Hello Reader,
Yesterday I told you about the mindset shift that changed everything for me, and how I started working with the browser instead of against it.
I’ve spent a long time figuring out how to pass that same shift on to others, and that’s why I created CSS Demystified, which is now open for enrollment.
Before I get into the details, I want to tell you why I built it the way I did.
I spent five years teaching in a classroom before I moved to online education full-time. And the thing I’ve always struggled with is that online learning loses so much of what makes a classroom work.
I taught at a vocational school, and in the classroom, my students didn’t just listen. They tried things. They got stuck. They worked through it. I would see where they are struggling and point them in the right direction, without doing a full walkthrough of the solution.
On top of that, there’s a structure in the classroom, with each lesson building on the last, and by the end, you haven’t just heard about the material, you’ve done it.
Most online courses lose all of that. You watch videos, maybe you follow along, and hope it sticks. It usually doesn’t, at least not the way it would if you were actually working through problems yourself.
That’s why I rebuilt CSS Demystified from scratch on a custom platform. I wanted to create a real learning experience, not just a video series.
The course is mixed-media, with text, video, and interactive demos that let you see concepts in action. But the core of it is challenges at three levels:
Mini-Challenges: Quick tasks requiring just a few lines of code. You learn a concept, then immediately prove to yourself that you understand it.
Skill Builders: Medium-length exercises where you complete or debug partially built code. You see something that’s almost working, figure out what’s wrong, and then fix it (without the layers of band-aids!).
Design Implementations: Full design-to-code challenges. You get a design, and you build it from scratch, with very little hand-holding from me.
This is the part I couldn’t do on YouTube, and it’s the part that actually makes the learning stick. It’s one thing to watch me solve a layout problem. It’s a completely different thing to solve it yourself, get stuck, work through it, and come out the other side understanding why it works.
The curriculum is structured around the mindset shift we talked about in the last email:
Module 1: The CSS Mindset. We start by changing how you think about CSS. This is about understanding why the browser does what it does and how to work with it instead of against it. This is the foundation everything else builds on.
Module 2: Making Sense of Layouts. With the right mental model, we dive into Grid, Flexbox, and layout strategies. Not just how to use them, but how to think about layout so you pick the right approach every time.
Module 3: Fluid, Intrinsic, and Responsive Design. Where it all comes together. Leaning into what the browser wants to do, learning to use constraints with fluid design principles and intrinsic design patterns. Then, laying in media queries and container queries in the right places to create both small and large-scale layouts that work.
And then there is The Appendix. This isn't so much an actual module, but a growing collection of lessons to fill gaps you might have in your learning. There are lessons on the fundamentals of CSS like the syntax and selectors, as well as other important features like custom properties, CSS nesting, and more.
There are also more modules in the works, like Writing Resilient CSS, User Interactions, and others that explore modern CSS features. When those are added, the price will go up to reflect the extra content. But if you enroll now, you get every future update at no additional cost.
Here’s what you get:
- The full course: 3 core modules plus The Appendix
- Interactive challenges at three levels
- All future modules and updates, included
- Private Discord channels for questions and feedback
- Lifetime access
- Certificate of completion
- 45-day money-back guarantee. If you don’t feel more confident writing CSS, email me and I’ll refund you without any questions.
The price is $199.
To celebrate the launch, I’m offering 20% off for one week, so that's $159. This runs through April 7th.
Your discount is applied automatically through the link below (though the price might look a bit different, as I have local currencies set up for some countries).
Enroll now
(If you’re in a country where I support purchasing power parity, the best available discount is applied automatically at checkout, whichever is higher.)
If you have questions, hit reply and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
And if you're wondering what others think about it, here's what some people had to say about the original version of CSS Demystified:
“I’ve been writing CSS for several years now, but I’ve encountered the typical curveballs over and over again. This course has covered them all and filled in my gaps. I now have a deeper understanding of how CSS works, and this has helped me very much in my day-to-day work.” — Birgit Riese CSS version 1 Alum
“CSS Demystified has changed the way I approach CSS and has given me more confidence moving forward on having CSS work with me, NOT against me.” — Peter Mungai CSS version 1 Alum
“CSS Demystified explains all the foundations of CSS so well, that I can finally write clear and robust code.” — Dr. Dominik Rost CSS version 1 Alum
Again, if you still have questions, please hit reply, or if you're ready to jump in, you can enroll here.
Cheers,
Kevin
P.S. With this launch of CSS Demystified, I'll be sending more emails than usual over the next several days. If you aren't interested in the course and you’d like to only get my regular Sunday emails, click here to opt out of these extra emails. |