Want to learn webdesign - whats the best road to do so?

LighterGuy

I've learned abit myself for the last few years and realised its something i would like to do.
What is the best way to learn?

Ive seen FAS offering courses with seem to be very good. I tried to look for college courses but only found the expenisve Dorset College.

Can anyone help me out and give me the best road to learning the in's and outs.

p

This is the only course in the entire country worth doing:
http://www.madartstudio.com/?p=125

LighterGuy

It looks good.
Is 560 really worth it for 21hours of learning? (over 7 weeks?)
Or is it a case of you pay for quality?

mk7775

from personal experience stay away from the fas dreamweaver courses for a start, waste of time, you could teach yourself more in a couple of days at home on w3c, than the 4 months in fas.

Comedian

Lo,
well I`m on the same course as MK at the moment and I have to say its what you make of it.
Sitting around all day doing nothing is definitely an option but if you push yourself you will get a basic understanding of a number of areas of website design (although no serious expertise in any one area).
I have found it benificial but then I will admit I didn't have any prior experience and it could have bin acheived in a month or less rather then the four months we have spent on it.

Scotty #

p wrote: »

This is the only course in the entire country worth doing:
http://www.madartstudio.com/?p=125

I find this very hard to believe. Particularly after browsing their site :rolleyes:

Scotty #

I've heard good things about these guys...

http://www.ibat.ie/index.php/courses/computing-and-it/fetac-diploma-in-web-design-l5.html

...but have no experience of them myself.

nellyshark

Maybe try some tuts on lynda.com which comes recommended by a lot of people

John368

I recently bought "Building a Web Site for Dummies" and I found it very good. Learning by just reading the appropriate books can be done. I learned enough about Microsoft Excel to practically run my business on it by just reading books on it. I recommend just the well established books like the "For Dummies" series or even Microsoft books. I learned my Excel from the official Microsoft book on it -it is big (over a 1000 page") and it cost quite a bit of money (£40 if I remember) but it was very good and dependable (ie. well proof read for errors and a very detailed index) and much cheaper than any course.

I can see that actually going to a course is a good way of networking with others and you can get some feedback on how well you are doing, but as others pointed out they can be expensive.

John

cormee

Try these guys http://www.omurchu.ie/ .....

p

Scotty # wrote: »

I find this very hard to believe. Particularly after browsing their site :rolleyes:

The IADT ones are a pile of poo. That course might not be the perfect course, but it's the only web design course in Ireland i've ever head anyone say good things about. Also they guy teaching actually keeps up with technology and isn't teaching 4 year old practices like most other courses.

LighterGuy

So http://www.madartstudio.com/?p=125 is a good course?

Am i right to believe, especially from hearing the comments you guys from. A person can pretty much learn alot of web design themselves?

LighterGuy

LighterGuy wrote: »

So http://www.madartstudio.com/?p=125 is a good course?

Am i right to believe, especially from hearing the comments you guys from. A person can pretty much learn alot of web design themselves?

Most folks posting here are self taught, for the simple reason that colleges weren't teaching decent web design until recently. The technology evolves so quickly that it is hard for a learning institute to keep the syllabus up to date. That is why some (at the end of the scale) are still utilising frames and tables for layout.

Furthermore there are so many technologies. E.g. for complex user interaction, you could use javascript, or flash, or silverlight, or something else. If you choose javascript, you'll do more with a framework. But which framework? jQuery, dojo, mootools, extjs? If you pick jQuery, are you up to date with the latest version's features? At some point you have to pick a subset of technologies to achieve what you need to do. That subset will be different for everybody.

I reckon a good up to date course will give you a decent foundation on which to build. When considering candidates, see if the syllabus mentions HTML5 and CSS3 - that might be a reasonable indicator as to whether the course is current.

nellyshark

LighterGuy wrote: »

So http://www.madartstudio.com/?p=125 is a good course?

Am i right to believe, especially from hearing the comments you guys from. A person can pretty much learn alot of web design themselves?

To keep up with technologies most web developers and designers have to be self thought. The one thing will not ever be able to 'learn' however is a passion for your chosen field. Take for example JoeSoap who downloads Photoshop and begins to tell everyone that he is now a Graphic Designer. Just because someone has the tools doesn't make them a Graphic Designer. The same applies to carpentry for example I have a saw but I am not a carpenter. Developers and Designers have spent years already and years to come learning about their evolving trade. Just recently html 5 was introduced so people will need to upskill. What the world of tutorials etc wont give you is a flair for design/development, it will teach you best practises etc. You can be self thought in methodologies, frameworks, best practises but you have to have a flair for it

anbrutog

cormee wrote: »

Try these guys http://www.omurchu.ie/ .....

That has to be a joke......

...hasnt it??
If not , them guys should be prosecuted.

Jellybaby1

LighterGuy wrote: »

I've learned abit myself for the last few years and realised its something i would like to do.
What is the best way to learn?

Ive seen FAS offering courses with seem to be very good. I tried to look for college courses but only found the expenisve Dorset College.

Can anyone help me out and give me the best road to learning the in's and outs.

Some of the Further Education colleges run them but can be so basic the students know more than the tutors although they are cheaper than the private courses. Suggest you check out http://www.nightcourses.com/ and see if you can get something there.

dlofnep

If you have the drive, you can learn everything pretty much yourself.

Make sure your HTML is up to scratch.. Work on CSS and Javascript. Work on photoshop. Start looking at website designs online that you like, and try see if you can mimic them. This will help your creative side.

Pixelcraft

dlofnep wrote: »

Start looking at website designs online that you like, and try see if you can mimic them. This will help your creative side.

No, this will help you learn techniques in photoshop. Try and see if you can work out why you like them, that will help your creative side.

sheesh

Wait a minute

Do you want to be a designer or developer?


A developer usually keeps to technologies like a scripting/programming language like C# asp php python would create databases or more likely use databases created to store content of cms you would be installing applications on servers and creating apps that run with these applications. they would also do some html coding

A designer, simply put, designs they create designs using methods that are studied from other designers they might also do some css and html.
they would also probably need to be able to do print design

the chief difference (i think) is that while you could teach yourself to be a developer you would need to go somewhere to get design the stuff about design that I have done leads me to believe that it has very little to do with using photoshop and illustrator and more about the generation of graphical ideas

there are people that do both but developers normally do not make good designer anfd vice versa.

dlofnep

Pixelcraft wrote: »

No, this will help you learn techniques in photoshop. Try and see if you can work out why you like them, that will help your creative side.

You're only as creative as you can be, within the realm of what you can muster up. Looking at various different designs certainly does inspire creativity. Find me one unique design on the internet.

turbot

anbrutog wrote: »

That has to be a joke......

...hasnt it??
If not , them guys should be prosecuted.

I'm thinking the same - it must be a joke.

cormee

anbrutog wrote: »

That has to be a joke......

...hasnt it??
If not , them guys should be prosecuted.

I hope for the creator's sake it is. But I don't think it is, it was an adword advertisement I clicked.

Pixelcraft

dlofnep wrote: »

You're only as creative as you can be, within the realm of what you can muster up. Looking at various different designs certainly does inspire creativity. Find me one unique design on the internet.

You're missing my point. Good design isn't 'magicked' up, it's well thought out, studied, and follows well established principles.

finnfinn

Driving a car does not require expert knowledge of hydrostatics. Just as well since the rules of the road seem to be beyond the average young person today. Professional Web Designers need to know about psychology, not html syntax. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the website owner has a right to decide what he wants. Gurus pontificating about what one can or cannot do should be ignored.

Placebo

I learnt myself. Back when macromedia owned flash days, circa 1998.


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