Welcome Roelof!
I began by downloading the starter template, for example from
https://github.com/lift/lift_30_sbt , got it running and then started reading some of the docs, like from
https://simply.liftweb.net/ and then just played around, to see what happens when you tinker with different parts. I don't know if it is the BEST way, but
that's how I operate. :) Start from the html pages and templates to see the changes and how the build system operates etc.
-Henrik