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What Is Your Biggest Gripe About Web Design Courses/Books?

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Nov 04.2004

Hey,

I am doing some quick research for the e-zine I publish. I am taking a poll. Take this opportunity to voice your opinion and tell us what you think.

What is your biggest gripe about current web design courses/books online today?

Your Friend From Brazil,

David A. Bailey, Jr

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Full-stack Developer

6 Comments(s) ↴

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@AdamGundryNov 04.2004 — Too many "learn to be a web designer" courses don't mention anything about accessibility, usability or standards, certainly in the early stages. By the time many people come across such concepts, they are already too familiar with nested tables and/or Frontpage to want to learn to do it properly.

Adam
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@soccer362001Nov 04.2004 — I have a friend who is taking an Introduction to Computers class at college, and they had her make a web site that would have been new seven years ago:eek: now I don't know about you, but that is just wrong. Thats one of my big beefs about people who teach old stuff.
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@johndoe190Nov 04.2004 — Now i can explain from experience i have been on a few courses not to learn the web techniques but to gain a qualification and most content is inrelavant outdated and as Adam has said many dont teach simple very important principles such as accessibility and the others people then become accustomed to design views in WYSIWYG editors and believe thats all there is to web design.

Sorry about the rant.:o
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@Stephen_PhilbinNov 05.2004 — The number of people still runnin' about asking how to "program" something with html is just ridiculous. Just teaching a list of tags is not enough. They have to understand what they are for, what their purpose is. Why we use html, what it is, and what it is not is pretty much never explained.

The importance of standards and accessibility is also invariably skirted around because the tutorials "want to keep things simple for now", when there's actually no better way of keeping learning simple than to seperate the process into the seperate blocks of markup and styling, and how this seperation makes design easier and also makes things better for all browsers and all people.
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@ray326Nov 05.2004 — That they teach gee-whiz rather than standards.
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@toicontienNov 05.2004 — [b]Get ready.[/b]

I'm talking specifically about Web design courses in colleges or community colleges.

1) The HTML that is taught is circa 1998.

2) The CSS that is taught is circa 1998, invalid, and includes IE-only properties without notifying students that it is IE-only.

3) IE is the only browser used to display Web pages in class. Often, this is the fault of the IT staff at the college because computer workstations are on lockdown to students and faculty, so teachers [i]can't[/i] install the browser software they need (i.e. multiple browsers, not just Firefox :rolleyes: ).

4) No explanations about accessibility, the Americans With Disabilities Act, section 508, or The W3C. They may be minor players right now, but education is to prepare students for the future. The items listed above [i]are[/i] a part of Web design's future: [url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-08-20-lowsighted-sites_x.htm]Travel Web sites agree to be accessible to blind[/url]

[SIZE=3][b]5) Web design is taught to people who will never be Web designers!!![/b][/SIZE]

My God! I've taught a "class" on HTML at [url=http://www.cmich.edu/]Central Michigan University[/url] for a senior-level journalism class. We used Dreamweaver and I was supposed to make them feel like Web designers. They aren't. They're journalists. Business majors at CMU also have to take a Web design class (using Front Page, no less) - AND THEY WILL NEVER BE WEB DESIGNERS! The reason I'm ranting most about this is because these classes make it seem like [i]any[/i] person can put up a quality Web site for a business. They can't!

6) Syntax is taught. Design isn't. Visual communication isn't. Site design isn't (how many folders, and how deep a Web site's server folder structure should be). The classes are only 1 credit. That's not enough time to deal with syntax, design issues, philosophy and current events in Web design. These need to be taught!

... and ... and ... OK-I'm-done.

EDIT: GAAHH! Thought of one more thing. W3C standards should be taught, and so should the current method of design. Both are in use, so designers will have to deal with both.

Now I'm done ?
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