RE: Old Bag, New Questions (More on Designers/Developers and Knowledge Needed)

All excellent points below! I agree 100%. A couple of additional
comments, though:

While these definitions of web designer/developer are, IMO, right on, I
have seen countless companies use the two terms interchangeably! So in
assessing job listings, looking at the desired qualifications is
typically much more useful. :-)

As far as education - currently I'm teaching part of a certificate
program for a local college, so it's an interesting question with no
single right answer. The first step is to determine whether you are
more interested in the design end, or the programming end. Many
colleges and computer training companies offer courses in Java, C,
Oracle, or any of the technical languages/protocols... although
typically I have seen less attention paid to HTML and CSS training,
which is unfortunate.

If you are more interested in site and user interface design, I would
advocate education in the graphic design field, based on personal
experience. While I have not seen many design classes in web design
specifically, the same design principles apply to both printed work and
the web - it's simply a different media, which presents its own set of
challenges and opportunities. Learning HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.,
(the markup and scripting languages) is actually fairly easy, and
simply lets you "translate" your design into a usable web page. But
knowing how people interact with information, I feel it's very easy to
design for clear, concise communication through the web.

And by the way, my pet peeve: people who think that design is nothing
more than making a site "look pretty!" I'm not even going to count the
number of employers with that attitude. :-) Yes, part of design is to
create an appealing environment that makes people want to read the
information, but at its core, there's only one purpose to good design -
to make sure that people can interact with and use the information
presented!

Is formal education necessary? Well, I studied traditional graphic
design in college, and taught myself everything I know about web design
and development! It is possible - although it may not be the fastest
way to learn, either. There are many excellent resources out there -
books, conferences and seminars, even excellent free web tutorials! All
in addition to college or training courses. I would say that it boils
down to how you learn best - I personally learn by USING a language or
skill - so sitting in a classroom and running through tutorials do
almost nothing for me. When I teach, I never do exercises out of a book
- instead, I invite the students to develop a meaningful project that
will utilize these skills, and then learn by applying the solution. I
have found this approach to be the most successful way of learning,
both for my students and myself.

And that said, I have never had anyone ask me about my degree, or what
I learned about the web through that study - every employer I have had
has been interested in what I know, and seeing "portfolio pieces" that
back up this knowledge. So my experience (similar to many in this
industry, I believe!) is that educational credentials count for very
little.

Hope this helps!
Nathan

--- Andre L Crane <andre(at)terracrane.com> wrote:
> Good questions.
> 
> These answers are really just my opinion.
> 
> Web Designer:  Primarily a front end developer. 
> 
> Web Developer:  Primarily a backend developer. 
> So what I am saying is that it totally depends on
> the person and what they are willing to put into it.
> 
> - Andre
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Ok, so now that I've heard from a few of you and gotten your input on
> what a designer/developer needs in the field today, I have two new
> questions.
> 
> 1. a. What is a web designer?
> b. What is a web developer?
> c. What is the difference between the two and how do you tell which
> you
> are or want to be?
> 
> 2. Do you think a person should go to a college/university/etc. to
> get
> an Associates in Web Design if they are NOT teaching some of the
> required skills you feel are needed in the field today? What would be
> the way for a person to break into the field today if not attending a
> school?
> 
> Any comments and responses would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
> 
> --
> Jami Moore
> http://www.jamisniche.com/
> 
> 


=====
Nathan Schmidt
Office/Voicemail: 603.357.7939
ICQ #29133858
E-mail:  nhschmidt(at)yahoo.com

"Is it lack of imagination that makes us come to imagined places...?"
-Elizabeth Bishop, 1927-1979

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