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Requirements for Junior Web Design job?
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18-08-2010 11:44am#1
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Join Date:Posts: 33867
Hi,
I'm currently learning web design, between reading here, W3 schools, youtube tutorials and actually doing some work I really feel I've learned a lot since I started and I'm getting more and more confident in my ability. I figure after I do 5/6 sites I will approach companies looking for a junior design position.
At the moment I'm very comfortable using dreamweaver and I have an understanding of CSS & HTML. Is dreamweaver good practice? Should I try to use something like notepad to improve my development knowledge?
it depends - are you using the WYSIWYG editor for Dreamweaver or are you actually writing the markup yourself? That's the main question you need to ask yourself. So yes, you should being using notepad - ie, some kind of basic text editor to be familiar with both HTML markup and CSS. WYSIWYG editors will end up being a crutch to your development.
It's of particular relevance in the murky world of browser compatibility - once you realise your lovely design doesn't look the same between IE6 and 7 or Firefox, you'll come to understand that fine control over the markup and CSS is a must to put in those hacks, fixes and re-arranging the HTML so IE6 won't whine at you
My understanding of PHP and Javascript are basic to say the least, at the moment I'd almost always have to copy these word for word from a tutorial.
If you want to improve your employability, I would recommend trying to increase your knowledge of at least javaScript (have a look at Jquery to help you here). Copying and pasting's all very well, but understanding how the scripts work, how to fix those that aren't working right, and (eventually) writing your own means an employer has a multi-talented designer not afraid to get his / her hands dirty. Too many so-called web designers are hopeless when it comes to even the most basic of scripting which frankly is inexcusable in today's web environment.
PHP's a different matter altogether because it's an actual high-level language that performs some quite heavy-duty tasks (potentially), rather than something like JavaScript that's used for effects & basic behaviour on-screen.[...]
My question(s) is basically this...
What will I be expected to know as a minimum to get a job in the industry?
I don't have any qualifications, would a decent portfolio make up for this?
What should I really focus on improving before I do look for a job?
Thanks in advance.
Now that definitely depends on circumstance. Unfortunately what one company calls a "junior designer" is often very different to another. It usually boils down to money if nothing else - what's the most qualified person they think they can hire for the least amount of money, thus "junior web designer"
At the same time, there's still a baseline of experience and knowledge they'd expect, which is pretty much what I spoke of in the above: HTML, CSS, and javaScript. Naturally you'd need to know your way around Photoshop, Flash et al; if you're a junior then an eagerness to learn will also count for much, so you wouldn't be expected to know how to rattle out concepts in Photoshop at the drop of a hat.0 -
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Please don't take this as negative - I make these observations only to try and help you develop and improve. The site looks really well, though is quite slow to load and I'd advise against such a dependence on Flash though can understand from a aesthethic point of view why you'd use it. Just looking at the mark up, there seems to be an over-reliance on Dreamweaver for the simple scripts. Perhaps trying to write your own rollovers might help you develop there (or better still expanding your css experience to get the css to deal with the rollovers instead - making the site that bit more adaptable - a lot of browsers disable client side scripting by default). Also it's important to look at moving to external style sheets rather than internal or worse still inline styling (though we've all done both when in a hurry ) Overall, the site shows a great deal of talent and potential.
Regards,
-RD0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 33867
FWIW here's a site I posted up here for review ages ago, I recently redesigned it, it's very basic and its the first one I completed.
Hey, well it looks good for sure, a good start I suppose if I were to give you direction on where to take your markup/CSS from here, I would suggest reading into how to put your stylesheets (CSS) into an external file, rather than having them "inline" on the page itself. All your divs have CSS attached them, when ideally you'd want it all coming from a CSS file.
What that results is a tidier HTML file, and a tidier CSS file, so edits become easier to control across multiple files / pages. In an ideal world, you shouldn't see any CSS when you select "view source"
Your navigation was done with images & javascript, when realistically you could have just used a HTML <ul> list, styled up with CSS.0 -
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ron_darrell wrote: »Just looking at the mark up, there seems to be an over-reliance on Dreamweaver for the simple scripts. Perhaps trying to write your own rollovers might help you develop there
I completely agree, reliance on Dreamwever is something I am concerned about and I wall try to eliminate it over time. Notepad++ is a recent addition to the arsenal and I intend to really put it to use over the next few sites I do.
Re: Attaching CSS to specific divs, its a habit I have from my compulsive need to modify as I go. Just on this, why is it actually that bad of a habit?
Thanks for the positive replies to the site, I'm happy with how it looks at least 0 -
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I think you're developing in the right direction.
On the topic of Notepad++, please don't be overzealous To be able to build sites purely in Notepad + FTP + browsers is a great skill and a great exercise, but I wouldn't give up Dreamweaver (in Code/Split mode) or another advanced editor such as WeBuilder for real work. Its site/project management (with upload sync, testing servers etc) and advanced preview tools are huge timesavers, especially if you have several sites to take care of. Just make sure you don't rely on built-in scripts and snippets. If you want to use a script, bring it in consciously and make sure you know what it's doing there and how.
Another great exercise if to use Firebug plugin to analyse fragments of websites you visit. If you see something you like, Firebug lets you have a peek into it immediately to see how it's done.Re: Attaching CSS to specific divs, its a habit I have from my compulsive need to modify as I go. Just on this, why is it actually that bad of a habit?
Having all your CSS in one place, external to the markup, makes it easier to update or change styles. CSS is supposed to be reusable throughout the site, so that you are able to apply the same rule to various elements on different pages. If you want to change something, with all your CSS in one place you don't need to manually go through all the divs to make adjustments, you change it once and it populates throughout the site.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 33867
I completely agree, reliance on Dreamwever is something I am concerned about and I wall try to eliminate it over time. Notepad++ is a recent addition to the arsenal and I intend to really put it to use over the next few sites I do.
Re: Attaching CSS to specific divs, its a habit I have from my compulsive need to modify as I go. Just on this, why is it actually that bad of a habit?
Thanks for the positive replies to the site, I'm happy with how it looks at least
From a purely logistical point of view (there's plenty of legitimate reasons from a good-web-practise point of view - good design, good accessability, good user-experience), you're making work for yourself; say you have to make a modification to the layout of that site you demo'ed - move the navigation up the page or something - you have to make that change 5 times minimum because your CSS is all inline on the HTML page. If you had an external CSS file, you'd make the change once and boom, you're done.
Modifying as you go is standard enough, it just means you're working on an extra file as you go. Hell, I'm doing it at the moment, working on some styles for a web-form that's in another file.
HTML should just be for - well, HTML markup, CSS stylesheets for design, external javaScript files for behaviour and scripting.
I can guarantee you if you get a web design job and keep doing inline styles, your co-workers will kill you 0 -
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I was going to post this in the review forum, but thought I would bump up this instead as I kind of want advice on where to go next.
Anyway, I finished my own little site about a week ago, here it is....
http://www.eddiegormandesign.com/
....and I would like peoples opinions (and I got some good input from users in this thread last time round) as I am currently looking to get a job as a junior designer.
Had my first interview earlier in the week so fingers are still crossed
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In short:
- You shouldn't be very confident in your design skills, you're not a very good designer yet. Dont confuse design with being able to use Photoshop. If you want to be a designer, then learn more about illustration, contrast, colour theory, photography and usability principles.
- You have a good foundation to start being a front-end developer, someone who takes designs and makes them into HTML/CSS and Javascript. Keep working on that and make sure all your code validates.
Consider a direction to pick. This diagram might help you understand how roles related to each other at a high level. Pick a core section and maybe a little bit either side of that.
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