Hi there,
Not too sure if this is the place for this, i’m new.
I’ve recently started studying Web Design/ Technology. I have read through and completed the activities in Ian Llyods book: Build your own website the right way using HTML & CSS I also had a read through The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beird.
Unfortunately for me I’m studying ahead of the rest of the bunch and the tutors have nothing for me to do right now.
So if you could please recommend some other resources to read through (preferrably with activities but not necessary) it would be very much appreciated.
By the way I’m trying to work towards web security as an in the future goal if that helps in any way.
Again, sorry if this is in the wrong place feel free to burn it to the ground if it is and thankyou for your feedback if it’s not.
First things first, if you want to get into Web Design then you’d better study for a design degree. If you want to be a developer then you’ll probably need to pick up some sort of backend programming skills. I’d recommend Python or ASP.NET. HTML guys are a dime a dozen and you’ll be very lucky to land a decent job if all you can do is front-end code.
Anyway, the best place to start is by reading Opera’s Web Design Curriculum. That’ll run through everything you could possibly want to know from a beginners prospective.
Also, be sure to read through SitePoint’s references. They are fantastic and are one of the reasons I continue to come back to this site.
Finally, if picking up a back-end language and reading through all of that isn’t enough for you I would definitely build up your knowledge of both legacy browser support. It’s not glamorous, but 99% of web work isn’t and real world companies will want you to support all their customers, even those 5% of users on IE6 that ruin the lives of front-end developers around the world.
Ah boll*cks
“HTML guys are a dime a dozen” is an opinionated an incorrect summary of front-end web development, front-end web development is hugely important these days. I don’t know why you picked .net and python either… it completely depends on what he wants to do with it.
Why do designers need to study and developers practice?
Both skills can be learnt with private study, a degree isn’t entirely necessary.
If you want to get into web security then you’ll need to research a lot server-side technologies, hardware, as well as javascript.
It’s a very broad subject and you need to keep up to date with developments in major frameworks and learn about the different vulnerabilities that are shared on security mailing lists / forums.
From a coding perspective Ruby on Rails actually has a lot of the leading security implementations - So I’d definitely encourage you to check out what they are doing as well as learning PHP, .NET and Java.
What next?
Javascript would by the first thing I’d suggest adding to your tool belt.
I never claimed that it wasn’t important, but it would be foolish to claim that there aren’t a large amount of front-end coders compared to server-side coders. It is such an obvious fact that no one really disputes it.
The reason why HTML guys are “a dime a dozen” is because it is a task that is very easy to outsource and with the easy barrier to entry there are a lot of people that want to make a quick buck. I charge several thousand per project, but the same work “could” be carried out by someone in India for probably a fifth of what I’d charge.
That’s not to say that they’d do a better job than me. Collective experience and research shows that outsourcing projects to external teams, especially those outside of your timezone can be fatal to the success of a project. The one time I’ve worked with outsourced code nearly made me sick, and led to more time “fixing” the code than it would have taken me to do the project myself.
I picked ASP.NET because C# is a great language, Microsoft has a good track record of taking care of its developers and because ASP.NET developers are often paid more than those that write anything else. I picked Python for similar reasons, but mainly because both C# and Python are great languages with great libraries and have a higher barrier to entry than PHP.
A coat isn’t entirely necessary in the rain, but you’d never recommend someone to not take one, would you?
Yes, you don’t need a degree, and “smart people” are more than happy to say that you can learn it all yourself and become good through practice. That makes sense in theory, but in the real world you’ll often work for pointy-haired bosses and elitist brogrammers with top ten ranked CS degrees, and if you don’t have that sheet of paper you’re not getting an interview.
I would say that a degree is entirely necessary, and given two identical candidates I’d pick the one with the degree every time. The reason for this is that a degree not only assumes a body of knowledge in a chosen field, but the collective experience of university as a young adult and the knowledge that a candidate has worked hard for 3-4 years to achieve something.
Most importantly, when you become a fourty-something designer/developer if the job market dries up you’re solely going on your work experience and things can be a real dead end. Designers can often struggle to get work later in their careers and programmers have similar issues when they start to get older, and when all you’ve done is build websites you’ll find yourself very limited at the time when you need that security the most.
A recent thread on Hacker News stated that people with degrees are often paid less than those with degrees, simply because the person with the degree is perceived to be “more employable” and as such is a more difficult asset to keep.
What does JavaScript have to do with web security?
If you want to get involved in the security aspect of things you’ll definitely need a degree, because without a class in Cryptography or any other kind of Coding System you’ll never learn about things like adaptive key derivation functions and why one-way hashing functions are a terrible choice for storing passwords until way later on in your career.
Hmm, I disagree on most of what you’ve written so we’ll just need to disagree I’m afraid.
I think the number of back-end programmers, or people with a preference for it may well be in the majority.
You clearly have a preference for the back-end, but your posts here show a lot of ignorance about the importance of front-end development.
I know people who outsource back-end development but keep the design / front-end development here.
It’s an interesting standpoint on the ms stack, I agree C# is a great language but disagree that you should choose the ms stack because of it.
What does JavaScript have to do with web security?
Well, quite a bit actually. But my point was that you need a wide range of skills and will need to know a lot of programming languages.
I think Javascript is a great programming language to start with if you’re working on the web.
Ajax calls are often the insecure, XSS, redirects / phishing are some big ones.
Learning Ajax also teaches about HTTP and what is sent between the client / server - absolutely essential for web security.
I thought you were saying that designers need a degree and developers don’t, my mistake.
I agree that university is a great first step.
It’s hardly surprising. The highly-held belief that desktop development was dying was far from the truth, and if anything desktop applications are helping to embrace new ideas driven by the web.
I do a lot of front-end development for some high-end websites, so I am fully aware of the importance of front-end development, as well as its limitations. My preference for back-end development is due is because it is far nicer to develop for. If you’re developing on a framework (i.e. JVM or .NET) then your host is well-defined. When you’re building sites for clients with millions of visitors, with thousands still using legacy browsers it quickly becomes apparent that HTML, CSS and JavaScript are too far behind what most designers and developers want.
As I stated above I’ve choose it because it’s a great language and there are lots of jobs in it in most western and European countries. The only language I’d steer clear of as a career-making language is PHP, but as always I’m one commenter on a forum full of people.
Absolutely, but my point was that much of the knowledge about security on the web also comes from understanding the workings of databases and server setups. There’s a lot more to a career in security than best practices on the front-end, as the likes of LinkedIn, Last.fm, eHarmony, TutsPlus, Sony and co have learned over the past month. You could be clued up on JS, run as many hack days as you want and hire the best people, but if they don’t understand why you should never use the SHA1 algorithm to secure your passwords then they may as well just let hackers in.
It’s the best first step you can possibly take and it worries me how many people will listen to those that have made it without degrees. It’d be like running a marathon to work when there is a free bus service.
