8 Web Development Projects to Help Improve Your Skills
Once you've gotten the hang of basic web development, you might be hungry to test out your new skills.
With nearly 600 websites being added to the web every minute, you're not the only one out there trying out your skills. While some of these sites like the ones we create at Avila Web Firm may be permanent, a lot are probably temporary web development projects.
Why not get into the mix and build your own project? Here are 8 ideas for fun and challenging web development projects to help you develop a portfolio and try out your new skills.
1. A Website For Your Favorite Restaurant
Even in this era when everyone seems to live half of their lives online, nearly half of all small businesses don't even have a website. You could create a small project to thank your favorite taco spot or all-night diner for coming through for you during late night coding sessions.
Find a way to populate a menu using MySQL for an added challenge.
Otherwise, you can hardcode all the data in. Show the business your work and you might have set yourself up for a lifetime of free guac.
2. A Sign-Up Form for A Contest
Sign up forms are a challenging way to test your ability send queries and receive responses from a database. Add a random counter (1-10) and when the entry number matches that random counter, have your application send a positive response.
A signup form can be a way to test out your best idea of a form flow, front-end design, and database chops all within one little app.
Your signup form should be easy to understand, with a prize exciting enough to make it worthwhile. Keep users engaged while keeping the design simple.
3. An HTML5 Game
Creating an HTML5 game is a great way to show off your designs and get them to move through space. Using JavaScript, you can display different behaviors and programming concepts.
Set it up on a server accessible to friends and get them to play it. JavaScript game dev libraries like Phaser can expedite the prototyping process. The basic structure of a game is ready for you to plug in the details.
For Android users, try making this game into a downloadable app. Save scores to a common database and allow your friends to compete with one another.
4. Tinder For Cats
Are you stuck thinking of a great new app? There's no point in reinventing the wheel. Come up with a simple swipe behavior analyzer, connect to a database of thousands of cat photos, and allow users to swipe through.
Similarly, you could create an app loading two cute cat videos through an embedded YouTube search. Allow users to watch both videos and make them choose which is the cutest.
Save the rankings on a database and then you can start to rank all of the cute cat videos on the internet. You never know where your project will end up if you start with simple concepts for your web development projects.
5. A Magic 8 Ball
Here you can toy with simple animation and built-in phone accelerometers. Start off with a simple app that toggles through your options randomly. Allow users to shake as long or as vigorously as possible and respond accordingly.
For an added bonus, add a text-based version. Set up a number to receive the word "SHAKE" or any text at all, then respond with a version of magic 8 ball text.
Adapt this model for any group of variables: Which Seinfeld character are you, which Black-ish character are you, which NBA all-star are you, etc.
6. A Site For Your Friend's Band
Not everyone is as good at making websites as you are. You likely have some very talented friends who are in desperate need of a new site that embeds and reskins all of their different creative accounts.
For friends in bands, having a great website can bring in digital download sales and show bookings that will take them to the next level. This may seem out of their reach but by putting together a simple site with contact info and great photos, you could help them build their career.
If you really want to impress them, try creating a multipage WordPress website that allows them to post pictures and add tour dates.
Additionally, if you have friends who are great photographers and painters, you could make a simple JavaScript gallery for them.
7. Clone A Website
If you're stuck on ideas, there's no reason not to consider cloning an existing site. The sites that you go to on a daily basis are your favorites for some good reasons. Figure out what it is that you love about those sites and see if you can get your project to behave the same way.
Find a way to make it your own and you can include it in your portfolio as an example of the sort of work you're capable of doing. If potential employers see that you're capable of designing and implementing a search engine, they'll be impressed.
8. A Cool UI Component
Have you seen something on a site that you couldn't stop looking at or a button that you wanted to click over and over? A simple, elegantly designed contact form or a cool interactive javascript gallery could look great on your portfolio website.
Having some nice components that give a nice user response when you click them shows that you know the value of interactivity and how to attract users. If you've got a fresh idea for a signup flow, this could be a great opportunity to show it off.
Web development projects don't require that you build an entire site. They can be small projects you can build over an extended lunch break.
So Many Potential Web Development Projects
Your imagination is the only limit to the cool projects for trying out your web design skills. If you've got a tool you've been working with for a while, why not challenge yourself by building a simple project with a new tool?
Why not roll up your sleeves and make something amazing? Here are 8 fresh web development project ideas that stretch your creativity and sharpen your skills. Which one do you want to add to your portfolio?
