How I Started With Web Design - From Notepad to Modern Frameworks

How It All Started

Everything began when I was 14 years old, back in 2008, with the legendary game Counter-Strike 1.6. I became an admin on a server, and one of my tasks was to help manage a forum for the community. Yes, forums were the “hot social media” of that time.

I don’t even remember how many forums I created. But because of them, I decided to teach myself HTML, CSS and JavaScript. There was no ChatGPT, no instant AI responses, and definitely no frameworks like React, Vue, or Tailwind CSS. If I got stuck, I had one option: Google it and pray you find something useful.

“We didn’t copy/paste from ChatGPT. We copied code from strangers on forums and hoped it worked.”

Learning Without AI, StackOverflow, or YouTube Tutorials

At that time, even YouTube tutorials were rare and short. Google search was nothing like today. There was no StackOverflow to solve every error instantly - it didn’t even exist yet when I started. We had forums, and hundreds of comments that often just said:

Try to reinstall Windows.

To learn something, I had to dig through posts in English, which wasn’t my native language. It was slow, frustrating, but also priceless. Thanks to that process, I learned coding and improved my English at the same time.

Bad things can have good outcomes. 🙂

The Legendary Notepad Era

Yes, I wrote my first code in Windows Notepad. No syntax colors, no auto-complete, no warnings. Just pure text and pain. After a few months, I discovered Notepad++, and I felt like I had unlocked a secret weapon:

“Notepad++ was my Visual Studio Code before Visual Studio Code existed.”

It highlighted tags, helped me catch errors faster, and honestly, it felt like magic. I was hooked more than ever.

Comparing Then vs. Now

• Then: Searching forums for hours
• Now: AI gives you wrong code in 5 seconds 😆
• Then: Writing HTML in Notepad
• Now: Complaining if IntelliSense lags for 0.2 seconds
• Then: CSS layouts with tables (yes... tables)
• Now: Tailwind, Flexbox, Grid - choose your weapon

My Pause, My Return, and a New Chapter

After learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JS, I got stuck with PHP. Around the same time, I had to focus on school, work, and life. I stopped coding before my 17th birthday. I finished high school in mechanical engineering, started working at 18, and later continued my education.

Then life took me to Malta, where I found better opportunities. In 2018, I bought a laptop again, saw how much the web had evolved, and I felt like a total beginner. Six years out of coding is like being offline for a century in tech time.

“The internet had changed more than I did.”

Every day after work (sometimes after 12-hour shifts) I studied and coded. Slowly, I caught up with HTML5, CSS3, responsive design, modern JavaScript, and eventually, backend programming again. I completed a short web design course, got my diploma, and I never stopped since.

My Projects Since Then

• A full management system for the company I worked for in Malta called BIMS - Building Smart Management System → nfwdesign.com
• A website for my girlfriend (now my wife ❤️) → reuniting-yourself.com
• My first portfolio (version 1.0) → Check it here

Why I Continued Coding and Why I Still Love It

When I came back to coding after years of pause, I realized something important: I genuinely missed it. Not the errors, not the sleepless nights, not the broken layouts, but the feeling of creating something out of nothing.

Coding gave me a sense of progress that few other things in life do. You write some text, press refresh, and suddenly something exists that didn’t exist a second before. That transformation, that instant feedback… it’s addictive in the best possible way.

I continued because I love solving problems. I love that moment when something finally works after hours of debugging. I love turning ideas into real products that people can use. And most of all, I love that there’s always something new to learn.

“Coding never gets boring. The moment you think you know everything, the industry proves you wrong and that’s the beauty of it.”

Today, coding is more than a skill for me, it’s a part of who I am. It’s a craft I enjoy, a challenge I welcome, and a path that has given me opportunities I never imagined when I was a teenager writing HTML in Notepad.

And that’s why I’m still here, keyboard under my fingers, learning, building, and loving every moment of it.

If You Read All of This…

I hope this brought back memories of your own beginnings or inspired you if you’re just starting. Maybe you remembered the frustration, maybe you laughed, maybe you realized how far you’ve already come.

Whatever your journey is, enjoy it.

See you in the next post!