training/learning to be a website designer

[CaroCaro]

Hi all, where would you go to train as a website designer from scratch? A friend of mine is looking for a career change after being made redundant and this is an area he would like to know more about. Besides attending a college full time, what are his other options? Any advice would be much appreciated, as I have no clue!
Thanks

[Jayne]

Hi,

I am learning lots off Http:/www.w3schools.com

It's free and is a good place for your friend to start. Some others on here run training programs too.

Best Wishes

Jayne

[CaroCaro]

Hi thanks for this, I looked at it and it seems to be a site a bible studies?

[Jayne]

Hi,

Sorry, I missed an S out of the web address. I have corrected it. I am new to technology too :D

Jayne

[MichaelG]

Has your friend considered other jobs? We have too many so called website designers that learn frontpage or dreamwaver + a little photoshop and think they are website designer. It takes a lot of time, creativity and knowledge - Has your friend got the time?

I suggest starting with the basic HTML course somewhere local - if he/she is still interested then she/he needs to decide if its the design or coding of websites to focus on .... blah blah blah

[annethedonn]

www.freelanceoffice.skillspride.com

Over 525 on line courses including web design, java, html etc.... for annual fee - unlimited access.

[CaroCaro]

Hello there, thanks for your message, which to be honest I think was quite rude eg: 'has he thought of other jobs etc..." I don't think it is up to you to decide if he should be one or not, why presume he just going to do the basics and set himself up as a cowboy? With all industry there are those who do it well and those who don't - just a fact of life, but I think it is a bit rich you telling me he should look at other jobs as there are too many 'web designers' already; are there too many lawyers, chefs, nurses etc. It is possible to get fully trained with most professions, either if you do it part or full time, time, however long that might be and dedication is what is needed. Instead of having such a negative attitude someone thinking of a career change, how about telling me how, in your opinion, where and how he should go about his training and education to be a decent web designer that you would employ?

[CaroCaro]

What is blah blah blah? What sort of advice is that?

[epiphany]

CaroCaro, I would say the two most important attributes a web designer can have is the ability to consume lots of information and the natural ability to know when something looks good.

In terms of where to learn this, a few years back a couple of good friends of mine were fairly decent at the whole website thing and decided to go to uni and college to get even better. There opinion was identical about the worth of doing that, that being it was a waste of time. If your friend is quite technically minded then I would say get working through some w3c tutorial and see how he gets on, He also needs to have a clear view about whether he wants to work for himself or for someone else as working for himself means he has to have a whole other array of talents to bring in the business.

[Cornish Steve]

I would suggest trying Anne's courses. She offers a free trial, so this would allow your friend to determine the value and relevance of her courses. What does he have to lose?

[MichaelG]

CaroCaro,

Apologies - I did not mean it to sound that way (i.e. -ve) and I love competition (good competition) - I learn alot from other web designers and like another industry we get and hate the cowboys - they give us all a bad name.

I was trying to make sure he understands everything involved in making a good web design. It takes time and dedication and good web designer/developers need to constantly learn new technologies and most of the time, without support from their employer.

There are various elements to web design/development.

If he is going to focus on user interface and design then he will need to be comfortable with at least: HTML, DHTML, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Photoshop, Vector graphics and Flash.

For coding; HTML, DHTML, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Server side scripting (e.g. .NET/C#, ASP, JSP, PHP, CF, PYL etc)

For systems admin/network: OS (Linux, Unix, Windows, Solaris etc), understand networking protocols e.g. TCP/IP and other

For database admin/design: Oracle, DB2, MySQL, MsSQL, etc etc

So many options .... please ask him what which area he would most enjoy - including project management.

Once again - apologies.