Web Designer Training - An Employer's View
Teaching students web design, I decided to conduct a survey among employers to find out the following questions:
Modern academic education often lags behind reality. In the available special educational literature and in the methods of teaching there is no precise definition of the goals of training specialists in this field. The competency level of web designers is not sufficiently defined.
The survey was conducted from November to December 2011 using e-mail and an interactive online form (at the respondent’s choice). The respondents were selected heads of web studios, or persons responsible for the work with the staff in these companies.
The choice of web studios by location: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Khabarovsk. Invited to participate - 272, took part in the survey - 30.
An interesting side fact of the survey is the activity of the participants. Of the 272 invitations expelled, only 11% of companies took part. This indicates the closeness of the Russian business - the unwillingness of close cooperation of production with educational institutions. Of those who took part, 36.6 (6)% responded via e-mail, 63.3 (3)% via an interactive form on the site. The last figure indicates the prospects for conducting various surveys and studies using interactive forms online. In addition, the interactive form allows you to get more accurate statistical information, in contrast to the e-mail, where the respondent can “refrain” from some questions that require an unequivocal answer.
As a result of the survey, the following data was obtained:
1. Mandatory portfolio availability:
2. The need for skills in owning graphic editors was distributed as follows:
3. The need to master the programs of three-dimensional modeling:
4. For the ability to own a WYSIWYG editor, Adobe Dreamweaver was favored by 20% of respondents. For the rest of the proposed editors, none of the respondents voted.
5. The level of ability to use the language of hypertext markup HTML:
6. The need for knowledge and skills to own other Internet technologies was distributed as follows:
7. CMS skills when creating a website:
8. Skills to work in which CMS is preferable:
9. Skills to create a layout with layers, grid, use industry standards:
10. Skill layout template for CMS on the layout:
Based on the data obtained, we will conduct some analysis.
The questionnaire deliberately did not include the question of the need for higher or specialized education from the applicant for the post of web designer:
However, clause 9 indicates that enterprises need already trained web design experts. Only a third of company executives are ready to independently prepare the necessary personnel.
Analyzing paragraphs 2-10, you can come to the conclusion that the web designer first of all should have skills in graphic editors. The leader here is the editor of raster graphics Adobe Photoshop. In second place is the vector graphics editor CorelDRAW. Adobe Fireworks, a Web graphics editor, has very little interest. The likely reason - a large number of frames came in web design from the printing industry, where the benchmark is Adobe Photoshop.
Unlike raster and vector graphics programs, 3D modeling programs are used less frequently, although companies are beginning to show interest in 3D graphics. But, competence from the web designer in this direction is not required, although it is welcomed. Managers prefer to involve individual specialists in this area.
The questions included in the list of answers the list of software distributed freely (Gimp, Inkscape, Blender, KompoZer). As it turned out, the interest of the web studios to these programs is absent, although these programs are actively being introduced into the educational process by educational institutions. The following factors may influence this:
Skills such as knowledge of programming languages, the ability to impose templates, work with CMS, are in second place and in most cases are not required for the web designer. The reason lies in the following. At most enterprises, the process of creating a web resource is divided into stages, where different specialists are involved. It turns out the so-called pipeline process of developing a website.
In the process of questioning, a number of respondents expressed the following idea of ​​the concept of the term “web designer”: A modern web resource production process is divided into a number of stages, including design, layout, programming, then the term “web designer” refers to a narrow circle of specialists engaged in graphic design.
On the basis of the conducted research, it can be concluded that it is necessary to more actively introduce special disciplines in the field of web design into the academic disciplines of art departments of universities.
- Modern representation of the term "web designer"?
- What knowledge and skills should a web designer have?
- What are the requirements for its competence level?
Modern academic education often lags behind reality. In the available special educational literature and in the methods of teaching there is no precise definition of the goals of training specialists in this field. The competency level of web designers is not sufficiently defined.
The survey was conducted from November to December 2011 using e-mail and an interactive online form (at the respondent’s choice). The respondents were selected heads of web studios, or persons responsible for the work with the staff in these companies.
The choice of web studios by location: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Khabarovsk. Invited to participate - 272, took part in the survey - 30.
An interesting side fact of the survey is the activity of the participants. Of the 272 invitations expelled, only 11% of companies took part. This indicates the closeness of the Russian business - the unwillingness of close cooperation of production with educational institutions. Of those who took part, 36.6 (6)% responded via e-mail, 63.3 (3)% via an interactive form on the site. The last figure indicates the prospects for conducting various surveys and studies using interactive forms online. In addition, the interactive form allows you to get more accurate statistical information, in contrast to the e-mail, where the respondent can “refrain” from some questions that require an unequivocal answer.
