If he's already familiar with front-end development, I'd recommend something like Meteor rather than Ruby. Because it's JavaScript, it will seem a lot more fami

If he's already familiar with front-end development, I'd recommend something like Meteor rather than Ruby. Because it's JavaScript, it will seem a lot more familiar than Ruby. And it will hide a lot of the complexity of client-server interaction until the point when you feel like diving into it. It's really perfect for fast prototyping and proof-of-concept sites like the poster is looking to build.