Learning web development can feel overwhelming at first—there are countless tools, frameworks, and website builders that promise quick results with little effort. Today, you can even generate complete sites with AI. But if you want to truly understand how websites work, build the skills to solve problems, and create something that is uniquely yours, there’s still tremendous value in learning the fundamentals.

That’s where Jekyll comes in. Jekyll is a static site generator that powers sites like GitHub Pages, making it an accessible starting point for beginner developers. It helped me get into programming and web development, and it’s one of the reasons I was able to build the skills that shaped my career. Unlike one-click website builders, Jekyll encourages you to work with code directly—HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and templating principles—while still being simple enough for a beginner to pick up.

This course is designed for people building their first portfolio website or those curious about web development. Along the way, you’ll also be introduced to design thinking: the process of solving problems through thoughtful design. You’ll learn not just how to put a site together, but how to think about why you’re building it and how to shape it around your goals—whether that’s a personal website, a blog, or a full theme you can share or even sell.

The free resources in this series will cover the foundations—introducing Jekyll, walking through setup, and explaining how it all works. The full course will go deeper, guiding you through customizing themes, building your own layouts, and even turning your project into a publishable Jekyll theme. By the end, you’ll not only have a working site, but a deeper understanding of web development principles that you can apply far beyond Jekyll.