I could probably think of something. I will try to add some funny graphics or something to spice it up.

Aswell, I forgot to say, did you notice to right click. There infact is music :P

[K-Guare]

At 1/2/09 03:31 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: Professor Flash, I didnt mean to make my attitude like that, I meant it in a good way.

But, I asked K-Guare, and now I can ask you.

How do you think i can spice this up to make it more for the newgrounds target audience, which is flying colors lol.

Artistically, this tutorial is not good, I know, but im working on it.

Actually, that's what i was going to suggest.
A bit of a color change could do a lot, and
maybe a nice gradient background (nothing too overdone).

That would definitely make an impact on it.
Because the effortless white text/black background combination
isn't very visually appealing.

As well as color, i think there should be
some transitions between frames, and
i'm sure your going to add music to it later.
But when you add the music, make sure it
isn't too overpowering from the whole tutorial.

And from what i saw, to answer your question to me,
the actual content of the tutorial was pretty good.
Maybe even a little bit of humor in it wouldn't hurt, too.

Hope all this helps. :]

[BillysProgrammer]

Ya, it helps a lot. I will keep posting some updates, so check back in a little bit.

Thanks a lot!

[BillysProgrammer]

Well, I changed some colors in the beginning and at the menu, havent done th actual tutorial colors yet, but how is this, any better color wise?

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/020109/5 7987_WebDesignTut.php

[Thomas]

You really need to explain yourself better. Everything is kind of pushed together as if you just wanted to finish. Spread everything out and explain everything more in depth. Saying a <td> tag, for example, is used as a column is not enough. You need to tell the user about what else a <td> tag can do and that it is actually a data cell.

W3Schools may be better for a beginner, they will learn a lot more.

I will admit, however, I did not know what colspan did until I read that part of the tutorial.

Also, before you finish your HTML section, you need to teach the user about divs. As you know, divs are what should be used in web design. Most users who will read this tutorial will probably want to go out and make a website, and it's important that they know what a 'div' is (the section would, of course, need to link to CSS areas too).

That's all I've got.

[BillysProgrammer]

At 1/2/09 04:09 PM, Thomas wrote: You really need to explain yourself better. Everything is kind of pushed together as if you just wanted to finish. Spread everything out and explain everything more in depth. Saying a <td> tag, for example, is used as a column is not enough. You need to tell the user about what else a <td> tag can do and that it is actually a data cell.

W3Schools may be better for a beginner, they will learn a lot more.

I will admit, however, I did not know what colspan did until I read that part of the tutorial.

Also, before you finish your HTML section, you need to teach the user about divs. As you know, divs are what should be used in web design. Most users who will read this tutorial will probably want to go out and make a website, and it's important that they know what a 'div' is (the section would, of course, need to link to CSS areas too).

That's all I've got.

Alright, thanks a lot Thomas. I will definitly put in the Div Sections, with a link to the CSS part for it aswell. I will also I guess put up a link to W3Schools as say maybe a good starting point for new website developers.

As for the table tags (td, tr, table etc) I will I guess change that around and add some more information like you said.

Thanks

[BillysProgrammer]

Btw, go check out my news post. It contains a lot more information then I have put here.

http://billysprogrammer.newgrounds.com/

[BillysProgrammer]

I have another update for everyone to check out. Heres the link

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/020109 /61682_WebDesignTut.php

Dont forget to check out my news post for a lot more information and updates more often.

http://billysprogrammer.newgrounds.com/n ews/post/247732

[BillysProgrammer]

So, lately ive been working on my tutorial of course. And id like to present you a new update.

What Ive Added:

- Ive just about finished the html section, just need to add a page to show the difference between xHTML and HTML.
- Started working on the php section. Seems to be turning out nicely.
- Added some music, right click and press start/stop.

Wheres the update?

Well, glad u asked, look below me.
http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/030109/4 2750_WebDesignTut.php