Best web design courses? Is web design a good job? =]

PasturesNew

WPN wrote: »

Not exactly directly answering your question but I always feel that experience over qualifications, fame (to the extent of being well marketed) over money is important; skills not paper. As a potential customer I do not really care who has a degree or done what courses - in fact, I do remember someone who is a Dr who designed the most basic websites (think 1998 style in 2005) at £200 per page. Was a joke.

The best way is to get yourself established - learn what you need to over time (learn as much to begin with but obviously keep learning as you go along), create a website that wont let you down (if you do web design people expect it not to be rubbish), focus on compiling a portfolio, and get registered on many freelancer websites (you will find it difficult to begin with; getting easier with more completed projects under your belt). You could also try ebay.

I would recommend you designing wordpress themes etc. perhaps a few freebies too... this not only will get your traffic to your website for people to download them but also you can get them to link back for copyright notice at the bottom letting people know who did the great design. Of course you can always add such to your portfolio.

I am quite a fan of flash but it is over rated. I think its important for a mix between HTML and Flash rather than a flash website with a basic html alternative if flash isn't detected/installed.

I agree with all of this. I'd advise anybody to learn to design for a popular system - such as Wordpress. You then have two ways to build your income:
1] Finding actual customers and creating them a great looking website based on Wordpress - with all the plugins available this also means you don't have to also learn all the programming required behind a website and can be independent and just concentrate on the design.
2] You have the option of simply sitting and designing Wordpress themes that you can sell through sites such as templatemonster. What happens there is you sit at home and create a design, you then put it available for sale and it's sold/resold many times and you get paid each time. After you've designed one in, say, red, you can then pump out exact copies in green, blue, yellow, brown ... etc. All of which are also available for sale, but give people options. From these you also offer the service of "or will customise". You get huge traffic/coverage/marketing of your designs without having to try to sell anything yourself.

Designing one offs for people can be a pain as a lot of customers don't understand the different components of web design and you can get sucked into working for free, with an angry customer, simply because they think it's your "fault" something else stopped working. e.g. they forget to pay their hosting/don't understand, all of a sudden it's your fault and you have to sort it out for them - and they don't accept/expect a bill.

So I'd definitely say "design for a well-known platform and become proficient at producing clear business-focussed templates for sale through popular websites". You can build your business on the back of your portfolio and customisations.

ILW

We get at least one call a week from designers offering their services, some from as little as £100.00 for a 5 page site. In the end I think your sales and markting skills will probably be more important than your design skills. Does see to be an oversupply at the moment.

Discodave

DCFC79 wrote: »

as x.x.x. says courses are waste of money, i did start trying to teach myself dreamweaver but somehow i lost interest,

good luck

Although DW is great, there's only so much you can do, unless you REALLY know how to code in HTML

this was done in DW ... https://www.gentlehands.co.uk
and this was done using a pre-designed template

https://www.solarconcept.co.uk/test (still under construction)

If you can edit a template within the code and design view, then you're off to a good start. There are some wonderful portfolio templates here

relic

There are more and more ways to create free, not half bad websites these days, and this means less new businesses are investing in looking to get a designer to create a custom page. You'll find that for most businesses, they'll probably get a really cheap 5 page website from the local printing company. It won't be very good, but for the purpose it does well.

I have a few friends in the field, and my partners mum. Unless you want to do very new, modern and technical websites, there isn't much money floating around.

I'd suggest perhaps buy a book, but you can find all the information and guides you need on the internet and supplement this with perhaps a designer magazine. Build a portfolio of websites, and specialise in one area of design. Do not look at Flash, it's dying a very fast death.

Discodave

relic wrote: »

There are more and more ways to create free, not half bad websites these days, and this means less new businesses are investing in looking to get a designer to create a custom page. You'll find that for most businesses, they'll probably get a really cheap 5 page website from the local printing company. It won't be very good, but for the purpose it does well.

I have a few friends in the field, and my partners mum. Unless you want to do very new, modern and technical websites, there isn't much money floating around.

I'd suggest perhaps buy a book, but you can find all the information and guides you need on the internet and supplement this with perhaps a designer magazine. Build a portfolio of websites, and specialise in one area of design. Do not look at Flash, it's dying a very fast death.

does not really work in regards to SEO in google. Stick to HTML or even HTML5

Strider590

Agree with the Flash thing, experience internet users totally hate it......

Two worst points:
Can't copy text from it
Clicking your browsers back button takes you right back to the loading screen, which isvery annoying if you went through about 50 sequential slow loading animated menu's to get there.

Ever tried finding a product inside a 2000 page digital catalogue where you have to turn each single page with the mouse? Well this was the b4st4rd child of Flash.

I browse more than 3000 sites per month, looking for information as a small part of my job. Ive got to the point where with certain sites i'll drag up the email address and send a massive list of what im looking for instead of spending my whole day looking at stupid a animated flash website/catalogue.

It's one of those things which look very nice, sells to clueless marketing people and drives everyone who has to use it completely nuts.

alisonmeyers

"Unless you want to do very new, modern and technical websites, there isn't much money floating around. "

This.

