My Recipe For Learning Web Design

March 03, 2004 | 10 Comments

My article, A Recipe For Learning Web Design, went up over at Digital Web today.

Its main audience are people who want to break into a career in Web design and are curious about how to go about learning the skills and techniques needed to be a successful Web professional. There are also some tips in there that just about anyone can use. One of the more important tips, the practice of life-long learning, is important in any career path — at any level.

If you’re looking for some good, practical advice on how to learn the business of Web design, or if you’re just interested in the topic of learning, please give it a read.

Filed under: Web Design

Comments

1. Big John said:

Nice article Keith. I found myself nodding the noggin pretty much all the time. Heck, I could have written that article myself! Oh well.

I too am a DWM author, altho with just a solo piece. Perhaps some day I’ll churn out another. Hey, it could happen.

Speaking of keeping up, I like the look of your source. Not bad for an “Original Webbie” (OW). Clean, semantic, a pleasure to peruse. Really backs up what you wrote. BTW, I’ve been checking out your earlier articles, and boy am I jealous! Just when I am ready to score, some clown like you goes and moves the goalposts. It’s maddening.

Sorry about using “semantic”. It’s just so.. so cool to use. Gives me a buzz. Word.

Posted on March 3, 2004 11:52 PM | #

2. Ste Grainer said:

Great article. I couldn’t agree more on the issue of formal education; I’m glad I had already begun learning web design before attending college. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have learned enough to be remotely competitive in the field. I also “mixed and matched” to some extent to broaden the range of skills I knew I’d need. At this point, I would say that a good web designer/developer needs to have at least some education in rudimentary programming, graphic design basics, and technical writing and editing. To focus only on one of those, ignoring the others, is to set yourself up for miserable failure unless you are an amazing programmer or designer or writer.

Lifelong learning is definitely essential, though as you point out, it really is essential in every field. The most important professions (doctors, teachers, etc.) generally *require* their practitioners to continue their education or they lose their certification. In some ways, this would be a great thing for web professionals, but it is likely impossible due to the decentralized nature of the Web.

Reading over this again, I really wish I could share this with every single person now involved in web design at my alma mater.

Posted on March 4, 2004 03:10 AM | #

3. 7 the Designer said:

A well written and insightful article! I migrated from print design to web design about 8 years ago. I have observed the best web designers are generally self-taught. This is evidence that persons who love to learn (and know how) will continue to develop their skills without needing a classroom environment to do so. Classes do help, but cannot replace the inner drive to continue learning that is critical to success in this profession.

Posted on March 4, 2004 03:45 AM | #

4. Michele said:

Excellent article, Keith.

I think you made a very good point when you talked about hands-on experience: I just finished a two-month internship with a local webdesign agency and it’s been the most stimluating working experience of my life. I’ve had the chance to meet programmers, graphic artists, flash artist and it really helped me broadening my vision of the web.

Therefore I also totally agree with Ste Grainer when he underlines the importance of “mixing and matching” to learn the basics of programming, graphic design and technical writing to be a successful web developer.

Posted on March 4, 2004 05:03 AM | #

5. Jason Derifaj said:

Oh so very true! It’s all about the self - learning. I think having a formal education before or during learning would certainly help. Getting a well - rounded background via higher education is most assuredly an important aspect to any job, and with web design/development it will give you the tools to fulfill your dreams a lot easier.

Staying on the cutting edge of design / development is essential however, and I wonder just how many active designers out there are still designing like it’s 2000? My guess is more than we want to admit.

Posted on March 4, 2004 05:38 AM | #

6. Elaine said:

great article, Keith! I’ll be forwarding this to the head of the Digital Design program at the college where I work.

Posted on March 4, 2004 08:09 AM | #

7. Jeremy Flint said:

Great article Keith.

I have always been interested in the state of formal web design education. I even have a piece I am writing up for my site about it. Much of the time, web design education is centered around learning particular software, such as flash, dreamweaver, and in the most grotesque case, frontpage.

I would like to see more theory applied to web design education. As a graphic design student in college, I was always taught about certain principles of design theory dealing with layout, colors, typography, etc. I believe that is probably the last great component to a successful web design education that is currently missing. If there is any theory passed along, it is usually from the viewpoint of a graphic designer who happens to know how to use dreamweaver.

Where are the basic principles of usability, accessibility, etc? They seem non-existent in most classrooms. What about standards. These students will be new to the design world, the “future of the industry” if you will, yet we are not teaching them the current standards, but out dated methods using tags that could very well not be around in a few years.

There was a book released in the early 90’s titled The Education Of A Graphic Designer, in which prominent design professionals wrote essays on the state of the education of graphic designers, and how it had changed in such a short time, especially with the introduction of the personal computer and quark. It also layed out a roadmap of sorts for educators to use in teaching new designers.

Maybe web design needs a book like this.

The Education Of A Web Designer

Has a nice ring to it.

Posted on March 4, 2004 08:20 AM | #

8. Gabe said:

Great article Keith. This is something I tried to explain to my family years ago when I got my first web design job, but they still can’t get past the idea that a person can be qualified without being formally educated (although I am working on a Computer Science degree, not that it has much to do with Web Design). Anyway, I wrote up some of own thoughts in my new blog.

Posted on March 4, 2004 08:48 AM | #

9. Ben de Groot said:

A very nice article, just at the moment when I am moving into professional web design myself. I too am self-taught, so I recognize a lot in what you say. Keeping in touch with the community, reading the blogs, etc, is an important tool indeed.

Posted on March 4, 2004 01:36 PM | #

10. Jennifer Grucza said:

Nice article! Education is important for teaching the important concepts, but details like programming languages, markup languages, software packages, and such you can learn on your own (though it is nice when your education introduces you to these as well, of course).

I have absorbed the concepts of good programming practice from my education, but I’ve had to pick up concepts of usability along the way through my own reading (I find it quite stupid that my school almost totally ignored human-computer interaction). And unfortunately, for graphic design concepts, I only have instinct to go on. My dad may be an artist, and I may be a musician, but that doesn’t help me much with graphic design! :)

Posted on March 4, 2004 03:48 PM | #