Advice to FdA Web Design students :: Timothy Stringer

Advice

Your learning doesn't stop at the door. Read books, research on the web, practice what you’ve learned.

Know what is expected of you before you leave. There's nothing worse than getting home not knowing what your doing.

Check your work, then double check it then triple check it. You are entering an industry where small details matter.

If you’ve got a question don’t be scared to ask, most of the time everybody else is thinking the same thing anyway.

At times it may all seem too much but there is a lot of support for you to draw on within the group.

You will get out what you put in. You'll also learn more by tapping the resources available to you.

If you don’t already start following blogs, portfolios, design company websites, they really help.

Maximise your class time, especially if you don't have any other access to the software. Assignment time is limited!

Find the balance that works for you with college and your social and work life. Then try and maintain the balance.

Create a dedicated study area at home if you can. It helps to be able to separate things and walk away if needed.

Have your sketchbook open and be ready from the start of the day. If you don't you might miss something important.

Comprehensive notes come in handy to look back on when you don’t remember things. Try and colour code important things.

If you don’t have any design background, get feedback from others as soon as you can. It makes it easier to handle later on.

You never know when you might be inspired try and keep a notebook or a camera to hand all the time.

A number of sites you could find extremely useful during your first year of the course.

A list Apart: With articles on topics such as Code, Content, Culture, Design, Process and User Science this site is a must for anyone wanting to improve their web design.
Smashing Magazine: Updated very frequently, it is an online magazine filled with articles about all things web design. They also has a very comprehensive tutorial section of the site.
Web Designer Depot: Filled with articles links and tutorials, updated nearly everyday this is another great site to keep up with the latest trends on in web design.
Ilovetypography: Everything you need to know about typography and more. . . Also has a very addictive typographic recognition quiz which helps you learn about different typfaces.
Del.icio.us: A bookmark networking site, allowing you and others to share your bookmarks using a tagging system and networking similar to social netowrking sites.
Kuler: Adobe's very own colour palette creation tool, links through to the CS4 suite and also allows you to view tagged palettes.
Twitter: Forget celebrities. . . You can get free advice and tips from recognised industry leaders for free. Where else can you do that!

Here is a list of some of the firefox add on's we have found useful during the first year.

Web Developer Toolbar: With the amount of tools that come with this add on it's a sure must for any budding web developer.
Firebug: This add on allows you to see the styling of pages already on the web. And what happens when you mess about with the code.
FireFTP: When you finally get around to uploading sites and pages you need something simple and lightweight to help you with this. FireFTP fits the bill perfectly.
Delicious Bookmarks: Every time you add a bookmark on your browser this add on will ask if you want to add it to your online bookmark store at del.icio.us (requires del.icio.us account)
Colorzilla: Lets you click on any colour in your browser and find out the RGB and Hexadecimal values amongst other things.
HTML Validator: When you start building your site this add on helps to validate to W3C standards as soon as you view your page. It will also give you advice on exactly where you've gone wrong.

Below are a few of the people you might want to take note of, some of the industry leaders.

Andy Rutledge: Owner of The Design View a respected member of the web design community, Principal and chief design strategist for Unit Interactive, LLC.
Jason Santa Maria: A highly respected American web designer, Jason has a very interesting blog in which he lets his typographic skills shine through in his articles about web design.
Jonathan Snook: With one of the largest portfolio sites on the web offering tips, tricks and bookmarks on web development, you would be silly not to take advantage of what he has put on offer.
Mark Boulton: Founder of Five Simple Steps a site where a number of useful publications can be found. His blog also takes things back to basics design wise.
Chris Spooner: A young web designer and illustrator from Sheffield, updates a helpful blog at blog.spoongraphics.co.uk, and can be found writing articles on a number of websites.
Sarah Parmenter: What this girl doesn't know about UI design isn't worth knowing, a large believer in things should start on paper before moving to screen. Sarah is a successful iOS & Web Designer based in Leigh-on-Sea.