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

cyberstar

I want to learn web design too but I'm not good at maths so dont want to learn about programming. Does html & CSS have any programming involved. Or what about javascript, php..? Woud I need that for web design

Gazing_On_Sunsets

cyberstar wrote: »

I want to learn web design too but I'm not good at maths so dont want to learn about programming. Does html & CSS have any programming involved. Or what about javascript, php..? Woud I need that for web design

It's not scary maths, just logical sort of stuff. You need to be methodical. Javascript needs a step-by-step mind but not wildly huge maths skills. HTML5 (which I am only just getting my head around so hopefully someone more knowledgeable can correct me) does have a kind of fusion of javascript in it, so yes you're going to need to know it. I *suppose* you could *just* learn design but really, having a basic idea of what's going on behind the scenes will make you more employable - and easier to work with.

theblades71

If all you want to do is start a small business making websites then dreamweaver is the way, its quick and easy and it has code view, split view, and design view so while you work you can see and learn the code at the same time. Theres nothing wrong with doing it with dreamweaver and just charging £50 for a small basic site, people would rather pay this than £400 plus from a big rip off company.

out_of_cash

couldnt help but notice reading through an earlier post someone mentions using templates as a not so good thing,i know html,and css i can hand code web sites from a note pad,i am not a pro designer but have studied in my own time over the past 4 yrs and have found it quite difficult.

Using web templates could save a designer many hrs of coding etc,so why make hard work for your self?

would like to hear from a designer any thoughts on this s i could be wrong in my way of thinking.

[Deleted User]

out_of_cash wrote: »

Using web templates could save a designer many hrs of coding etc,so why make hard work for your self?

would like to hear from a designer any thoughts on this s i could be wrong in my way of thinking.

Because 'templates look like templates' - personally, i'm more a fan of making a few basic CSS templates yourself, then designing around them. That does save you a lot of the hearbreak of positioning DIVs each time you want to make a certain style page.

out_of_cash

yes i know what you mean,templates so many of them out 1000s seem to all have the same basic structure very mechanical,i have had my fun and games with postioning.lol.

john539

Strider590 wrote: »

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.

So sometimes it's easier to use a printed catalogue. :rotfl:

Miss_Scrooge_2

Best advice I've been given - do not get into web design solely for the cash. It has to be something you are passionate about. It's very difficult to jump straight into a job as an employee at a company. Most web designers are freelance/self-employed and for that you also need business and marketing knowledge. I'm a self-employed web designer and I thank my lucky stars my partner is a business and marketing graduate and can help me with that side of my work otherwise I don't think I could cope.

As for what to study, do not jump straight into Dreamweaver. It's a good program to use but you want to learn how to hand-code before considering using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) software. Understand the fundamentals of design - not necessarily web design but design as a system of communication. Read a book called The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird. Learn (X)HTML, CSS and Javascript. Learn typography, graphic design and Adobe's Creative Suite. With this knowledge you could create some pretty nifty websites, but there's always server side scripting and database management if you want to dive in further.

Oh and Lynda.com is great for online lessons. Seriously consider 'em.

Miss_Scrooge_2

theblades71 wrote: »

If all you want to do is start a small business making websites then dreamweaver is the way, its quick and easy and it has code view, split view, and design view so while you work you can see and learn the code at the same time. Theres nothing wrong with doing it with dreamweaver and just charging £50 for a small basic site, people would rather pay this than £400 plus from a big rip off company.

Paying £400 for a website is a rip off? Are you kidding me?

I don't think you understand the time and effort that is required to design a beautiful, functional website, not to mentioned the years of learning and perfecting the skills, and people like you are the reason fabulous web designers are charging a pittance for their services.

Believe me. £400 is cheap but you could certainly tell the difference between a business that bought a site for £50 and another for £400.

andythecal

A friend of mine sends his customers to Woothemes.com, asks them to choose one, installs Wordpress, the theme and a bunch of plugins, re-does a few of the logos etc and makes it fit to his client and then hands over a bill for around £1500.00.

He'll then sort out some SEO for them at around £400 per month.

So for a year, their total costs would be approx £6300

Rip off? No.

The cost of a website is directly proportional to its worth to a customer. If a customer sells car stereos and he finds there are 6,000 searches for 'car stereo' every month then he can assume that being ranked number 1-3 will yield 60% clicks = 3600 per month. If he converts 3% and makes 50 quid per sale then he stands to earn 5400 per month.

That's not bad.

At the low end where people say "400 quid a site" and give price lists is where web design (or 'development' or whatever semantic argument you're going to give) is a commodity. It's at this same end where people say "SEO isn't worth it" and waffle on about it not working etc.etc.

Becoming a web designer for the cash is the wrong thing to do. It might get you some extra pocket money but it'll never replace your day job unless you expand, charge more and go for bigger clients.

If you only want to charge a few hundred quid a job then just use Wordpress - it's absolutely ample, there's simply no sense in going through the pain of learning how to do HTML, CSS etc.

Sell some of those and if it works out, then learn the tough stuff and expand your portfolio.

Just my 2p. Maybe 10p there actuall.