A Virtual Plant Buddy
Whether you’re a proud plant parent or a serial succulent killer, a digital companion that reminds users when to water, mist, or rotate their leafy friends could be a lifesaver. Use browser notifications and local storage to store plant types and schedules. If you want to go the extra mile in your web development project, integrate a weather API that adjusts watering reminders on rainy days. Sprinkle in CSS animations that make plants “wilt” when neglected, and you’ve got a project that’s both helpful and adorable.
Mood-Based Movie Recommender
Sometimes you’re in the mood for something light and quirky, sometimes you want to sob through an emotional gut-punch. Why not build an app that recommends movies based on mood? Let users select from emojis that represent how they're feeling. Query a movie database API and return tailored suggestions. Make it charming with a dramatic rating meter and cheeky commentary. Everyone loves a drama-queen algorithm.
Interactive Story Generator
Remember those “choose your own adventure” books? You can bring that joy back to life on the web. Isn't it a good idea for web development projects for students? Build a branching narrative engine using JavaScript, with prompts and options that change the course of the story. Bonus points for storing the user's past paths and outcomes. Theme it around anything—space pirates, haunted libraries, undersea detective mysteries—and make it replayable with randomized elements.
Digital Vision Board
Let users create their own interactive collage of goals, affirmations, images, and inspirations. Think of it like a Pinterest board with intention. Use drag-and-drop tools and image upload support. Add optional goal timelines and milestone check-ins. If you’re into psychology, let your users choose a “mindset mode” like Growth, Gratitude, or Grit, and change the board’s aesthetic accordingly.
Pet Adoption Tracker
It’s like Tinder, but for finding your next furry soulmate. Let users browse adoptable pets and save their favorites for later. Pull pet data from a public API like Petfinder. Let users create wishlists, share their favorite pets, and learn about breeds. Add filters for size, age, personality, or “good with kids,” and you’ve built something genuinely useful and feel-good.
Digital Time Capsule
Give people a way to write letters to their future selves, sealed and dated for later delivery. Store them in a database, timestamped. Use cron jobs or scheduled functions to “unlock” letters and send them back via email. A sweet personal project—ideal for reflecting on growth, goals, and year-end memories.
Wanderlust Weather Widget
A weather app with wanderlust. Pick a random city each day and display its current weather, local image, and fun fact. Build it with a weather API, a city image API, and a tiny trivia database (or scrape fun facts from Wikipedia). You can even let users create a “dream city list” and explore it one at a time. It’s like traveling—without needing a passport or pants.
Learning Tracker for Online Courses
Everyone starts online courses, but few finish. So, one more web development projects idea for students is to change this trend. Change that by building a sleek dashboard that tracks course progress across platforms. Let users log courses, set completion goals, and earn badges for milestones. Support integrations with platforms like Coursera or edX, if you're up for the challenge. Keep the design motivational without feeling pushy—like a personal coach who’s really into HTML.
By the way, if we speak about the courses.
Courses to Level Up Your Skills
JavaScript 30 by Wes Bos
CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript (Harvard on edX)
Frontend Masters – Complete Intro to Web Development
Covers HTML, CSS, JS, Node.js, and more. A fantastic all-in-one course to build full-stack apps like the real-time chat or e-commerce site.
30 days of vanilla JS projects—no libraries, no frameworks. Great for building small, fun apps like the Magic 8 Ball or UI components.
A more advanced course that dives into Flask, SQL, APIs, and more. Perfect for projects like the mood-based movie recommender or digital time capsule.
Offers deep dives into modern front-end tools and frameworks. Great for polishing your UI/UX and responsive design skills.
Totally free and packed with hands-on challenges. Their Responsive Web Design and JavaScript Algorithms sections are especially helpful for beginners.
Books to Build Your Web Dev Superpower
Learning Web Design by Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Clean Code by Robert C. Martin
JavaScript and JQuery by Jon Duckett
A visually stunning and beginner-friendly book that makes HTML feel like a breeze. Perfect for building stylish projects like the restaurant site or digital vision board.
A deep dive into JavaScript with elegant explanations and exercises. Great for projects like the Magic 8 Ball, HTML5 games, or interactive story generators.
Covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and web graphics. Ideal for beginners who want a comprehensive guide to building beautiful, functional websites.
Once you’re comfortable coding, this book helps you write elegant, maintainable code—especially useful for scaling projects like the pet adoption tracker or course dashboard.
A companion to his HTML/CSS book, this one focuses on interactivity and dynamic content—perfect for UI components and games.
If you want to learn more deeply about the design part of development, find more helpful sources by reading "The Ultimate UX/UI Design Book List for 2025"
Once you get your project up and running, test ways to optimize your site speed and show you're not only the best designer but also the fastest on the web!
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