Tips For The Budding Web Guru
May 25th, 2006
Last week I ran across an interesting article on the quality of today’s textbooks. High points (or low points depending on how you look at it) included students opting out of advanced science and math, light coverage of history and how far American students are falling behind the rest of the world in terms of science, math. All this got me thinking about the things I think today’s web education is lacking. This is a topic that has been tumbling around in my head for a while. The web is a different place than it was in 1997 and the skills needed to build web sites and applications are vastly different than they were just 10 short years ago. For the most part I think students graduating from universities and art/multimedia vocational schools are not being fully prepared for web careers.
Over the last 2 years I have interviewed a lot of very talented, very smart web designers and developers. I have seen dozens of great looking portfolios and one thing has stood out – We (professional and schools) are doing a poor job of teaching students about today’s web workforce and how it is evolving. How do I know? If I interviewed 10 recent grads tomorrow, 1 of 10 would have used XHTML and CSS to layout their pages, 5 or 6 will still be using deprecated tags such as font and center and almost all freeze when I ask for a good explanation of W3C, Section 508, WCAG 1.0 or web standards. Why is this happening? Here are a few observations I have made.
- Textbooks are woefully out of date. I have a friend who is finishing up a web class at a local community college. There was no mention of XHTML, CSS or web standards in the book. Why????
- Print still dominates in a web world. It seems that many times students have come from programs that focus largely on print, with light coverage of web just before graduation. Looks at what Adobe is doing. They have been the dominate force in the print world for the last decade. Their recent actions should give you some indication as to what they want to do. Need anther reason? Google Adobe Apollo.
- Program Focus. Rather than focusing on simple “Hello World� type examples it would probably be better to use the case study model used in many MBA programs. Look at real world examples. Get professionals to help teach courses, plan curriculum and give guidance on the direction of the workforce. This would be invaluable to students planning on following in their footsteps.
If you are a student wanting some pointers on how to prepare yourself, here are my top tips.
Learn Web Standards – Teach Web Standards
Standards are now the norm not the exception, so if you haven’t started learning XHTML and CSS you really need to get on the ball. Neat technologies like AJAX and Ruby on Rails require a good understanding of Web Standards. Most employers want you to have solid knowledge and experience with XHTML/CSS not just a passing fancy (e.g. you read in it a book once.). Tables had their time and place in page design, and it’s not now.
As for the schools out there…we have to start teaching these things while people are in school. Basic Information Architecture, XHTML, CSS, Accessibility (Section 508 and WCAG) are extremely important in today’s workforce.
Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal
This isn’t as bad as it sounds. As a design student you’ve already learned the basics with color theory, space concepts, typography and layout. Now you need to turn to the wealth of resources available to get inspiration and keep up with design trends and styles. This goes for designers and developers. It amazes me how many young developers want to re-invent the wheel and how many designers never look outward for inspiration. The last time I counted there were more than 35 CSS galleries. 35! That’s a lot of example work to take a look at. Practice, Practice, Practice. You only get better by doing - and remember managers love ingenuity and creativity, but aren’t impressed because you do things the hard way.
Textbooks are Good…Lessons from the Trenches are Better
In general I don’t have a problem with textbooks, after all Dietel and Dietel taught me how to program C and C++, but they do serve a purpose. Basic knowledge. When it comes to web education lessons from the trenches will provide a lot more value than a regular textbook. Check out these books to start:
- Eric Meyer on CSS
by Eric Meyer
- More Eric Meyer on CSS
- Designing with Web Standards
- The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web
- Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook
- CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
- Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works
- Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS
An open question to schools. Can we start incorporating these books into the classroom?
Learn By Doing
There isn’t anything that I am good at today that I got good at in a classroom. Being excellent at something requires time -but more importantly it requires dedicated practice outside the classroom. Classroom lectures, homework and textbooks are intended to teach you the basics and introduce you to topics and can’t simply can’t replace the lessons learned by putting in some sweat work.
Get Your Head and Maybe some skin in the game
Do you have a web site or blog? Do you participate in local professional groups and organzations? Have you attended affordable conferences? If not why not? One of the best ways to practice and hone your skills is by having your own web site, and many employers now want to see a web site that you created during the interview process. Why? 1) It can tell them a lot about your creativity, coding skills and dedication to creating great work.
Professional groups can be a great learning resource for the budding web designer or developer. It is also a great way to network and build your personal brand. I recommend that you start interacting with these groups before you graduate. You might find out a lot that will make you a stronger candiate come graduation time. Here are some things I recommend.
This post could have been much longer as there are a lot of little things that tend to bug me like no mention of search marketing in marketing courses, no single starting point for students who have identified web careers as a choice. I thought focusing on Web standards was the easiest starting point becuase every web site starts with the underlying XHTML and CSS. Don’t count on learning everything you need to know in the classroom. Give yourself a foot up and start learning them on your own. Now for an example. If you haven’t read his blog check out Paul Stamatiou. Paul hasn’t limited himself to classroom learning/work and his outstanding work on his blog is leading to great opportunities for him (did I mention he was a native Houstonian?) Take a hint from Paul. Stretch yourself, do something different. Learn something new.
Ron Madriz
May 25th, 2006
Yeah man I agree with you. I had graduated from a tech school only to find out what I learned was seriously out of date. The worst part of it was that I wasn’t taught basic principles and the course focused more on the tool rather than the science/art/concept of development.
I agree that schools should also incorporate basic information architecture. A lot of sites out there seem to go no where or everywhere. Those sites that have been well thought out with key paths and a good call to action show. I have always said if you do something, do it with a purpose. This goes double for a web site.
Ed
May 25th, 2006
Kelsey - the money quote has to be “You only get better by doing - and remember managers love ingenuity and creativity, but aren’t impressed because you do things the hard way.”
I do find that I am not as into strictly studying the standards as you are, I really think a good software package should do that for you. Yes I program but my designers shouldn’t have to know C++ to execute a marketing strategy with CSS design.
As for the folks in school, they need to be accountable to educate themselves. I’d rather hire a sociology major who is self taught in design and programming than the other way around. With the growth of standards in conjunection with social software you really must be well rounded, an expert in many things, to succeed in this fast moving market.
My two cents.
Paul Stamatiou
May 26th, 2006
Great stuff Kelsey. I own several of those books you’ve listed, but I’ve only skimmed through them… most of the time I’m just playing around with CSS to see what it does. I’ve actually never taken a school course related to web dev/design, but I’ve been forced to take Java for the past 2 years. I wish schools started teaching more web languages… PHP, RoR, Perl, etc. I will be taking the closest thing to a web dev. class next year and it turns out that class is only ActionScript programming for Flash, =/. I’ve picked up a lot of what I know right after starting my blog less than a year ago. Hanging out with all the web people in 9rules also helped out a bunch.
Dennis Bullock
June 10th, 2006
I dont know much on web design but I have a desire to learn and I think that is a big piece of the puzzle. I, like Paul, have learned most of what I know from others (like Paul) and from just playing and seeing what happens. I think that adds more spice to design.
The Moleskin
October 5th, 2006
[…] It’s no secret that I think the quality of training for college students planning a career in web design or development needs to improve. I also think that some of the energy that we expend teaching professionals about standards needs to be dedicated to teaching the next generation of web professionals who are still in school. […]
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