Once upon a time, the web was the sole domain of experts.

The people who bought computers back when getting your computer to do something meant writing the program yourself. 

The people who still look at an app and see the code that makes it work, instead of the beautiful skin a designer laid over it. 

The people who are more fluent in markup than conversational English.

Thankfully, those days are gone.

The same geniuses who once ruled the web started building tools to help the rest of us join in the fun.

It all started with LiveJournal and Blogger — tools that translated the process of writing HTML into writing text. Then it spread to tools like Dreamweaver, which took that same process a step further to help people build entire websites.

Flash forward to today and all kinds of tools for making web design a more intuitive process have emerged. They vary in myriad ways, but they all share a mission to translate the abstractions of code into more tangible, visual modes of working.

That’s exactly why we built Webflow. As cofounder and CEO Vlad Magdalin (wordlessly) called out in “A (Cheeky) Guide to Creative Tools,” no other design discipline still uses text-based abstractions to create its visual products. 

And we think it’s (long past) time that changed.

What Web Design 101 is

You don’t need to know code to use Webflow, though it helps to know a few things about how code works (and we’ll help you with that).

But to make the most of Webflow, you do need to know a thing or 3 about:

1. Visual design
2. Web design
3. Design process

That’s what this free ebook, Web Design 101, will teach you all about.

Coauthored by designer Mat Vogels, developer Neil O’Grady, and content strategist John Moore Williams (that’s me), it dives deep into all three topics to offer tips, insights, and principles on everything from how to design your design process to how to build landing pages that turn visitors into customers.

In short, it’s the kind of stuff you’ll want to reference ... well ... daily.

What Web Design 101 isn’t

This book is only the beginning of your journey into web design. Hence the name.

To deepen your understanding of various web design skills (both generally, and with Webflow), you’ll want to subscribe to our blog and check out the various video tutorials we (and others) have built:

1. Getting Started with Webflow
2. How to create an online portfolio without coding
3. Prototyping a mobile app in Webflow
4. The Webflow Masterclass

It’s also worth noting that Web Design 101 isn’t about the technical side of web design.

There’s a ton to learn there, but we’re confident that Webflow itself will help you learn most everything you need to know. And for what it won’t — well, the web is a wild, worldwide place, and you’ll discover the rest out there.

The web today — and tomorrow

Today, the web has become the world’s most democratic medium. Never before have so many people had the power to share their thoughts, feelings, projects, ideas, and businesses with the entire world.

Never before has there been a medium that can so quickly and powerfully communicate a message and urge people to act — as proved by everything from this month’s top Kickstarter to the Arab Spring.

But it can be even more democratic.

The fact is that the web is still a very young medium. We’ll no doubt discover and develop countless new uses for it over the coming decades.

And with Webflow, you have a part to play in defining that future.

So if you were to ask us where the web will go next, we’d have to say: You tell us.

Or better yet: You show us.