Web design

[Rotary Madness]

I was looking at getting into the IT web design area, as im 20 and i kinda need to move down a career path. Now ive been looking at alot of these jobs, and theyre asking for "knowledge of html, css etc.

Now the question I have is, if i was to learn these myself, instead of doing some college course will employers still take these seriously? I ask this as so far ive taught myself HTML, and am currently working through CSS and javascript. Id much prefer to teach myself at home, for 1 its faster, all these college courses are like 14 weeks, and cost upwards of 300 quid. Ill also be looking at C--, C# etc and just keep on learning.

Cheers guys

[Silent1]

Web design is a waste of time, everyone + dog claims they can do it, what makes you think you could stand out?

[evenflow]

If you're concerned about cost, maybe look towards some of the open source solutions such as Apache server, MySQL databases and PHP coding. There are literally millions of resources out there to help - I'd suggest you start here:

http://w3schools.com

Good luck with it. I still believe that there is some mileage in being a web des/dev - go for it!

ETA: If you do go the open source way, you'll be needing this:
http://www.wampserver.com/en/

PS - feel free to PM me.

Edited by evenflow on Thursday 15th January 13:16

[silver.fox.2008]

You have to start somewhere so learning web design doesn't sound too bad. My advice, don't stick to web design as as above every man and his dog is doing it. Try and develop your skills into a more specialist area. Demand for coders is higher that web designers.

[MikeyT]

It's okay knowing all the code, but unless you've got an eye for design, then forget it.

You get some sites that are brilliantly coded but look st And some nice attractive looking site that break down ...

If you're not well versed in typography, then learn that as well as the code ...

[M3CHA-MONK3Y]

My mates doing Web Design at uni, sad fact is he's only doing it because he saw it as an easy course that he could do while getting the uni experience. Saying that, I spoke to him last week and he's really into it now and things its a great career choice.

[illmonkey]

There are plenty of places to teach yourself for free, so hold back on the courses. There are alot of people with knowledge, but its not to say there cant be more. The key is learning the right things.

If you go for interviews for a web design job, you'd probably be asked to do a demo, or demo some of your work. Then you can get on board and get experience.

There is no harm in teaching yourself, I done that and have a good knowledge and now run a few sites from it.

[otolith]

MikeyT said:

It's okay knowing all the code, but unless you've got an eye for design, then forget it.

That kind of depends. I'd rather have a team of competent developers who are good on usability, performance and reliability and contract a graphic designer to come up with look and feel.

[Rotary Madness]

Ok thanks guys. My main worry was that if i had taught myself then employers wouldnt take me as seriously as someone who had done multiple courses. You say that theres loads of "web designers" and that coders are more in demand, but can i ask what should a coder know that a web designer not know?

Thanks again guys

[Geronimo]

The biggest problem with any IT jobs (and probably others too I imagine) is that even the most junior positions normally ask for some sort of industry experience. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation, how are you supposed to get any experience in the first place if even the starter jobs require it.

[shouldbworking]

Please dont get into IT. If you dont care about using the correct spelling or grammar in the english language (which you evidently dont), you really wont get on with coding or creating web pages.

[catmartin]

What is the industry standard web design qualification anyway?

[Rotary Madness]

shouldbworking said:

Please dont get into IT. If you dont care about using the correct spelling or grammar in the english language (which you evidently dont), you really wont get on with coding or creating web pages.

Hmmm shouldnt you be working instead of being a tt?

thought so, now fk off

[W333]

Don't rise to the bait when he can't even correctly punctuate 'don't'.

[ChristianZS]

Rotary Madness said:

Ok thanks guys. My main worry was that if i had taught myself then employers wouldnt take me as seriously as someone who had done multiple courses. You say that theres loads of "web designers" and that coders are more in demand, but can i ask what should a coder know that a web designer not know?

Thanks again guys

My stepdad can do both of these including run the webservers to deal with it. He spent 7/8Yrs building up his business which in the end he gave to his brother.

You could just become a coder and do the backend database but then you need a frontend so you could put it in your "Portfolio".

In short you need a working Portfolio.

I helped my younger brother get a job as a Junior WebDev at the company I work for. He has come on in absolute leaps and bounds and with the varied jobs he is exposed to meaning he has a wide knowledge. He could probably walk tomorrow if he felt like it and get a decent enough job doing only Google Adwords!

[nonplussed]

Rotary Madness said:

shouldbworking said:

Please dont get into IT. If you dont care about using the correct spelling or grammar in the english language (which you evidently dont), you really wont get on with coding or creating web pages.

Hmmm shouldnt you be working instead of being a tt?

thought so, now fk off

Yep, that's attitude that'll really get you far, both on here and in real life. Carry on.

[shouldbworking]

Ok ok i'll try and be helpful.

Self-taught people are heavily polarised into the 'complete fkwits' category, and 'complete genius' category. If you intend to pursue this route if you want to make yourself look credible to an employer you will need to really know your stuff - without a qualifaction they will want to test you and you wont be able to blag it.

The difference between a web designer and a coder is fairly massive. its comparing an artist to an engineer (yes I know some people view code as art but hey).

[ultegra]

You could do worse than to ring Simon Heron at 3Men. I used him in the past for web design and other printed material. He's a busy bloke but if you had one or two questions and only wanted one or two minutes it would be a start.

http://www.3men.co.uk/surfboard/

Your "in" could be that they have a vacancy for a web designer right now (they do, actually) and whilst you're not yet ready for the role, could you pick his brain? etc..

Say Hi from Chris Enright - formerly at OSRL!!

Edited by ultegra on Thursday 15th January 14:33

[Geronimo]

ChristianZS said:

Rotary Madness said:

Ok thanks guys. My main worry was that if i had taught myself then employers wouldnt take me as seriously as someone who had done multiple courses. You say that theres loads of "web designers" and that coders are more in demand, but can i ask what should a coder know that a web designer not know?

Thanks again guys

My stepdad can do both of these including run the webservers to deal with it. He spent 7/8Yrs building up his business which in the end he gave to his brother.

You could just become a coder and do the backend database but then you need a frontend so you could put it in your "Portfolio".

In short you need a working Portfolio.

I helped my younger brother get a job as a Junior WebDev at the company I work for. He has come on in absolute leaps and bounds and with the varied jobs he is exposed to meaning he has a wide knowledge. He could probably walk tomorrow if he felt like it and get a decent enough job doing only Google Adwords!

Yeah, that's another thing, if you find it hard to get a job without any experience then you can always resort to nepotism.

[MikeyT]

otolith said:

MikeyT said:

It's okay knowing all the code, but unless you've got an eye for design, then forget it.

That kind of depends. I'd rather have a team of competent developers who are good on usability, performance and reliability and contract a graphic designer to come up with look and feel.

Agreed for the large companies and bigger projects who can afford to have different team working on large complex sites.

But this is one bloke trying to learn it all ... difficult. My experience says you either do one well, or the other. I would be hopeless at code but could design a nice looking, logical site.

There's a couple of members on here with sites which are laughable - but they are IT blokes and know the code ... they just have no idea about layout or typography.

Edited by MikeyT on Thursday 15th January 14:41