To all Website Geniuses

epsnich

Hi all.
Just wondering how all you website builders got your expertise. Was it self-learning? A course? Anyone do a masters? The reason why is because I'm looking to do a taught masters in website creating.
Thanks!

Winters

Self thought.

From a design point of view, its just someones own creativity that makes a site look good. I dont really think thats something you can teach anyone.

HTML is a pretty piss easy language to learn. Shouldnt take more than a month. Same can be said about CSS but there are just tricks to get used to when using CSS to get the most out of it.

If your looking into a scripting language like PHP or ASP.net, a basis in any other scripting language is a definate help. However, again I think that goes back to a persons own ability to be able to code. I have seen people get degree's in computer courses and they cant program anything besides whats written in a book.

As far as I know, I dont think there is any sort of degree or masters in web building/designing.TBH, in my opinion web designing isint for everybody no matter how fantastic they think their pink and blue myspace page is.

Ph3n0m

Completely self taught - got a book, crappy pc, and notepad and started churning the sites out years ago

Goodshape

Self taught.

The Corinthian

Self taught, for the most part. I say for the most part because while there is no separate academic discipline for Web development (it tends to be a subset of either computer science or graphic design) there are numerous principles from academia that can be applied to Web development.

Additionally, self taught is strictly speaking teaching yourself, and there are some limits to what you can do in that regard. There's a lot of things that you can learn from being in a professional (I don't mean two-man-show's) environments, which would never occur to you when working on your own.

As alluded to above, if considering a degree or other qualification, I suggest you look at either computer science or graphic design. There is an element of both in Web development, but you realistically will specialize in one or the other branch early enough in your career, so seeking a qualification in one will help.

Goodshape

The Corinthian speakith the truth. A personal interest and self-teaching is the only (or at least the best) way to get going with web design, but there's certainly things that can be learned from college.

As an example, I have friends who've completed graphic design courses and I find them an invaluable source of knowledge and inspiration when it comes to things that 'work' visually, such as colours, type-faces, shapes and layout principals. Basically, the fundamentals of 'Good Design (TM)'. But when it comes to actually using that knowledge to put a site together, they're pretty stumped.

Sure they learned some HTML and Photoshop along the way, but by the time the qualifications came out the world had already moved onto CSS and AJAX. Academia can't really keep up.

Ziycon

self taught but knowing how to program helped me when i started using PHP and ASP.net

mneylon

The Corinthian wrote:

Self taught, for the most part..

Considering how long you've been involved in the industry that's hardly surprising

kjt

Self taught

louie

Self taught as well. You only learn in school the basics, while the best comes from experience and practise and no matter how much you know always have a book handy.

ron_darrell

epsnich wrote:

Hi all.
Just wondering how all you website builders got your expertise. Was it self-learning? A course? Anyone do a masters? The reason why is because I'm looking to do a taught masters in website creating.
Thanks!

Do you mind if I ask where you are looking to do that masters and what the course entails? At the end of the day we are all self taught. A course might give you pointers on a specific technology or an ideology (Components or OOP for example) but at the end of the day no course no matter how all encompassing cannot teach you every aspect of every web technology nor how to deal with scenarios that didn't come up in the course. You may learn a lot from the course but it's only the tip of iceberg. You will continue to learn throughout your career.

-RD

jmcc

Like a few here, I was on the net before the web. So I guess I'm self-taught in that respect.

I'd be very wary of an MA in web development because the quality of those teaching it may not be up to industry standards. Most of the skills needed in webdev work cannot be taught in one course. (What course teaches you how to handle tricky customers and bad debts?)

The languages in webdev work are relatively simple and you could pick up most of them over the space of a few days. The thing with computer languages is that you have to learn by using them.

Database work is perhaps at the other extreme. It does take a long time to learn to be a Database Administrator (that generally needs a hard computer/engineering background) though you could become quite adept with tiny and small databases (typically MySQL) of the type commonly used on the web very easily. Most applications in the retail end of the webdev business would not require big iron databases anyway.

Learning graphic design is really learning an art form. So I guess that's one area that lends itself well to being taught in a classroom.

As for the business end of the business, that is best learned from those in business rather than those who couldn't get into the business.

Regards...jmcc

teckoda

Boredom and too much spare time led to me teaching myself all i know. Now i've made a job out of it. I aint complaining. Although, programming isn't my thing. I dont mind doing the basic web building languages. But im not a huge fan of PHP.

spidermonkey

forget graphic design, if you want to learn web stuff.
i've just finished 3 years of graphic design and they only touched on web stuff (and that was with a very long stick).
the multimedia course across the corridoor was mostly geared towards the web and screen with proper coding classes i believe.

multimedia classes would be what your looking for if going for web.

i've lived with computer science guys and the emphasis is more on functionality over looks, so i think multimedia might give you the best of both worlds while introducing you to the other web things like video formats etc etc, flash too.


good luck with it

Laslo

I have a degree in Computer Science and it was very good for learning the basics of programming, hardware, etc. Having said this, I work very heavily in user experience, IA and interface development now so I'm glad I took my academic qualification with a pinch of salt because it's worth very little in my current line of work.

alienhead

trained up in web design company, and self taught. there wasn't any web design courses 10 years ago, and tbh, not too many worth their salt now.

there's iact's web developer diploma, which looks like the best one out there, but it's pricey.

i think the best way to learn is to work with experts, and get hands on training.