I started out purely on the dev side - I have a BCs in Computer Science, but frankly you'll learn more in the real world than anything you would ever learn in a computer science class. I'll illustrate it as "write a stacking algorithm in some dead interpreted language to do reverse polish notation" - yeah, that'll be useful later in life ;)
But I digress. Given you are starting out, focus on getting the fundamentals of XHTML/CSS down first, then grow up to at least a good foundational knowledge of Javascript, and how it works. From there you can get into things like the JS libraries - jQuery, MooTools etc, but I would strongly suggest you get comfortable with pure JS before you plough into things with fluent interfaces, seemingly disconnected object models and flexible type systems, you will lose your mind. If you get comfortable with that, then look at things like PHP, Java, C# (.NET) and grow up from there. You should also make some determination of the kinds of things you would like to work on. There's a couple of different routes, in a "design technology" role, whether you come down more on the tech side of things (like I do) and have an appreciation and skills in the design side, or vice versa. That will govern the technology bases you get under you (such as Flash, Silverlight, Photoshop etc) or whether you mix and match tools for the particular job. Hope that gives you some insight, if you want any more info - feel free to ask here, or hunt me down at the Sensorium event (Phizzpop) on Monday. Cheers Rich > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:Refresh- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Diana > Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 12:35 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Refresh Austin: 3729] Re: questions about being in the web > design industry > > > It's all about balance for me. My CompSci classes gave me a good > foundation - learning the basics like if/else, arrays, debugging, > commenting your code (!!) helps me in everything I do including > XHTML/CSS. The logic even helped my communication skills. But too > much > studying and not enough doing is counterproductive. I learned more in > a > month of writing a PHP script than I did in six months of studying the > Zend manual. > > I know best the things I broke and had to fix. For example, I know how > to make JQuery compatible with Mootools because I discovered the hard > way that using JQuery on a Joomla site will break Virtuemart and nobody > will be able to buy things on the site. Now I'm investing the time > learning to write classes using Mootools, a combination of study and > practice. I'm sure all of us have our big list - learn by doing . . . > . > but not just by doing. > > Not being a designer, I don't know what the "basics" are and I suffer > the repercussions whenever I have to design. Resources like lynda.com > are great but building a bunch of websites while studying would be > greater. > > Diana > > > > Mike wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I'm new to the web design world and I figure this a good way to get > > started. My name is mike and I"m new to web design world. > > > > I'm starting school to get a 2nd bachelor's in web design from the > art > > institute (1st bba is in marketing) and I was wondering since ya'll > > are in the industry, am I going in the right direction? > > > > I see that everyone has a different background, and i'm curious what > > did everyone study or how did they get to where they are today. > > > > I hate to pay for something and then go nowhere afterwards. > > > > Mike > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
