Web Design Qualifications

[three2thousands]

Hi guys,

I am 36 and currently have an office based sales role which I don't enjoy.

I'm looking at a career change, but something I can study for whilst working, as can't afford not to.

I have looked at Web Design which is something I think I would like.

If so, would I get sufficient qualifications via Computeach?

What are the "industry standard" qualifications required

Many thanks

 

[spoffle]

A portfolio is what most people will be getting work with, along with a list of software they can use and languages that they can code in.

Actual paper qualifications are quite meaningless for the most part, as they don't demonstrate your actual creative ability.

 

[three2thousands]

Ok thank you - I am a complete novice so I am literally learning at ground zero as such.

I can use a PC for standard office work but nothing more, so will be a huge challenge.

Is there scope to do some "freelance" web design in my own time outside of work for low fees to build a portfolio, or are established companies so cheap now anyway?

 

[Maccy]

Google and YouTube. Start teaching yourself and experiment. Don't bother with any courses as studios and creative agencies don't care.

Edit - you'll get some better answers in here

 

[spoffle]

Teach yourself as Maccy said, there are plenty of free resources available to learn.

 

[three2thousands]

Thanks guys - I am worried that credibility would be affected if not taught through authorised centres or bodies
etc

 

[planty]

Do you have any creative/visual/artistic talent? If you want to be a web designer you need to have some design skills.

Credibility will come from a portfolio, as potential clients will see what you're capable of through your previous designs. If you're just starting out it's always worth offering your services to friends, local charities or volunteer groups. That way you get something for your portfolio and some experience of designing a website for a client, and they get a new website.

 

[Ekim]

Thanks guys - I am worried that credibility would be affected if not taught through authorised centres or bodies
etc

Short or Universities or Design schools there aren't any 'authorised centres' or bodies for web design. The key thing you need to discover is if you are a good designer or not, that is what anyone who is hiring you will care about. They'll want to see any existing body of work you have done and judge your skills based on that.

Also to be clear as sometimes the 'web design' is used in two different ways do you want to:

1) Design how websites look visually, i.e. using photoshop to produce a web site design which can be implemented by a developer
2) Build websites, be involved in the coding of a website. Whether that is front end code or back end.

The two jobs are very different and require different skillsets, some people can do both but people like that are few and far between. Most people are able to do one or the other, the second is the easiest to pick up as the first you need some talent which I don't think can be taught.

 

[spoffle]

Thanks guys - I am worried that credibility would be affected if not taught through authorised centres or bodies
etc

There is no credibility in qualifications when it comes to this sort of stuff, qualifications simply say you did well enough to satisfy the course requirements, not that you're actually good at design.

The only use qualifications actually have is personal, in that you've completed the course that has certain requirements for knowing your way around software, and you do not need formal education to actually learn how to use software.

 

[GravyMonster]

Thanks guys - I am worried that credibility would be affected if not taught through authorised centres or bodies
etc

Qualifications mean very little in this field. The number of CS degree students I've met who don't know their arse from their elbow is frankly shocking.

Personally speaking, I am completely self taught and have no professional qualifications, yet with a decent body of work behind me it's not hard to find a decent job. Potential employers will want to see what you've done in the past, and most likely set you a couple of hour coding test in an interview or to be completed at home over a weekend.

Also, you state you want to do web design, make sure you nail down exaclty what you mean here. Web design means creating the UI of the website in Photoshop, and potentially slicing it up into HTML/CSS. It takes knowledge of design priciples such as colour theory etc. Alternatively there is Web development which is your server side languages such as ASP.Net MVC, PHP and databases MSSQL etc.

There is some crossover with both, but you should aim to specialise in one.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

If you had a portfolio of live websites I would say in this current climate you would be more than employable or even you could start something on your own as long as the jobs were there for you.

 

[three2thousands]

I've found a really good online tutorial on YT which is 24 parts long, so very detailed, using Dreamweaver, to create a very basic site.

As I said, I'm very much a novice, so not really understand CS5, CS6 etc yet!

