Grace Said:

well , how could I master web designing and web development !?

We Answered:

I started off as a graphic designer after formal training in school for three years. It was only later that I became a web designer by learning on my own.

You are best starting right off with (X)HTML and learning the very basics. (X)HTML is very easy to learn at its most basic level and can be easily scaled up to do real sophisticated stuff. This is your bread and butter for web design. I highly recommend the QuickStart series of books for the various web languages. They are easy to follow and make great references.

You should look ahead also to get used to using professional web design software. I recommend Adobe Dreamweaver. It's a real playground for web design newbies, but as you grow into it, you'll realize why it's for pros. Lots of web designer jobs require that you know this software.

Following closely behind is CSS which is also pretty easy and is a necessity for giving the shape and look to a site while keeping it easy to modify and will help you in the long term to do sophisticated programming.

Though it's not absolutely vital for a new web designer, it's a good idea to get familiar with Javascript. This will make your pages dance, sing and move and make your site dynamic and compelling. Many basic JS functions are automated by web design programs, but it's good to get an idea of how it works and later, it will become even more important to making a sizzling site.

It will also help to know Photoshop for image editing and optimization. As you want to get fancier later, you may also want to learn Flash for animation and high-end media interactivity.

The real heavy duty developer who wants to go into web-based applications may want to get started in programming with the easy yet powerful PHP scripting language and MySQL database. These are free and are becoming more and more popular among mainstream web developers.

But above all, I believe you should learn the basic art of design and typography, just like a traditional designer. I recommend books by Robin Williams (the digital designer, not the comedian) who helps non-designers learn the ropes of professional design. You should also learn about User Interface (UI) design and what makes for an intuitive and positive online experience.

And these are the basics. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.