Web and mobile development tutoring, from a blank HTML file to a working app

What we work on

Web and mobile modules move fast. One week it's HTML structure, the next it's responsive layouts, then JavaScript, then a mobile app with screens and state. Fall behind on one and the next builds on a gap. That's true of a first-year web development module, and even more so once projects start stacking up.

Web Development and Mobile Application Development are both modules I've studied, and I began the IIE Higher Certificate in Mobile Application and Web Development without a single line of code written. If you're on that qualification or weighing it up, my guide to the Higher Certificate may help. Either way, sessions are built around what's in front of you this week.

• HTML structure and semantic markup
• CSS layout: the box model, Flexbox and Grid
• Responsive design and mobile-first thinking
• JavaScript logic: variables, functions, arrays, loops and events
• The DOM: making a page react when someone clicks
• React Native: components, props, state and moving between screens

HTML and CSS: why your layout won't behave

Most CSS frustration comes from not seeing the boxes. Every element on a page is a rectangle with content, padding, a border and a margin, and most layout bugs are one of those four doing something you didn't expect. So the first thing we do is make the boxes visible in your browser's developer tools and look at what's really happening.

From there, Flexbox and Grid stop being guesswork. You learn which one suits a row of cards and which suits a whole page, and how to build a layout that works on a phone first and stretches to a laptop. That's responsive design, and it's worth getting right: most people will see your work on a phone.

JavaScript: making sense of the logic

JavaScript is where many students hit a wall, because it's the first time the page has to think. A button needs a click listener. The listener needs a function. The function needs to find an element, read a value and change something, in the right order. Miss a step and nothing happens, often without a single error to tell you why.

I teach it the way I needed it when I started with no coding experience: one small step at a time, with console.log as our window into the code. We print values, check what the code actually holds at each line, and compare it with what you expected. That habit is how you understand JavaScript logic instead of copying it.

React Native and mobile app development

The Mobile Application Development module I studied covered React Native and mobile-first thinking. The ideas that trip students up are usually the same few: what a component is, how props pass data down, why changing an ordinary variable doesn't update the screen but changing state does, and how to move between screens without losing track of your data.

We build those up in a small app, one piece at a time: a list screen, a detail screen, a button that updates state, then navigation between them. If you're stuck on a project, we work on your own code. You share your screen, we find what's breaking, and you fix it with me alongside you rather than me fixing it for you.

Projects, practicals and tests

A lot of web and mobile marks come from projects, so that's often where we spend our time. I'll help you plan the project, understand the brief, structure your files and debug what's broken. I won't write it for you. If I build it, you can't explain it when you're asked, and you won't be ready for the next one. See assignment guidance for how that works.

For tests, we do targeted revision and practice questions, and I can make study notes that turn a dense topic into something you can revise from. They're clear, structured breakdowns of the material, so you can actually understand and retain it rather than just reread the slides.

Ethan Naicker (Higher Certificate, Mobile App and Web Development) said: “The notes Jorryn put together for me before my exam were unlike anything I’d seen. Clear, structured, and actually useful, not just a copy of the slides. I walked into that exam feeling prepared for the first time all semester. Genuinely grateful.”

Learning to build, not hiring a builder

This page is for students learning to code. If you run a business and want a website built for you, that's a separate service: see web design. The two are connected, though. The site you're reading was built from scratch in the same HTML, CSS and JavaScript we'd be working with in your sessions.

Sessions are usually 60 to 90 minutes, online over video call with screen sharing or in person in the Durban area, so whether you want a web development tutor in Durban or elsewhere in South Africa, it works the same way. Message me with your module, what you're building and where you're stuck. I usually reply within 24 hours.