Can anyone recommend the best software to look into using - presumably I want to at least get a trial version of Dreamweaver, but I note there is a full suite from Adobe to.

Any advice would be much appreciated - again, I reiterate, I am a complete novice, so please ignore my basic questions.

Much obliged.

 

[GravyMonster]

You don't really need any software if you're doing HTML/CSS, other than a graphics program and a text editor. Make sure any tutorials you follow for DreamWeaver are teaching you how to code, not how to drag/drop controls on the screen.

 

[macmodder]

If you're looking at the design end of web design I would avoid any WYSIWYG software, and I would say also avoid Dreamweaver if you can. Learning to write code will give you much greater control of your output, and isn't really that hard.

You'll need to have some software to produce mockups in (I prefer Illustrator and can't for the life of me understand why people use Photoshop for mocking up, but each to their own), but apart from that you really only need a text editor.

Remember, design is not about making things look pretty, or making things easier to use, or even producing 'stuff', although it often involves those things. It's about problem solving. A client may ask you do make them a website, but underlying that request is a problem which needs solving, and that may or may not be solved by producing the thing the client is asking for. Or in other words 'The client will know when something they have a problem, but they'll probably be wrong about what it is'.

 

[PaulB]

As already mentioned, forget about qualifications.

Also, forget about Dreamweaver - yes, it's used in lots of places, but it's expensive after the trial and you don't need it.

I would recommend...

1. Get yourself over and registered on Codecademy (totally free)

http://www.codecademy.com/learn

2. Start off with the Web Fundamentals course to get the basic knowledge of HTML (the content) and CSS (the styling)
3. Then run through the JavaScript course
4. Followed by the jQuery course

The above will give you a decent grounding in the building blocks for web design, but you'll then need to start looking at some more advanced topics - PHP, SQL etc, but don't worry about those for now.

When you have completed the above, look to grab a decent (free) text editor such as....

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

...and look to set up a local web server (again free) on your computer of choice - such as....

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

That will give you a local setup on your PC for practicing at your hearts content - all at zero expense.

Hope that helps a bit and good luck!

 

[antijoke]

I was in a similar situation a few years ago and with zero qualifications and only a basic understanding of HTML/CSS I decided to go and get a City & Guilds qualification in Web design (levels 2 (basic HTML/CSS) & level 3 (server side languages PHP/MySQL)) after completing those courses I then applied for a couple of jobs.

Whilst on the course I worked through code academy modules on HTML/CSS.

The course itself was nothing to write home about, it taught me a few things I didn't know but my aim from it was to end up with something I could say to potential employers I have done and shown commitment to wanting to get into this field.

After hearing nothing from 1 I got an interview with the other and had to complete a task of creating a site with a members area, creating the login form and the member creation form, I had a very small portfolio of sites created on the college course which I was able to show and also showed a personal site project I was working on.

I got the job and 6 months on I'm loving it. I've also learned a lot more about PHP, and I have used code academy lessons to reinforce and learn more on PHP.

I also bought a few books on the subject:

HTML & CSS is a great starting place.
PHP/MySQL missing manual book on PHP
javascript & jquery book about JS & Jquery

Good luck.

 

[jubei]

If you dont mind paying a small fee then teamtreehouse is meant to be very good for learning php site coding.

I personally did a few courses including css/javascript on codeschool and these were very good too.

 

[zyfar]

I graduated University in a field completely unrelated to web design/development. I said to myself a few years back I wanted to work in the industry so I went out read some stuff online, got myself a few books and went from there.

Today I am lead front end developer for a small agency. It's great and the industry is fantastic in the right environment, I couldn't recommend it anymore.

Set yourself goals and go for them - remember anything is possible if you put the effort in, all the best

 

[shaggyd]

I am currently doing TT284 Web Applications Development with open University. Block 1 is good for teaching principles of accessibility and usability, but the course content is very poorly written and causing a few upsets with our Marked Assignments. To be honest, if you are strict in your focus and dedicated, it can be easier to study from various websites. That's what I am doing after getting confused with this course's teaching. Certainly not up to OU's high standards in teaching I'm afraid...