Omniversity of Manchester

My name is Jimmy Edmondson, I’m 24 and have a background in Graphic Design. I graduated 2 years ago from a course which taught me an introduction to Web Design. Over the past two years I’ve worked as a professional Graphic Designer with the CMS system WordPress a lot, heavily editing themes and learning about HTML and CSS as needed. I decided to take this course to brush up my skills, ensuring that I work in the correct way and have a thorough and up-to-date understanding of the world of web design. This course did not disappoint! Read the rest of this entry →

Give me an H

We are excited to be featured in the Manchester Evening News about the HTML music video created by @mariaprohyena.

This video promoting the Web Design Foundations Course taught by Chris Mills has gained an impressive amount of attention, including some remixes. We are happy to see MadLab’s fame as a place for realising ideas, however crazy they are, spread. The article called “Give us an H: ‘Geeks’ create hit song and video spelling out what HTML computer language means” gives a bit more background information about the creative output of MadLab’s geeks.

Thanks again for everyone who took part in creating this hit. Big thanks to @samscam for the music and @DeShannon for the choreography and Hanna, Sarah and @paddysteer for knowing the moves.

The next course: Web design foundations 2: HTML Basics is on in a week on Monday, the 23rd of April. The second part teaches all the HTML you’ll need to make your way into web design and development with confidence! From text to tables, and links to images, this course has it all. It is a perfect possibility in getting started with creating your own identity on the web.

Book your place here.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, here it is:

When we made a music video to promote the Web Design Foundations course run by Chris Mills, we never expected to have such positive feedback. Lately some remixes of Sam’s (@samscam) original song have started to pop up and we would like to share them with you.

What are you waiting for, start creating your own space on the web!

Upcoming courses

Web Design Foundations 2: HTML Basics 23rd April and 30th April (6pm-9pm)
Web Design Foundations 3: CSS Basics 14th May and 21st May (6pm-9pm)
Web Design Foundations 4: Advanced CSS and HTML topics 11th June and 18th June (6pm-9:30pm)

Here is one by the David Edmundson-Bird @groovegenerator:

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This autumn Omniversity is running a series of courses on Web Design Foundations starting from the basics of how the web works and ending with the more advanced subjects in HTML and CSS. The first of four step course took place on the 12. of September and brought together a small group of beginners in web design who under the guidance of an evangelist Chris Mills got a general idea of accessibility and usability of websites and test some basic HTML and CSS writing. Doing an apprenticeship in MadLab, I decided impromptu to use the opportunity to take part of the course and get an insight into a field that is completely new to me.

Read the rest of this entry →

I blogged a little while ago about the reasons behind running my course – read Build your own place on the web for more. In short, I want to give everyone and anyone the chance to learn the skills they need to put together a usable, accessible, modern web site that will stand the test of time, and improve the quality of web sites overall. Course such as the Omniversity web design foundations courses are really only the tip of the iceberg, and I will be work on spreading such good web teachings far and wide across the globe in the near future, when the W3C Web Education Community Group takes off.

My first event is running on September 12, and they will run regularly up until the end of November. So please, if you want to master the basics of web design, sign up! If you are already a competent web designer and know someone else who could benefit — such as a friend or less-technical team mate — sign them up!

Web design foundations 1: Introduction to the Web, and web design

My first course is for complete beginners, who know nothing beyond basic computer literacy. Here I explain what the Web is and how it works, important underlying concepts such as accessibility, FTP, search engine optimization and information architecture, and have a basic play with some HTML and CSS at the end.

Web design foundations 2: HTML Basics

The second part teaches all the HTML you’ll need to make your way into web design and development with confidence! From text to tables, and links to images, this course has it all.

Web design foundations 3: CSS Basics

My third course looks at CSS, and shows you everything, from the real basic fundamentals such as selectors, text styling and the box model, to some fairly advanced techniques like web fonts, styling links and forms and multiple column layouts with floats.

Web design foundations 4: Advanced CSS and HTML topics

This course brushes past the basics, looking at HTML5 syntax, forms and video, CSS3 bling such as linear gradients, opacity and drop shadows, and adaptive layouts using Media Queries and viewport.

Written by Chris Mills, Course tutor.