What is the best course to do website designing?

[Traviiaz]

I want to no what the best course is to do website designing, computing etc. I want to choose a course in university which will help me get a good career i like to do designing, gaming, programming, researching, database, spreadsheet etc. what course do you think is suitable?

Software engineering?
Computer Science?
Computer system engineering?
Multimedia computing and animation?
Media technology?

 

[Ayelbourne]

Multimedia computing and animation?

Just from looking at the options, I'd say that one.
But you should do some research on the content of those courses.
What you're gonna need for website design is HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript.
Also helpful would be Flash (for animation)- and PHP-programming.
PHP is more likely to be covered in computer programming though, as it is an actual programming language as opposed to the markup and script languages above.
It enables you to structure your website around a database and generally allows for a more dynamic design.

 

[Naira]

The fields you mention are actually very different from each other. Do you have any sort of background at any of these? I think you need a more specific goal...

 

[SFly]

The problem with web designers these days is they learn little bits of everything rather than specialise in one area. I would recommend you start with HTML, a simple search on google will bring lots of tutorials.

 

[Merky]

Yay, as a professional web dev I can help:

The back bone to web development is learning HTML. You don't know HTML you can't develop a webpage. It's also your first introduction to web programming as HTML is a programming language.

Once comfortable with HTML markup, start learning CSS to develop more dynamic websites that reduces your HTML code and gives you a more universal control of your page.

After you've mastered HTML and CSS, then start looking at what alternative that you want to go into: Web Design or Web Development. If you want to go into design, then you need to focus on graphic design and learning the good techniques to designing a great website (960 grid, colors, accessibility, etc). A web designer needs to know HTML/CSS but not necessarily programming.

Web development is programming. Pick a programming language and learn it. The two biggest ones used on the net are PHP/MySQL or ASP. Both are the same in what they do but two separate coding languages. One can run on a linux box and one is strictly windows. PHP is easier to learn because it's closer to C (or is it C++... one of those) so if you learn PHP you start to get an idea of that language. Also, learning ActionScript for Flash helps hone your coding skills and also allows you to develop dynamic and interactive sites for the web.

Though imo Flash is dying with HTML5 being rolled out.

 

[Kataaran]

If you want to build websites then the Multimedia computing and animation and Media technology would seem the better fit, if they include some kind of design component. The others look more hardcore developer based. Do you want to work on the front or backend bits of sites? Frontend typically includes design, HTML, CSS, user interface design. Backend is more PHP/ASP and databases.

Though imo Flash is dying with HTML5 being rolled out.

Flash is completely different to HTML 5. HTML is markup, Flash has a complete programming language.

HTML 5 might take over from Flash video but not while the majority of windows users aren't using as least IE9 (if they're using IE).

 

[Merky]

Flash is dying in terms of web development. I really do not see how developing sites in pure ActionScript is a better alternative to the development done in HTML5 coupled with jQuery.

In terms of multimedia and animation, Flash still has a strong hold. In terms of efficient, lite, site development? No, I don't see it. Applications, maybe... but even then.


... I'm not a fan of ActionScript :P

 

[Kataaran]

Flash is dying in terms of web development. I really do not see how developing sites in pure ActionScript is a better alternative to the development done in HTML5 coupled with jQuery.

You didn't make it clear in your previous post that that was what you meant. I agree with you there, sites built entirely with Flash have never been good practice. I would advocate using Flash for elements of a site (where jQuery/Mootools are not usable).

I'm not using HTML 5 yet, it's not a finished spec. I still use Flash video ATM due to its wider browser support.

 

[Mr. B]

I recently completed a "Media Arts" degree that was supposed to have a web design element in there but it didn't work out. I don't think you really need proper schooling to learn to make websites. Just start doing it. As others have said, you'll need to learn HTML at first. You don't need to know much to make a basic web page. As you go on and desire more attractive and complicated websites, you'll start learning CSS and PHP.

Having said all that, a strong graphic design background will also be a big help so "Multimedia computing and animation" is probably a good fit.

 

[Kataaran]

^ It's a major problem when teaching anything web related formally. By the time the course syllabus is agreed upon it's all out of date. I did an electronic graphics HND in the late 90's and that had a web component, it was fairly basic. I was lucky that my first employer gave me time to learn the technical bits. More than any other industry, in web design/dev every day's a school day.

In terms of a formal training I'd look at making sure a course covers the basics as they don't change. If it's a web design course it should be covering design more than using Flash or Dreamweaver. I see plenty of "web designers" who can't design for toffee, they'll tell you all about how they can use Photoshop and Illustrator though.

 

[137th Gebirg]

The best teacher for the web is the web itself. I've been a professional web developer/designer/architect since 1994, and everything I've learned I got from finding someone else's site, seeing something that I really liked, viewed the source code to see how it worked and made it better for my own use. That simple philosophy has served me VERY well in my past 17 years in this industry. One of my co-workers is taking formal classes now and some of the stupidity that he tells me about that he gets from his teachers boggles my mind. Telling them to always tell their clients that "it will take two weeks" to complete a particular task, regardless of the complexity (or simplicity); Or that writing efficient code is no longer important because computer memory capacity has gotten so huge it doesn't matter any more. Things like that make me cringe that that's what's being taught to the next generation of developers - when they're not even being told basic debugging techniques like printing out your variables to see what they're doing during the course of a process - VERY valuable if you're not fortunate enough to have a debugging tool. With deference to the few good instructors that I'm sure are out there, it has generally been my experience that "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

As for Flash, it served a purpose at one time, but IMHO its usefulness is quickly coming to an end. HTML5/CSS3 is a Flash Killer (thank God!)