Before You Try to Learn Web Design Read This
By s2aebelt
So I get it. It's a recession. You're sitting at home catching up on Judge Judy and one of those commercials come on. You know the ones that show successul people taking classes online school or at a local trade school for web design.
So you think. Wow! I'm creative. Web Designers probably make good money. I know how to use a computer and I EVEN created my own funky fresh Twitter background. Maybe I'll look into to this (while scratching your head).
Good I'm glad you're motivated. You should use every opportunity to discover your purpose in life and if learning to design websites is something you think is interesting, by all means, follow your passion my friend.
BUT NOT UNTIL YOU READ THIS FIRST!
Don't let those mini-infomercials fool you into thinking this will be a lucrative career move. For some it will, for the mass majority it's no better than working at Burger King. Their slogan is "Have it Your Way" or something, and the same applies to the web design field. Take it from me a web designer, it's not a glamorous as it seems. Let me explain.
Education for Web Designers
Most colleges and community colleges have substandard level courses. They will teach you the basics about putting a webpage together. Coding, html, optimizing graphic for the web, site structure, blah, blah, blah. You will learn everything you need to know about putting a site together. What you WILL NOT LEARN, is true web design. What colors work together and why, how websites should be laid out, how to be a successful freelancer, how to deal with and manage clients, how to establish pricing, exploring the latest technologies in web design (Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.), how to create themes for content management systems, presentation, Photoshop file organization, the do and do nots of great web design. The list can go on an on.
The worst problem I see with many small community colleges and trade school don't even offer an adequate exit portfolio building course. Yes, some may help you design an excellent hand-held portfolio, but rarely do they teach you how to design an online portfolio of quality work.
So you and everyone else in your class will be the only ones without anyway to instantaneously show your work to potential employers or clients. Because of this you will be sh*t out of luck trying to earn some cash.
Clients
No one ever tells you that web design clients are some of the neediest sons of b*tches out there! They go online and see all these fancy looking websites and think - Wow, I want a site like that! But don't realize how much time and effort it takes to build a website. They want everything done yesterday, but aren't will to pay "yesterday's" prices.
As a designer, it's your job to take the clients vision (conveniently located in their head) and make it a reality. Maybe if you were psychic this would be a bit easier, but you're not. So you have to spend hours trying to figure out what they want, spend more hours making a design, just for them to tell you it's all wrong and how they hate green. Not because green is an ugly color but because it reminds them of some stupid repressed memory of horrible event that happened to them when they were 3.
Pricing
No one ever wants to pay what an actual website costs. They want you to commit upfront to a set price then make a million changes while in production assuming that it's "included". I have literally had clients that wanted me to design a custom a website for $500.00 OR LESS! Give me a break!
Lets do the math folks. The client wants a website for $500. This website takes you 35 hours (which isn't a long time) to finish. Troubleshooting, uploading to server, adding a bit of content, etc.
$500/35 hrs = About $14.30 a FREAKING HOUR! Are you serious! You could have made more money working for FEDEX. Not saying anything is wrong with working for FEDEX, but I don't recall you needing a certificate, degree or anything to get started.
Website Maintenance
Uneducated (and cheap) clients think that since you designed the site, you are supposed to provide them with free unlimited website maintenance, FOR LIFE. The last time I checked, a standard design contract doesn't include, signing your soul over to the devil and your first born child.
Conclusion
I'm sure you've noticed by now I could write forever about this topic, but I won't. I hope I haven't discouraged you from pursuing a promising career in web design. It is actually a pretty fun job. There aren't many jobs where you can get paid to learn, try new things and surf the web!
Designing for the web isn't hard and most of everything you will need to know can be found on the web. Don't feel obligated to have a degree or certificate in web designing. You can be successful without it. However if you have decided, sitting in a classroom works for you, be sure to do your research. The best way to determine the quality of schools program is look at the work (or portfolios) of the last graduating class. Then compare their quality of work with what you consider to be "nicely designed" sites already online.
If the graduating class comes close to your idea of good design, then you have found a good program. If not, try another school.
In the meantime take a break and look at the video below. This will give you an idea of what your future clients will be like.
Typical Web Design Clients
Comments
Great information for anyone juet getting into the business. I especially like your take on Client, they are indeed the neediest sons of b****es.
Yep, the only websites I want to design are those that I own!
A lot of people fail to understand the amount of troubleshooting that goes into creating a website. Even when you yourself understand some of the things not possible, you have to explain that to clients that know nothing about websites that what they're asking for may be unreasonable and impossible at times.
I certainly wouldn't design a site for anyone but myself!
Some people's expectations are impossible when you are building them a site as well, something else to think about.
Great comments. I would add that much of the work in creating a successful site is offsite, things such as backlink and other SEO work. Also many clients think a pretty website is a good website, when functionality and its ability to return on the clients investments are actually much more important measures.
I can understand where your coming from here, and I love the video. There are so many different levels of sites out there, and people seem to think that building a customized website is as easy as putting up a hubpage. This is not the case, of course.
I used to think that it's gota be so simple to throw together a website, till i tried my hand at web design...its a bit like reinventing the wheel when you start out like that..great comments though,I know just what you mean still made me smile :-)
jlspartz 2 years ago
I agree. If you think it's going to be about you designing what you think would be a cool website you got it all wrong. Most of the time it's trying to create the design that's in the client's head. So if you're creative, put it to good use, and create yourself cool websites.