As a result of the survey, the following data was obtained:
1. Mandatory portfolio availability:
- Yes - 96.6 (6)%;
- No - 3.3 (3)%.
2. The need for skills in owning graphic editors was distributed as follows:
- Adobe Photoshop - 96.6 (6)%;
- CorelDRAW - 50%;
- Adobe Flash - 36.6 (6)%;
- Adobe Illustrator - 23.3 (3)%;
- Adobe Fireworks - 10%;
- GIMP - 6.6 (6)%;
- Any - 3.3 (3)%.
3. The need to master the programs of three-dimensional modeling:
- 3D Studio MAX - 16,6 (6)%;
- Cinema 4D - 6.6 (6)%;
- Maya - 3.3 (3)%.
4. For the ability to own a WYSIWYG editor, Adobe Dreamweaver was favored by 20% of respondents. For the rest of the proposed editors, none of the respondents voted.
5. The level of ability to use the language of hypertext markup HTML:
- Surface - 66.6 (6)%;
- Deep - 20%;
- Not necessarily - 13.3 (3)%.
6. The need for knowledge and skills to own other Internet technologies was distributed as follows:
- CSS - 40%;
- PHP - 13.3 (3)%;
- JavaScript - 13.3 (3)%;
- XML - 13.3 (3)%;
- AJAX - 6.6 (6)%.
7. CMS skills when creating a website:
- Not necessarily - 40%;
- Use CMS (fill site) - 20%;
- To create a website from scratch - 13.3 (3)%;
- Undecided with the answer - 26.6 (6)%.
8. Skills to work in which CMS is preferable:
- 1C-Bitrix - 20%;
- UMI.CMS - 13.3 (3)%;
- Joomla! - 13.3 (3)%;
- WordPress - 13.3 (3)%;
- Drupal - 3.3 (3)%.
9. Skills to create a layout with layers, grid, use industry standards:
- Mandatory - 60%;
- Not necessarily (trained in the production process) - 36.6 (6)%;
- Undecided with the answer - 3.3 (3)%.
10. Skill layout template for CMS on the layout:
- No - 63.3 (3)%;
- Yes - 30%;
- Undecided with the answer - 6.6 (6)%.
Based on the data obtained, we will conduct some analysis.
The questionnaire deliberately did not include the question of the need for higher or specialized education from the applicant for the post of web designer:
- The first reason is the lack of special education in Russia in this area, with the exception of additional education courses and certain disciplines (“Web Design”, “Internet Technologies”, etc.) included in the curriculum for specialists close to the field: designers, programmers , journalists, etc.
- The second reason is the distrust of company executives in diplomas, certificates, certificates, which is vividly confirmed by the first paragraph of the questionnaire. A quality portfolio is the best confirmation of the competence level of a specialist!
However, clause 9 indicates that enterprises need already trained web design experts. Only a third of company executives are ready to independently prepare the necessary personnel.
Analyzing paragraphs 2-10, you can come to the conclusion that the web designer first of all should have skills in graphic editors. The leader here is the editor of raster graphics Adobe Photoshop. In second place is the vector graphics editor CorelDRAW. Adobe Fireworks, a Web graphics editor, has very little interest. The likely reason - a large number of frames came in web design from the printing industry, where the benchmark is Adobe Photoshop.
Unlike raster and vector graphics programs, 3D modeling programs are used less frequently, although companies are beginning to show interest in 3D graphics. But, competence from the web designer in this direction is not required, although it is welcomed. Managers prefer to involve individual specialists in this area.
The questions included in the list of answers the list of software distributed freely (Gimp, Inkscape, Blender, KompoZer). As it turned out, the interest of the web studios to these programs is absent, although these programs are actively being introduced into the educational process by educational institutions. The following factors may influence this:
- Web studios have sufficient funds to purchase proprietary software.
- Web studios use non-licensed software.
- Free software does not meet specific standards for creating web applications.
Skills such as knowledge of programming languages, the ability to impose templates, work with CMS, are in second place and in most cases are not required for the web designer. The reason lies in the following. At most enterprises, the process of creating a web resource is divided into stages, where different specialists are involved. It turns out the so-called pipeline process of developing a website.
In the process of questioning, a number of respondents expressed the following idea of ​​the concept of the term “web designer”: A modern web resource production process is divided into a number of stages, including design, layout, programming, then the term “web designer” refers to a narrow circle of specialists engaged in graphic design.
On the basis of the conducted research, it can be concluded that it is necessary to more actively introduce special disciplines in the field of web design into the academic disciplines of art departments of universities.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/160239/
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