There's a difference between throwing together something circa 1998 for your local hairdresser vs. working in a modern web design agency. Good freelancers can be the former or the latter or somewhere inbetween.

I think the real problem (based on my brother's experiences, who comes from a programming background and now runs his own web design agency and SEO consultancy which I worked at for 2 years as office admin/HR) is that anyone can call themselves an expert. Going to an accredited university helps with reinforcing trust with potential clients, but nothing can substitute for the raw talent of design, knowledge of computer platforms, usability, and so on.

Basically, from working in previous roles with exposure to the IT teams (plus my DH who is a programmer):

There is a crowded market for people who think themselves as "web designers" who basically are one trick ponies, just throwing together stuff that's worked in the past but not really technically cutting it - they're not in demand, there's too many people who think they know how to do it.

And at the other end of the spectrum, I know for a fact that companies are biting the hands off of people who have proven (with a portfolio) that they know what they're doing, have an eye for design, or are technically gifted in the programming/back end department. Degrees can help to hone those skills, but it's not required.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that web design is just like any other professional role:

If you're good, you're worth your weight in gold and won't want for being headhunted. If you're bad or so-so, expect a lot of competition and fighting for low-value contracts in a crowded market where content systems are making it easier for small/medium companies to get the receptionist to update their website i.e. trivialising the hand holding re: web design that used to happen 10 or 15 years ago.

Earlier this year I was hiring a junior web development position for the company I currently work at (NOT my brother's firm, i might add) along with a graphic designer assistant - so, no experience in a company required, but we basically hired grads who could show they have POTENTIAL - design work based on freelance stuff for friends and relatives - it's what you can do that speaks volumes, not what you say you can do.

i remember interviewing one guy back in the winter of last year for the web dev post (december?) and he looked great on his CV... in charge of his company's intranet, basically worked his way up from being in general admin, had done a local college course in web development (during the evening on top of his job - shows commitment) - great. we took a punt and asked him to come in after a small chat on the phone. But in the interview it was clear that he'd only ever used point and click tools, had no real grasp of web development beyond a basic "content editor" type role, no programming knowledge, and in the 2 years of being in charge of his employer's intranet had made no real contribution towards it e.g. new areas, consultation with users on how they use it, no real effort to get on board with their external web agency to try and integrate and upgrade their intranet into 2010 (no social media exposure, for example). it was a joke. and i felt really sorry for him that we'd misjudged his CV so badly that we'd wasted his time to ask him to be interviewed.

p.s. and frankly, I felt angry on his behalf, that his local college had allowed him to attend a year long web design course without teaching him the skills that people expect in 2010. And let him pay merrily for it (although I think his employer may have subsidised it, can't recall). Their teaching scope seemed to have been written circa 2001 when it was a totally different kettle of fish. But isn't that one of the good (and bad) things about working in IT - the rapid nature of change? It's sort of like sending someone on a short DIY course and then giving them a certificate with a pat on the back and a comment like "great! now you can apply for electrician jobs" - totally unacceptable.

Discodave

I can create sites, from pre-designed templates, purchased, so all legit, in about 4 days, if given the site content.

you purchase the domain and it can be hosted from this side as well. Normally, i would charge £400 + image costs for ANY amount of pages upto 15, but am doing one for a mate for £250 plus image costs of £50 which he paid for up front

Its not that hard to be honest, as long as you know a little about HTML, DW and to a point, MS Word

relic

Discodave wrote: »

I can create sites, from pre-designed templates, purchased, so all legit, in about 4 days, if given the site content.

you purchase the domain and it can be hosted from this side as well. Normally, i would charge £400 + image costs for ANY amount of pages upto 15, but am doing one for a mate for £250 plus image costs of £50 which he paid for up front

Its not that hard to be honest, as long as you know a little about HTML, DW and to a point, MS Word

That isn't web-design though is it, you're taking a template, altering content and hosting.

Ofcourse what you are doing isn't hard, you're not really doing much, to be fair.

alisonmeyers

relic wrote: »

That isn't web-design though is it, you're taking a template, altering content and hosting.

Ofcourse what you are doing isn't hard, you're not really doing much, to be fair.

That's exactly the sort of distinction I was trying to make in my post above his.

Discodave shouldn't be calling himself a "web designer" with the service type he's listed. He's just akin to some undergrad who wants a few hundred quid on the side and makes it by tweaking templates and/or creating his own to bolt onto the content management system.

I would also question how many customers of his are satisfied a year down the line - does he provide training on how to update the site? Ideas on best practice for the handover? What about getting people TO the site - does he just build them and let the owners worry about who's getting to see the site and its promotion?

I liken this to the bloke next door who'll offer to pull a dodgey tooth out for a fiver vs. going to my local dental practice. Some people may be happy with the neighbour, but if you care about your long term dental health (professional image on the web) it isn't enough for most organisations/companies. It might, however, be perfectly fine, say, for your local plumbing company that just needs to get themselves on the web and whose info doesn't change very often. There is definitely a niche for that out there.

But you get what you pay for, and there are plenty of "I'll do it for a fiver" guys out there at that end of the market, which is why it's so crowded at the lower end of the market. But it doesn't make them dentists :rotfl:

Can you tell I'm off to the dentist this afternoon?