How Can I Become a Web Developer and Web Designer by Earning a Degree?
The internet is huge and holds approximately 1.94 billion websites with thousands more being added every day. Web developers and designers are responsible for making this possible. They turn a visual design into a working website, which people can visit. To get started, you will need to know the basic coding languages such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Although you can teach yourself how to code formal education is often a requirement by most employers.
5 Benefits of Formal Web Development and Design Education
After graduating from high school or college, the next most logical step is to get a degree. Formal education has a well-designed curriculum that will equip you with important skills that you will need in the working world. Because web development and design degrees are now being offered online, receiving formal education has never been easier. Other benefits of formal web development and design education include:
- It gives you a competitive edge: Employers prefer web developers and designers who hold at least a bachelor’s degree in computer and information science or any other related field. Some of the things that you will learn include programming, mathematics, database management, networking, cybersecurity, web interface design, and web application development.
- It saves you more time: Having qualified teachers and lecturers to guide you will save you a lot of time because you won’t have to figure out the steps that come first. Formal education has a school syllabus that helps you learn progressively. What’s more, the structured school environment ensures that you have uninterrupted learning pace. Additionally, the school projects and homework due dates prepare students to get used to meeting deadlines when they enter the working world.
- It expands your education: The biggest advantage of formal web development and design education is the opportunity you will get to take up other art related courses. These art courses will help develop your visual literacy skills and enable you to practice expressing your designs and ideas.
- It provides you with both structured and free thinking: Web development and design schools explore what can be done more than what has already been done. This will equip you with different techniques to help you think differently. According to the Business News Daily, creativity is a gift that can be cultivated.
- It boosts your confidence: Self-taught web developers and designers take time before they can be as confident as graduates from web design and development school. Self-taught developers and designers work hard to prove their skills to make up for the lack of formal education. On the other hand, graduates are often confident and sometimes overconfident and they deliver ideas that appear more credible just because of their formal education.
Skills Every Web Developer and Designer Learns in College
If you’re wondering whether web development and design is the right career path for you, you need answers to the bigger question: What will you learn in school? Don’t worry, formal education is well-structured and you will learn the basic web development and visual design skills including:
Visual design
Although it may seem obvious that you need web design knowledge, visual design focuses more on digital products and it may be different from what you expect. Visual design determines the look and feel of a website, and it ranges from grid systems to color theories, to typography. This means that visual design will help you create mood boards.
HTML and CSS
As a web developer, you should understand the basic coding and markup languages. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the standard markup language and it forms every web page on the internet. A website will function depending on how you write the HTML. However, your website won’t display as a website without CSS. Cascading Style Sheets interpret the markup language and display them in a more stylized manner.
Design software
Just like any other craftsperson, you need the right tools to do your work. While you can design a website in a web browser, you need tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Sketch to complete important parts of your job like designing assets, creating mockups, and modifying photos.
JavaScript
Although HTML and CSS are the most fundamental languages, you will also learn JavaScript. This is a more advanced programming language that makes sites more interactive. Now that the web development industry is growing, standards are changing and becoming more rigid. Therefore, clients have higher expectations for their websites. JavaScript knowledge will come in handy in writing special features such as social media share buttons, search bars, and videos on all sites you develop.
Are you itching to learn how to code? If you want to study towards a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Science with a Major in Software Development - Web Design and Development Track, ECPI University offers this course at an accelerated pace. For more information, connect with a friendly admissions advisor today.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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Gainful Employment Information – Web Design & Development Track - Bachelor’s
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