Made my decision and managed to register and pay for the Design and the Web course at the Open University – yikes! So back to being a student again after many years, finding ten hours a week to learn lots of new exciting stuff. Oh dear what have I done – I’m going to have been so movtivated with this distance learning. I’m hoping that by choosing a course that interests me will make me learn, not like at school when trying to learn Chemistry! I thought I would give a brief rundown of the course that I’m taking. It’s only a ten week course (starts in May) and it explores the elements of web page design, text, colour, images and assembling them as layout. It also covers usability issues such as navigation, access, interactivity and designing virtual experiences. On the course content it says it aims to teach design theory, basic technical skills enabling novices to publish their own web pages, how to critique web pages and websites from a design perspective and let students experiment with design principles to create well-designed websites.
I wonder if being a student again (albeit a part-time one) will mean I can go back to drinking Snakebite and Black, wearing DM boots (first year at college) or out clubbing until six in the morning and somehow surviving on £30 a week from my Saturday job (second year at college). I wonder if I will get a student card and get discounts at TopShop – now that is a exciting prospect.
Anyhow, I’m actually really looking forward to starting this and learning new things that might help at work (at least I might have something to say on my weekly website team calls!) and you never know in 10 years time I might actually finish an Open University degree.
Well done for gettng back into studying, your blog found us via Google Alerts.
you may want to consider the other side of Website design and look into the Search Engine Marketing aspect.
We’re just training our own staff up using the following (shameless plug) http://www.ncchomelearning.co.uk/web_multimedia_courses/web_design_course/the_26_week_internet_marketing_plan.htm
It gives you the background information as to why Blogs are a good idea, we found you that way, and the best practices regarding building your websites around keywords.
Good Luck with the course.