Is it possible to build a web design/developer folio in a year?
January 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: I plan on getting a number of certificates from W3 schools and developing a folio which will include wordpress, flash, dreamweaver and photoshop. I will be doing this in my spare time!
It is possible to develop all that in a year, but not sure where the level you will achieve will get you. Not sure about using wordpress, but it would be worth either going with Flash or photoshop – only try the other once you think you’ve done enough on the one of them.
As for development – ignore JR when he talks crap about professionals not using IDE’s – but they use things like Eclipse ( I use JDeveloper as I’ve used Oracle for some time ). An IDE like Eclipse has the concept of projects ( which I assume you’ll be working on ). There are also versions of Eclipse and plug-ins which help work with HTML, PHP, Java, C++ etc. also a wide range of databases. Eclipse is free to download ( JDeveloper is similar – not so widely used though ) from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. Using this may add to your credibility with employers rather than say you’ve been playing with Notepad++!
Posted in wordpress design
Your portfolio will contain three references that will keep you from being a professional "developer" and keep you in the ranks of "amateurs":
1. Dreamweaver, Wordpress are two IDE used by people who do NOT know much about programming web applications (in other words, "people who do not know how to CODE"). REAL Professionals NEVER use any IDE, unless to set-up the basics of shapes and forms.
2. Flash makes you a "gamer" who has no notion of marketing, nor of web technical bandwidth constraints. Nowadays, there are still a very large number of users who do NOT have ADSL or higher speed internet connection (ie 10%+ in US, 70% in Africa), thus eliminating a large percentage of potential clients you can reach. Flash animations are reserved to ASDL 4Mb/s and over, or just about 30% of the world population. Flash websites are mistake number One in Web Development.
To be considered into the realms of professionalism, you should be fluent in Photoshop (the industry standard in graphic designs), and use only a text editor to make your developments using proper coding techniques and principles, leading to the fluency in (X)HTML, Javascript, Php, MySQL and AJAX to cover developments on Linux/Unix servers (LAMP), in ASP, JSP, .net, IIS, MSSQL and Java to cover developments on Window based servers (WAMP), and in the 13 frameworks required to compete at the level of "mobile" web developments [ie Linux Symbian Java ME Lazarus Python Flash Lite .Net Compact Microbrowser Based Blueprint (programming language) Rhomobile BREW Pocket PC Palm OS Android iPhone OS BlackBerry]
Mastering ALL these techniques is impossible: each of them evolve faster than you can learn them. You have to specialise.
A good knowledge of LAMP framework will take you well over two years to master (FULL TIME!).
Certificates provided by w3schools are not sufficient to guarantee "job(s)".
If you wish to make a valid portfolio, design a few simple, static websites, then develop a few "applications" (a social network, an e-commerce with shopping cart and payment gateway, a site with a content management system), ALL of them developed WITHOUT frameworks like Joomla, Drupal or ROR: leave these frameworks to "enlighted amateurs" who still do not understand how these frameworks… work!
I started programming in the 70’s and I program for the web since it was born in ‘92, complex applications, and I am STILL having to learn a few tricks of the trade everyday…
Unfortunately, hopefull youngsters having played with Dreamweaver for a few weeks THINK they are home and dry, and that they are now "Professionals".
Nothing is further from the Truth.
Good luck anyway…
References :
It is possible to develop all that in a year, but not sure where the level you will achieve will get you. Not sure about using wordpress, but it would be worth either going with Flash or photoshop – only try the other once you think you’ve done enough on the one of them.
As for development – ignore JR when he talks crap about professionals not using IDE’s – but they use things like Eclipse ( I use JDeveloper as I’ve used Oracle for some time ). An IDE like Eclipse has the concept of projects ( which I assume you’ll be working on ). There are also versions of Eclipse and plug-ins which help work with HTML, PHP, Java, C++ etc. also a wide range of databases. Eclipse is free to download ( JDeveloper is similar – not so widely used though ) from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. Using this may add to your credibility with employers rather than say you’ve been playing with Notepad++!
References :