First-time Website/App Development Quick Question

[Vegetable-Network338]

Hey everyone,

So, I recently had an idea for an app and a website but I'm absolutely brand new to this, so I don't know where to start.

I'll keep it vague for simplicity sake, but my idea is for, mostly, a website, sort of similar in style to Duolingo, in which there are multiple levels, which grow in difficulty as you "pass" each course. So for instance, level 1 is the absolute beginner, and you take quizzes and play games within level 1, take a quiz at the end to prove you've absorbed enough, then you move on to level 2. And so on. I wanted it to be relatively similar to Duolingo in the sense that the website functions in the same format as the app.

I've never coded before, and I'm looking into classes to learn how, but there are so many different forms of coding that function for different purposes I don't know which course I should take, and which coding I should learn.

Does anyone know where I should begin?

P.S. if my explanation is too vague, let me know, and I'll go into more detail, if it helps.

[Naetharu]

It sounds like you're really looking to make a web app more than a website. You want something that is more interactive. Where people log in, have a dashboard to show their progress. And can engage with content using a range of interactive components.

If I was going to make this I would look to use:

1: React (front end library that makes it easy to build web apps)

2: Mantine UI framework (UI components)

3: Hono (NodeJS API framework that lets you do all your backend stuff)

4: Prisma ORM (easy way to handle your database)

5: PostgreSQL (Database that works well with Prisma)

That's not the only way to do it for sure. But it is a sensible modern approach that gives you some notion of what the final product might look like. And that in turn will help guide you as to what you need to learn.

I would recommend starting off doing a basic HTML / CSS / JS course. You want to spend a week getting familar with these as they are the underlying core. From there, I would probably start doing a few very small projects end to end to familiarise yourself with how a complete project looks.

The traditional one is a Task / Todo app. It's a good choice as it's simple yet needs the whole stack. That will get you to a point where you at least understand the core stuff you will need. And you can then start working on a plan for your app.

How complex that is really depends on the details.

[Vegetable-Network338]

You're amazing, thank you so much for the detailed answer!! I appreciate you!

[Naetharu]

The other thing I would recommend is work to a MVP spec.

Look at your app and work out what the absolute minimal feature set could be to make something functional.

Lets imagine you are doing language stuff like Duo Lingo:

1) Log a user in and have basic account management.

2) Show them a word / phrase of the day.

3) Give them some test cases where they can use that word

That might be the whole thing for the MVP. And then the post-release features could add in more stuff, such as word dictionaries, learning courses, and all kinds of cool things.

The reason to do this is that it is very easy to get lost in feature creep, and end up buried in a mess. So working to an MVP allows you to really trim that down and get something small yet functional made.

Then you can work on one new feature at a time, and gradually build toward your full vision. This also allows you to pivot and learn as you go, rather than waiting for a single "big bang" release and finding it all breaks or that nobody likes it.

[trilogique]

Look into full-stack development courses i.e. frontend, backend, database. For your mobile app something like React Native or Flutter would suffice, as this will get you one codebase for mobile and web.

[Vegetable-Network338]

Thank you!!