I want to become a Web Designer / Developer...

[RoEy]

Hi all,

Unfortunately I'm going to be made redundant due to severe cutbacks (Thanks Mr Cameron). Fortunately though, I have until April to find another job. I am currently working for a School as an ICT Learning Resources Co-ordinator. The main responsibilities of my job are to develop and maintain our website and feeder schools websites and develop our VLE system.

I've been doing the Job for over 4 years now and in that time I've really developed a passion for web design / development. I didn't know anything about web site building prior to getting to job but I interviewed very well and came from an IT lecturing background at a local College.

So I have taught myself about web design as the school couldn’t afford any courses for me. However, the frustrating part is that I have to do other things within my job so I don't get to spend as much time with our website as I'd like to as that is the career path I want to take.

I have signed up to the Lynda.com tutorials web site which gets great reviews. So basically I want to study, a lot, from now until April to get as much knowledge as possible to help me get into the web industry. I really don't mind putting the hours in to learn what I need to, infact I thoroughly enjoy doing it.

I use Dreamweaver, CSS, Flash and Fireworks primarily. But I want to get into PHP and MySQL to start building dynamic websites. What I’d really like to do is produce a plan for the next 6 months on what I need to learn. As I go a long I want to build as many example sites as possible so it helps me retain the information. Even if I don’t manage to find a job I will continue to study none the less until I do.

I’d just like some advice on what I need to learn and preferably what order. I know HTML but not enough to thoroughly code it by hand and the same goes for CSS as I tend to use Dreamweaver and then change small bits of code if needed. Do companys use Dreamweaver or are you expected to fully hand code?

If someone could give me some advice I’d really appreciate it. I built our school website from scratch so I’ll let you guys have a look to see if I do have potential to become a professional web designer / developer.

www.medenschool.co.uk

Thanks,

RoEy

 

[GravyMonster]

First of all you need to decide if you want to be a web developer, who creates the server-side code of a website, meddles with databases etc and occasionally HTML/CSS, or if you want to be a web designer, who creates Photoshop mock ups of sites, keeping in mind accessibility and usability, and then creates them in HTML/CSS/JS.

I'm not saying you can't be both, but to start with I'd concentrate on one field.

 

[RoEy]

Hi Spunkey,

Thanks for the info mate and I have been thinking about this. However, the jobs you see say you require both sets of skills. Very often I'll see needs good knowledge of HTML, XHTML, CSS, FLASH, & PHP MySQL, hence the reason I was thinking about doing both as they are connected together really. You don't tend to see many static websites these days. It's probably better for me to split them up though like you say and I guess that will help me to learn it thoroughly.

RoEy

 

[Ekim]

I think what Spunkey was trying to ask what do you want to be a designer (i.e. someone who sits in Photoshop and creates the designs) or a developer.

By the looks of what you are saying I am guessing that you want to be a web developer.

Where I work we have people working within specific areas Flash, Front End (HTML, Javascript, CSS), Backend PHP/.NET. Not to say that some of this doesn't cross over but I think to a certain extent it is better to specalise - but perhaps that can come later on in your career once you have your foot in the door.

I’d just like some advice on what I need to learn and preferably what order. I know HTML but not enough to thoroughlycode it by hand and the same goes for CSS as I tend to use Dreamweaver and then change small bits of code if needed. Do companys use Dreamweaver or are you expected to fully hand code?

In my opinion I don't care how you build the website but I want to know that you know how to put together a semantically correct website which adheres to various accessibility levels etc. For the most part I wouldn't trust a Web Dev that didn't know how to hand code HTML. Once you know how to handcode you can use what ever tools you like.

For a beginner though Dreamweaver is good tool to get started and understand how the code works, you should try and move toward just coding by hand until you understand how it all works.

 

[RoEy]

Thanks for your help Ekim. I think I'll go down the dev route initially as I feel I have more resources to learn that. I really need to put a plan together that covers the next 6 months and beyond really as I know it takes years to fully master programming but I will get there.

What would you say is the most important things to learn over the next 6 months to help get me develop further, without going into overload, and to increase my chances of getting a web developing post?

HTML, CSS, PHP & MySQL?

Can you recommend some good books please? I want to get all the resources I can from my current job while I'm still here as I am entitled to it.

It's great to have a forum like this where people take the time to advise other people. I really appreciate everyone’s help. Thank you very much.

RoEy

 

[fez]

As mentioned, get yourself a nice code editor such as notepad++ and learn how to hand code your html.

I personally would say the basics you need to start with are html, css, php, mysql and some javascript/jquery.

Mysql is nice and easy to learn enough to do most things with. The hardest part I would say is learning about optimisation, what datatypes to use and database design. The actual sql querying isnt too bad.

Css is quite a large topic to cover but again, a rudimentary knowledge will get you over most issues even if you may not have the most effective method.

Jquery is genius, you will pick up the basics of this double quick as its so intuitive and its a lot of fun to play with.

