lewro’s blog - 2.1 - web designer beginner

If you have been reading this blog for some time you probably know that I belong to the category of people who study all the time and will probably never stop. Today I would like to talk about the way I study and maybe get some ideas from you guys to get more effective. I have to say when I started to study web design it was quite difficult. There was a lots of stuff I needed to get into my head. I used to study different kind of materials in the past and this area was pretty new for me. I have spent lots of time studding finance, economy and law before and I would not even think that you can actually study web design and even more that you can become professional web designer. I always thought that it is job which belongs to IT department.

Once I have started to study web design in general the doors has suddenly opened and I saw the whole picture. It was very exiting and interesting. What I have not realized how wide knowledge is needed to be a proper web designer. My naive opinion was that there is html, css and that is it. Later I found out that there are such a things as layouts, grids, colour managment, icon design, flash, dom-scripting, ajax, accessibility, web standards etc. So I told to myself. If I want to do my job properly I have to learn all of these. It already looks like a lot of stuff to get into single brain but you know what? It is not all. There is so much more to it and it is developing pretty fast and that is why it is so interesting. All these study areas I have mentioned belong to front end but there is back end as well so the list goes on and on. For the back end I have chosen PHP and MYSQL.

If you are new to web design study do not be scared if it looks like too much for you. First of all. Once you love what you do you do not have to force yourself to study because you just love to do it. Secondly, you do not have to learn all these stuff. You can decide what you want to be specialist in. You can be perfect HTML and CSS coder or PHP and MYSQL coder if you do not feel like playing with colours and pretty pictures. My problem is I want to know it all. I dream about perfect, accessible web applications with beautiful semantic code which would have a pretty and intuitive interface spiced with cool behaviors via dom-scripting and ajax.

I study almost every day. It does not always mean reading the book. Sometimes it is reading RSS feeds sometimes going true someones CSS code. When I read book about something new, I usually read the book 2-3 times to get the big picture. Then I start trying stuff, coding and testing. It is always this faze when I realized that it is not that difficult as it looks like when you first read about it. After some time spent trying new stuff I get another book to get a different view on the problematic. Reading second book is always easier and you find yourself nodding your head when going true the first chapters. The second part of every book is more complicated and it needs to play with a new technology for lot longer time to get the whole idea. For example I am still not confident to make some complicated java-script functions but I can create some pretty cool and useful stuff. What happens next? After I feel I am able to produce some of the stuff I was reading about I move on. I chose different subject and study something else. Later I come back and build on the knowledge I got in the first round. So I work in circles. This helps me not to be overwhelmed by one subject and still be able to make a progress. I am interested in lots of different areas so that allows me to move in circles from coding such are HTML, CSS, JS jumping into Photoshop then photography then Flash or drawing. These days it is PHP and MYSQL but when it becomes to much I read about colour managment.

What is your method? How do you get your head around web design?

Here we are. The January is gone and I have not even noticed. It has been so busy on this planet. I have been thinking a lot about the year 2008. How I am going to get the most out of it? I have decided to create a plan. I have been quite successful with my previous wishes so I have decided to go for more. If you thing about money that is not what I have in mind. I have set up couple of targets for this year. So here they are

• Learn PHP as much as I can. I have already started self study but I am seriously thinking about taking classes in city university.
• Learn French as much as I can. I do not really have a time to go true the book but I am going to listen to French podcast during the time I am in the gym. I have already started. It is so lovely language.
• Create a new design for my blog. I have started to collect ideas for a new design, layout etc. The document has about 20 points so far. It is going to take at least a month until I start wireframing and thinking about the grid type.
• Take couple of part time html,css,js projects. I am currently working on one and there are some more coming up.
• Gym, running, swimming, roller-blading, skating at least 4 times a week either of them. There is not going to be change in this one because this is what I do anyway. But I am writing it down because I could do more. I just can not live without sport but sometimes you have to fight with tiredness.
• Summer holiday. I have not been on “proper” holidays for some time, I do not count visiting Slovakia, so this summer is going to rock! Perhaps even small break to Paris.
• Organic garden on the roof part 2. You could see my first gardening year on my flickr. It has not been a big success. I am not sure if I can do better in this conditions but I am going to try anyway. Never give up!
• Photography - shoot, shoot, shoot. Photography is a tricky one. The more pictures I take the more I see they are not that great. I would like to see more art in them so I will have to concentrate on this one in different perspective.

So that is about it. It is going to be busy year. I will try to keep you inform as much as I can. But please let me know about your targets. I am so interested.

We all have a different periods in our life. Sometimes we are at the top sometimes we are at the bottom. What I have realized is that when we are not at the bottom we are actually at the top. What I mean with that? There is never going to be a time when it can not be better. Saying that I have to admit I am at the top right now. There is nothing really seriously wrong in my life. Yeah it could be better, but as I said before it always could be …

Admitting the fact that I am in the positive phase in my life makes me thing. What would be the best thing to do? The ideas coming to me mind are helping other people who are not in the same situation as me. There are people out there with all sorts of problems and life experiences they have to deal with. The point is you can not help everyone but that does not meet you should not help anyone.

People usually say: If I had that much money…, if I was in that situation…, if I was in that country…I would help. And I have to say I was for a long time one of these people until I realized that it does not really matter that you can not give a lots of money to charity but what does matter that you make the step and that might help someone even if it is only one person. It does not even have to be money. Sometimes it is a time you can give, in form of voluntary work or products you can buy where certain amount of price goes for good reasons.

Today I would like you to ask you to think about the first step you can do for others. Whatever that would be.

If you do not know where to start you can start in here for example. I have been supporting Macmillan Cancer support on my blog for some time and time to time buying stuff from their site. Right now they are coming with a variety of Christmas products you can buy to support their activities.

Thanks for any step you take.