Programming For Non-Programmers: Fundamentals

1,903 students enrolled

Programming For Non-Programmers: Fundamentals

Learn how to speak with developers. Designed for entrepreneurs, businesses, and junior developers.

1,903 students enrolled

Created by Christopher Michael

Last updated 2/2013

English

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Programming For Non-Programmers: Fundamentals

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3.5 hours on-demand video
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What you'll learn

Understand the Web Development Process
Make better hiring and product decisions: UX, Information Architecture, Design, Development
Explain concepts like APIs, CMSs, and iPhone Development in plain English
Understand which programming language to choose for your project
Develop a basic HTML/CSS/JS template
Understand how to better communicate your startup idea to developers

+ – Why Programming?

4 lectures 16:14

Preview 00:38

A programming language is a set of steps, that we use to solve a problem. Let's see that in action!

What is Programming (...and why do I care?)

05:55

Let's be honest. Do you even need to be learning this stuff? Can't you just hire someone to do it for you?

Should Everyone Learn Programming?

05:33

What problem are you trying to solve? Tips on how we can think more like a developer.

How I Learned to Code: MP3s & The Matrix

04:08

+ – The Web Development Process (aka. Focusing in on the problem at hand)

8 lectures 56:39

"The Web, Mobile Web, Native Apps"... let's get clear about what we mean when we are using these terms.

Preview 02:27

Planning our project!

The Flow: Plan, Design, Develop

01:10

Let's not spend $100,000 developing an iPhone app before we've done our homework. Product Development will help give us some tools to test whether our idea floats.

Product Development

05:27

Who are our users? And how does this information impact hiring and tech decisions. In this section we introduce the basics of User Experience (UX) and highlight real life examples from Chris's work experience.

User Experience (UX)

17:03

We have our idea all fleshed out. Now how do we communicate it to the developer? In this lecture we highlight some best practices for wireframing and content strategy.

Information Architecture (IA)

09:26

The visual designer brings the wireframes to live. CMYK vs. RBG!? Pixels? Let's take a look at how to get started.

Visual Design

06:04

Front-end vs. Back-end? What are the responsibilities of these developers?

Development

08:52

The Web Development Process: Agile vs. Waterfall

06:10

+ – Which Language? (aka. Understanding the tools)

11 lectures 01:27:50

You may be thinking, "Why are there so many languages!?" and "Which one should I choose for my project?" Also, would you believe that there is ONE programming language that every computer can read. Watch this lecture to find out!

Which Language Should I Choose? Part I: Fundamentals

10:22

Facebook is built with PHP. Twitter uses Ruby. Google uses Python. Why!? And what's the difference between these 3 languages?

The Web: PHP, Ruby & Python

13:33

In this lecture I present you with 4 projects from my real world experience, and ask you to choose the programming language. Think you know enough yet? The Black Eyed Peas, Derby Jackpot, The Story Studio and more. We'll look at the technology, and an info graph of the hours spent developing each.

Pop Quiz! Review

Preview 08:23

Native Mobile Apps use different programming languages than on The Web. Let's take a look!

Which Language Should I Choose? Part II: Mobile

05:22

Let's looks at responsive design and some tools for testing whether a site is responsive.

Responsive Design & Mobile Web

05:46

What CMS is right for the job? In this section we take a look at Wordpress, Expression Engine, and a few other CMS options to help us make better choices

Content Management Systems (CMSs)

16:44

C++, Node.js and .NET. How do these fit into the mix?

Which Language Should I Choose? Part III: Node.js & Beyond

04:20

These are terms that sound like they are programming languages. Things like FTP and GIT. You might even confuse them as being a language. But they're not. So let's make sure we're clear.

File Under: Not A Programming Language

06:02

Have you ever heard someone say something like, “The NY Times has an API we can use.”? What they are saying is "The NY Times has some data that you can freely access and use in your project." In this section we demystify the API.

APIs

06:58

Tech Stack. Twenty lectures ago this wouldn't have made any sense. But now that we're familiar with the landscape of languages and platforms, the concept of Tech Stack will pull all of that goodness together into one digestible chunk. (and from there... BLOW your mind)

Tech Stack

06:05

Trust me on this one. It'll make sense. (Please don't watch this until you've watched all the other videos prior.)

