Finding the best way to Learn Web Design

Featured article by Melinda Meyers, world renowned professional in management of marketing campaigns

The world is changing at a rapid pace. Just as you grow accustomed to websites and the Internet came smartphones and now we have screens inside eye glasses. The world of web design is constantly changing and evolving, so much so that it can be overwhelming to think about where to start.

As far as learning is concerned, there are a number of avenues to select from, and the one that you choose will depend less on its availability and more on your desire to master web design.

Is there a ‘best way’ to learn design?

The aim of this article is not to give one ‘best’ way for a person interested in web design to learn. Rather, we’ll look into the possible options, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages thereof. Hopefully, at the end, you should be able to make a decision regarding what is best for you.

1. Universities

The pros

From the beginnings of the Internet more than twenty years ago, there’s a continued increase in the number of Internet-related and IT jobs over the years, demanding for people with these skills. This is the reason that universities have invested heavily in the development of their IT departments.

The common premise is that web designers are best served by training in a university. For such students, they would only learn the basics of web design which never change, from the rudiments of color, composition and type, and a few coding languages like HTML and CSS.

This, together with a series of class-based projects with tight deadlines, teaches the student how to work best under pressure and still maintain the quality of their work – this is a picture of how it works in the real world, dealing with a full list of clients pushing and pulling from all directions and a workload that just doesn’t let up. The training ground is therefore invaluable.

Additionally, at the university, students can use their professors and teachers’ assistants to help critique, mentor and hence shape their working style. This is advantageous because in school you’re allowed to make as many mistakes with minimal negative repercussions – you can tweak and change your style without risking your client relationships.

The Cons

The classroom does provide a safe haven for students of web design and exposes them to various marketing software suites to learn the basics of SEO as well. This is a major selling point for the universities that offer these courses, but it’s also its greatest downside.

The explosion of Internet-based learning and online courses has made web design schools close to irrelevant now. Majority of the documents and works presented within universities and colleges are outdated, particularly as relates to web design. Earning a diploma today isn’t as significant as it was in the past.

It has become less about studying hard and putting in long hours just to get a paper that proves you’re smart, which is no longer as useful given the limited employment opportunities vis-à-vis the number of people graduating from schools each year.

Web design interviews and placements today depend less on the qualifications you have amassed and more on interviews and assessment of previous work. Diplomas hardly mean anything. Also, the fact that web design is rapidly changing means that university curricula fall out of date too fast, and few manage to catch up with the current state of the industry.

2. Online Courses

The pros

Online courses offer an all-inclusive solution for people who are interested in learning web design on their own schedule and at reduced costs compared to campus educations. The internet has made learning reachable by everyone at any time, which is perhaps the greatest advantage that Internet learning provides.

Availability and reach of material increases at an exponential rate; today, virtually anybody can train themselves in HTML, CSS and other important aspects of web design from where they are. This gives a unique opportunity to people who want to make a name in web design for themselves and improve their skills.

Internet learning is also highly practical compared with on-campus learning; you don’t have to move closer to a school, pay for living expenses, loans, books and other related expenses. Online education is smoother, allowing you to do what you want right where you are. It makes no sense to pay very highly to get the same education through cheaper and more convenient sources, does it?

The Cons

Learning web design over the Internet is not without its problems, however. In most cases, Internet-based learning is a one-way traffic, which means that you have little ways to find feedback. There are some helpful forums and communities where you can post questions and receive genuine comments, but it’s still inferior to the kind of assistance you’d get from a teacher.

Web design can be very confusing, especially at the beginning, since there are so many resources available online and it’s not easy to know which are most important and which are not. There are differences in styles, approaches and methodology according to the views and leanings of the resource providers which creates a web, difficult for learners to navigate.

In a college, you can easily get help, opinions and other feedback from readily available tutors. You can get yourself a mentor to train you on the tips and tricks, someone who’s been in the field long enough to know what’s most important for your to grasp. Having the basics, you can extend your knowledge in any way through online courses, because you have an idea of exactly what you want.

In addition, the freedom of pace and convenience offered by online courses makes it more difficult to keep up with the stress and pressure of real-world practice once you get started. You can easily overload your mind with more information than you need to learn at that point, unless you’re subscribed to an actual curriculum.

It’s difficult to determine an appropriate learning pace, and one has the option of just giving up once there is little or no personal investment to keep them grounded when things get tough.

Conclusion: which is better?

Like we said earlier, there is no absolute answer, but online courses seem to offer a greater advantage, especially for people who have started their careers in other fields and have little time to dedicate to rigorous campus-based courses.

However, if universities designed their curricula to fit the fast pace with which the field of web designs is growing, and launched cheaper and more lenient (pace-wise) online courses for career-based students, learners of web design would finally have an option that maximizes on the best aspects of both worlds.

Author Bio

Melinda Meyers is a world renowned professional in management of marketing campaigns. She is also a writer and an authority for trends in task management for marketers and the best tools used by web marketing firm endeavors. You can find most of her articles on-line to find out which tools to use to make your marketing successful.