Last week we had a visit from Rachel Andrew to university where she was to give a talk about The Web and The Future, and it was a good talk. She concentrated on the basics that are required to succeed in the industry, and made the point that we were ideally placed to experiment with the emerging specs of HTML5 and CSS 3 by using them on uni projects which provide a lot more freedom than client work. She explained the current state of the web industry and some of the exciting things which are in the near future such as improvements in typography, and advancements in other areas.
After my rant from the other week, where I questioned the benefits of continuing with my university career, I thought I would highlight one of the benefits of university and the projects that are required to be undertaken. Experimenting with new techniques and technologies can be beneficial whilst trying to get your head around things such as HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery for example. By having a clearly defined project on a university project that is not subjected to the same audience and restrictions as a “real-world” project.
Recently I’ve been working on a project which has allowed me to make use of a variety of HTML5 elements and also to use far more of the CSS3 techniques than I could get away with in a client project. Transitions and other experimental things such as background gradients can be used on more critical elements due to the nature of the project, whereas in a client site they should only be used on “extras” which were not design critical until the browsers have caught up with the specification.
Having these experimentation opportunities is critical for students as the techniques which are taught to us can often leave a lot to be desired (one lecturer still uses table based layouts!) and by carrying out some independent learning and having somewhere to experiment can be vital for any future employment opportunities. If a student is interested in gaining a career in web design, I also feel it’s important to have their own website which they can show off their skills and show any future employers that they are keen and have a genuine interest in the subject.
Students often suffer from a lack of experience and a limited portfolio when it comes to gaining employment but university projects can be beneficial as they provide projects with clearly defined goals and parameters. Whilst it’s good to create designs for fictional reasons and it can be extremely beneficial to practice design skills and play around out with the curriculum, it’s also good to work within the (sometimes painful) constraints of university projects.
Like anything, the more you practice then the better you will become at something and the same applies to web design, and students shouldn’t just wait for lecturers to hand out the work – they should create it themselves.
As some of you may know, I’m now in second year at university, and that was after spending some time at college prior to this. When I left school I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a career, and due to circumstances at the time I went to work full-time in an office for 3 years, although that quickly got boring. Having had an interest in computers and web design since I was at school, I decided to leave full-time employment in order to pursue a career in this field, and I can honestly say I have no regrets about this decision at all.