A Techstack Is Kind of Like A Pizza

04:15

+ – Lets Code (aka. Solving the Problem)

8 lectures 34:31

We'll go to http://www.sublimetext.com to download, and then install Sublime Text

Get Our Text Editor Up & Running!

Preview 01:57

Getting started with HTML (even if you've coded HTML before you should watch this video... as we'll tackle relevant concepts and best-practices)

HTML Gives Our Page Structure

09:48

CSS is the style of our page. CSS itself even stands for Cascading Style Sheets!

CSS Brings in the Styles

03:51

JavaScript: Events

02:42

Every language has the ability to write comments. Find out how, and why.

JavaScript: Comments

02:13

JavaScript helps add "logic" to our code. And when we're ready to see the output, we need to "print" to the screen.

JavaScript: Print

03:17

Warning: this starts with a quiz. Ok you've been warned. Proceed.

JavaScript: Variables

05:46

Whoa. We learned a lot. Let's do a brief recap of the past section, and talk about where you can find some resources to continue learning after this class.

Recap & What's Next?

Preview 04:57

Requirements

laptop

Description

Are you a creative or entrepreneur that wishes you could speak tech with your web development team? Maybe you wish you could code a bit yourself?

Programming for Non-Programmers is online course designed to help non-programmers communicate more efficiently with developers.

Because leading a development team (without being a developer yourself) can sometimes feels like “talking about dancing”, I've created an interactive and easy to follow environment in which to learn the basics.

And for developers just getting started, think of this as the primer to help kickstart your career.

If you're running a tech start-up, it's essential that you familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of web development. Ultimately knowing how to "talk to the talk" will help you communicate better with developers, and overall just look really cool.

What You'll Learn

In this course we'll tackle some development principles to get you on the right path. We'll look at questions like, "Front-end vs. Back-end?", "Is UX necessary for my project?", "What is this Javascript function thingy, and why am I passing it strange math equations to it?".

What coding languages should I use for my next project?
Which CMS is right for the job?
What are the stages of web development?
What deliverables do I need to provide my developer? (FYI - This is important and often neglected or done poorly)
Reading code & basic developing principles to get us started
Key concepts of programming that are the found in every programming language
Understanding Javascript Variables & Logic

Looking for corporate training?

I'm based in New York City, and available to bring my workshop Programming for Non-Programmers to your company. Past clients include: American Express, GE, NASDAQ, Razorfish, and more!

Email me chris[at]onemonth .com for details.

Live Support! (I'm Here To Answer Your Questions)

I'm available for questions to all students taking the class. By joining the class you gain access to message me through email. And if for any reason you are not satisfied with the material, I will gladly refund you myself. No questions asked.

Best of luck!
Chris
Teacher at OneMonth . com
Host of the "LEARN TO CODE in ONE MONTH PODCAST"
Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Business School

"I've traveled a steep learning curve thanks to Chris' friendly and lucid style of teaching." - Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose

"I wish I had taken this class 5 years ago!" - Michael Goodwin, UX Designer

"Informative, digestible, actionable" - Katherine, Entrepreneur

"An INCREDIBLE thank you! So far you're the only one who has been able to teach me how to code." - Darren Hakimi, Analyst

"You are articulate and engaging. Broad and diverse range of topics. Not easy to address so much in limited time." - student feedback

Even for a non tech person like me (who yes, has 50,000 emails in her inbox and actually thinks thats totally normal), I was able to keep up. My intent was to get a good overview of what the heck programming actually is, and better understand the language/terms associated with it. I certainly got that. I also appreciated your passion for teaching. I will absolutely recommend the class to my friends. - Debra-Ellen Glickstein, Entrepreneur

Who this course is for:

This is for the total beginner!
Entrepreneurs
Students
You. Because you want to get the attention of Fred the IT guy that isn't giving you the time of day
Anyone looking to learn the first 4 hour of Web Development and Programming Concepts

Featured review

Ruben Cervantes ( 73 courses, 8 reviews )

3 months ago

This really breaks down the process of the website development process if you're not familiar. It's helped me figure out what questions to ask when I'm in a meeting or in discussions with the designer, developer and owner. How to view certain aspects of a project and which way a project can branch into either a Web App or a Web Site which I learned are distinct but can also cross over into each other's realm. The instructor is engaging and very knowledgeable.