If you are serious about embarking on a career in the web field, here are 10 steps to getting you there without having to go to school for many years. With any book or any class you take, make sure it includes hands-on exercises!
1) Start with a basic Design Fundamentals class
It is a good idea to take a basic class that teaches you the basics of good design theory and how text and image work together. You can look into any local college that offers vocational courses. Make sure it’s a class that makes you do homework and design work.
2) Get the Adobe Creative Suite
Get your hands on a copy of the Adobe Creative Suite. It is not cheap, but it encompasses all the programs you’ll need to know to do the job.
3) Start with Photoshop
Start with Adobe Photoshop and learn everything you can by taking online tutorials, and getting a book at the library or bookstore to practice all the techniques and ways of doing things. Pay special attention to image manipulation, slicing and saving for the web.
4) Learn Best Web Site Design Practices
Get a book on web design best practices and learn about the aesthetics of good web design. This means you’ll learn what looks good and why. It also means you’ll know why certain fonts, colors and layouts are not good for web design. Always know the rules before you break them. This is your foundation. Web interface design is a job in itself.
5) HTML and CSS – Learn to code by hand!
You’ll need to know html and CSS in order to truly be able to master the various browsers and how they behave. There are a lot of good online tutorials that will teach you the basics for free. Learn everything you can for free. Then when you’ve got a really good handle of the basics get a book on CSS and become an expert in coding CSS.
6) Dreamweaver
Once you have mastered code, it’s time to teach yourself Dreamweaver. Then you’ll see Dreamweaver as more of an aide to your coding skills. With Dreamweaver, you get an ftp tool and you can look at your code and design at the same time and preview the published code.
7) JavaScript
By this time you should start to feel you have a handle on creating a basic decent static website. To take your skills further, you’ll need to start learning JavaScript (get a book) on at least a basic level. Once you’ve grasped some basics, you’ll be able to find plenty of open-source code out there you can copy to use on your site. But before you know the basics, you won’t know how to incorporate copied code or how to troubleshoot it.
Flash and Illustrator
Technical Lead has a great Learn Flash program on the web that you can teach yourself from scratch to advanced level everything you need to know about Flash web site design. Also at this point you should start playing around with Illustrator and learning the basics with a book.
9) PHP, .NET and Java
By now you will want to start learning how the back-end works. Start with PHP. The best way to learn PHP is to take a class. If you feel you are hopeless at this part, don’t worry, with the skills you’ve already acquired to this point, you can make a great living. But knowing how to incorporate your design and front-end with these languages can be an important skill.
10) Create websites
Start to make practice websites and make yourself a portfolio. You can make websites for individuals who need one but don’t have any money so you have some good active URLs to show. Once you have a great portfolio that shows good design and good coding, you are on your way to a great web design job!
Maria Markosov is an award-winning web consultant and founder of Marimar Designs, a web and graphic design company in Los Angeles, CA.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
