July 10th, 2008

A common question we hear from people is whether or not it makes sense to go to college to learn web design. The short answer is “yes”, but the long answer isn’t much sexier, it’s just “yes, quite a lot.” The web was once a thing your high schooler could build for you with modest adeptitude, but those days went away as soon as the users of the web realized that your kid’s design, however well intentioned, looked and worked terribly.

The problem isn’t that the average high school age kid has somehow lost the edge, it’s that the desire for full-function, appealing web sites has grown to a point where even the most savvy teenager can’t possibly code it out for you.

A modern web site requires:
- Comprehensive backend database integration,
- Graphic designer grade logos, colors and images,
- Optimized Flash with XML functionality,
- Unlimited scalability without the need for major recoding.

Any of these components may require a degree. Our firm, for example, has PHP/SQL educated staff for backend integration, people certified in Adobe Photoshop, and more network monkeys swinging from the backend vines than we’re honestly able to throw bananas at… though believe me, we’ve tried.

And even still, it often seems like we’re pushing ourselves to the limits.

Last month we were hired to redesign a site that the company owner’s son had built. He was in college studying towards his bachelors in fine arts, and a savvy young man by any account, but the site he built was strangely retro in ways that looked like it was right out of 1998. It had animated gif images, a twinkling background, horrific colors, and a site navigation you’d have to be him to understand.

And the owner wanted us to include him in the redesign, so his feelings wouldn’t be hurt.

Let me take a diversion real quick and talk about the potential for you becoming a web developer. If you go to a major university and get a 4-year degree in programming (not IT, not web design, but actual coding with serious math prerequisites) you’re going to be looking at an all-but-certain job frontier with a starting salary of probably $60,000 in your market, $72,000 if you’re willing to relocate, and a glass ceiling around $90,000. That’s C++ and the like, perhaps even visual basic if you’re exceptional with the creative and visual end.

If you’re looking at the private, professional field, no degree will help you. You can have all the credentials in the world, but if you don’t have anything material to show for it (such as sites you’ve built for friends or a wicked senior thesis project) you’re going to find job offers to be more scarce than the tooth fairy is to grownups. Conversely, you can have no degree at all, but a solid portfolio of practical applications, and find modest job offers plentiful.

With that said, short of having the sort of elegance that comes with a degree, you’re unlikely to land the Microsoft or Google job. It’s not that they don’t like function (though in the case of Microsoft that seems exactly true), but that advanced industry players require advanced industry understanding. Nothing against your functional, maverick ways, it’s just that they want something a bit less “exciting” and more predictable.

If you’re looking to get in to the field professionally, you either need a degree and a modest portfolio, or no degree and an outrageous portfolio. The degree can be overlooked if the body of work is sufficient, but rarely the other way around.

If you’re looking to have a site built and you don’t have a consultant to guide you through it, the same is true. Pay less attention to the degree of your bidder and more attention to the samples of past work he, she or they have done. This is a rare instance where the Catch-22 works. An amateur CAN have an exceptional body of work, all he, she or they have to do is build it themselves as a showcase, for others as charity, or actually prove their worth by finding a paying buyer for the product.

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