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

JuniorDesigner

I think I have the same issue as the OP. I love graphic design but the one thing I have struggled to get my head around is Web Design. I have watched a fair few tutorials on Youtube for Dreamweaver and taught myself about Divtags and layouts etc and also CSS but i couldn't tell you the first thing about HTML coding.

My own personal webpage is constructed using a free webpage builder then I just went in and changed the CSS to show my own theme. The template was what I wanted but because I knew a little about CSS it was fairly easy to change the bits I wanted changing.

This has so far generated some business for me in terms of Logo's and other graphics projects so it's had the desired effect, for me personally.

I do agree that for a job like this it has to be more about the passion for the industry and not just the £££. I love graphic design, I love creating artwork that people get pleasure from, I love create the focul point for a clients business i.e their logo, business card etc.

You have to love what your doing to be passionate about learning for it.

GarretNew

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

Courses are not waste of money. You have lost interest because you didn't have any plan of learning and didn't know which result you would like to get at the end of your self-teaching.

Miss_Scrooge_2

andythecal wrote: »

The cost of a website is directly proportional to its worth to a customer.

Exactly right.

Web design is a specialist job, and no, contrary to popular belief, knocking up a website based on a template in 10 minutes in Dreamweaver is *not* web design. As I stated before, it takes years and years of practice and study to get good at it. I'm not about to undermine my skills for a measly £50. Some web designers charge that by the hour!

Miss_Scrooge_2

GarretNew wrote: »

Courses are not waste of money. You have lost interest because you didn't have any plan of learning and didn't know which result you would like to get at the end of your self-teaching.

It's no surprise he lost interest and you're correct.

It's a bad idea jumping straight into Dreamweaver if web design is something you want to take seriously and especially something you want to earn a living from.

Discodave

but surely there's nothing wrong sitting at home, designing a website (based on a pre-template) for a client/customer, if he/she knows what they are getting from the "off"?

some people may prefer to pay i dunno, £300-£500 for a professional looking site then £5000 for a professional designed one.

No "qualified" web designer/developer on this earth will charge £500 for a site when in fact, a figure cicra £5000 is what they should be charging.

Another minefield, is SEO/Metatags. Most clients imo, think (wrongly) that included in the £500 agreed fee for their website, will include SEO/ Meta data etc, when infact this part of the site alone could cost the client £500 a month alone.

[Deleted User]

Discodave wrote: »

Another minefield, is SEO/Metatags. Most clients imo, think (wrongly) that included in the £500 agreed fee for their website, will include SEO/ Meta data etc, when infact this part of the site alone could cost the client £500 a month alone.

And that is why I use to produce a 'scope' document, that I had the customer sign before I started doing work (or at least, after I showed them some proofs). You put down on paper exactly what is, and what is not, within the scope of the website project. You can effectively write a 'template' scope doc that you reuse. You just detail the number of pages, state who is responsible for the provision of content, put down how many 'post-go' revisions you'll allow, how much support you'll provide in the future ect.. you can put down that you'll put in meta-tags ect, and submit the site to google ect... but you put down 'continious SEO optimisation' as out of scope

You then need customers to submit 'Change requests' if they want updates outside the original scope. You can also clearly state before hand how much these will cost, and how many you might allow as 'freebies'.

Ah, I've learnt so much from my years doing evil IT consultancy.

JONL_2

In 2001 i used to work for one a small independent web design company in London called Provecta Online in Fulham (they have sadly since gone into liquadation) i worked in credit control and was Internet admin.

I learned a great deal there but never actually ended up getting into Web Design like i planned but i recall one of the designers saying he had spent a lot of money previously doing a specialised course covering all aspects of web design so im sure there are some courses out there allbeit very expensive which specialise in professional web design (across the whole spectrum)

Having said all of that this is now 10 years ago and technology has evolved but they used Dreamweaver,etc back then still.:beer:

quynhminh2014

Which are the best online web development courses?

DKLS

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Compared to many other fields in IT, web design is poorly paid IMO

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/web%20design.do

You've got to have a LOT of skills to get into the higher earning brackets (coding/design/databases/user interface design)

Bang on Ringo, e.g. http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=53803026&Keywords=elearning&Sort=4

Most web roles are pizz poor pay unless you have the appropriate "skillz"

[Deleted User]

Wow, a nearly year old thread resurrected!

Ironically, my old 'web skillz' have now recently been called back into play as I have to design a couple of 'web applications' for a project I'm on. Not the 'HTML' stuff - but more the application design, workflow, usability, requirement development

I'm one of these now : http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/integration%20consultant.do