The best advice I can give is just to talk to some people and find some good 'learning' projects and jump right in once you feel that you have a basic understanding of all the technologies required. You will learn as you go and you will learn what you need to learn. I find it hard to learn without some sort of target or direction but you may be different.

The people on here are really helpful so ask any questions you may have. Most programmers are more than happy to help others so dont be afraid to ask (unless its university projects that you havnt done or even attempted!).

 

[gord]

With your objective being a job, your target should always be to build a high quality portfolio. This is your most useful tool to a prospective employer, but you must also consider your methods and approach. I would put some effort into researching how web design agencies operate and how software is developed in general.

Some employers will only care that you can achieve a high standard, but what can set you apart is that you do it in a logical and efficient way.

So, to get your skills up to speed I would start out with www.tizag.com, and then to get your general programming knowledge up to speed I think Ian Sommervilles books on Software Engineering are quite good.

 

[FabienO]

HTML, CSS, PHP & MySQL are the things I've started learning. In that order. Naturally when you develop you'll be almost forced into learning new things. Javascript/Jquery, AJAX and so on...

I'll always recommend PHP because it's strong and there's so much documentation out there.

1 to 2-weeks HTML/CSS then start PHP work but continue to develop it all.

 

[RoEy]

This is great info guys, much appreciated and I feel more confident already! With regard to HTML, should I just jump to html 5 and learn that or 4.01 first?

fez - I too need a target when learning and I want to build as many sites as possible really. I just can't think what I'll build so I'm hoping I can just do some example sites when learning and take it from there.

RoEy

 

[RoEy]

HTML, CSS, PHP & MySQL are the things I've started learning. In that order. Naturally when you develop you'll be almost forced into learning new things. Javascript/Jquery, AJAX and so on...

I'll always recommend PHP because it's strong and there's so much documentation out there.

1 to 2-weeks HTML/CSS then start PHP work but continue to develop it all.

Cheers fabien. Sounds good and very logical.

gord - the tizag site looks great, thanks for that.

 

[RoEy]

Just looking into notepad++ and was wondering which seems to be the most commonly used open source code editting prog? There seems to be hundreds so will I need to use a few or can I hone into just one?

RoEy

 

[Souleh]

Notepad.. lol

Notepad++ is good for coloured lines etc though nothing beats just throwing code into notepad for a quick edit

 

[RoEy]

Notepad.. lol

Notepad++ is good for coloured lines etc though nothing beats just throwing code into notepad for a quick edit

Just to reiterate, is it better to learn html 4.01 first or just go straight into 5?

RoEy

 

[FabienO]

learn HTML 4 and HTML 5.

There are features in HTML 5 that aren't always supported by older browsers (which are used too frequently). Most HTML 5 tutorials will tell you the compatibility anyway.

w3schools.com
http://net.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/html-css-techniques/

Two awesome places to start. w3schools first net tuts later.

Once you feel a but more confident in the basics of HTML/CSS. Get a free template from http://www.oswd.org/ and change it to look completely different. That will help you learn how all the styling works.

 

[RoEy]

learn HTML 4 and HTML 5.

There are features in HTML 5 that aren't always supported by older browsers (which are used too frequently). Most HTML 5 tutorials will tell you the compatibility anyway.

w3schools.com
http://net.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/html-css-techniques/

Two awesome places to start. w3schools first net tuts later.

Cheers Fab. Great stuff.

RoEy

 

[Tripnologist]

I'd be more inclined to suggest starting off with xhtml strict as it'll teach you good habits with keeping everything well formed. HTML5 is great and all, but not something I'd spend too much time on atm. Good idea to be familiar, but most of the new things aren't practical to use yet.

 

[Randomface74]

Definitive answer:

To be a web designer or developer you need the following:

Learn about web standards:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-S...6952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289475239&sr=8-1

Learn about usability:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-M...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289475275&sr=1-1

Learn about javascript:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DOM-Scripti...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289475332&sr=1-2

To take this further to the BETTER career of being a developer:

SQL
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-SQ...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289475413&sr=1-1

PHP
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-PH...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289475456&sr=1-2


[...] The rest you can learn on the job

nb: Dreamweaver is very bad, you should be doing all this by hand. Get a good text editor like Notepad++
HTML4 was replaced by XHTML a long time ago.
HTML5 is new, and so far the only good thing about it is standardised video.
You'll see what I mean here as you read the web standards book.

 

[Sp00n]

You don't strictly need to learn any code to be a web designer, designers design.

I agree on the web standards and usability part though.

 

[FabienO]

and don't forget to use this...

http://validator.w3.org/

Just checks your code for you. (the HTML part anyway).

 

[gord]

nb: Dreamweaver is very bad, you should be doing all this by hand. Get a good text editor like Notepad++

No, bad Billy! Bad! DW is fine if you use it in code view. If you have access to it I would go for it, it's got plenty of functionality built in that are great for work flow.

You don't strictly need to learn any code to be a web designer, designers design.

True, but I think we assumed correctly he wants to be more of a developer than a designer. Otherwise, get your arty hat on and Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks out!