I've been meddling with web design since 2005. I originally learned to develop websites with Microsoft FrontPage and found it easy to use and develop websites. Yet, it was also around this time that search engine optimization (SEO) began to boom and MS FrontPage was known to bloat the code. This meant that it would take the site crawlers more time to sort and index the FrontPage pages, resulting in a lower ranking in the Google search results. Thus, I switched over to Macromedia Dreamweaver and taught myself how to code and develop websites in this program. I started a business working from home and making websites for other small businesses. I was comfortable building websites in the old table format, and many of my clients were thrilled with the concepts and designs I produced, which on the backend were basic columns and rows.
A short while later the majority of website development began to shift to overseas development where labor was much cheaper, and as a developer I could no longer compete in the global marketplace. In the meantime life happened, we moved to Alaska, and I put my websites on the back burner. The town in Alaska was small, and when I mentioned that I had website development knowledge they were thrilled. In my spare time I would develop websites for the local Alaskan community.
In 2012 we moved back to California, and I started developing websites full time. I took an HTML5 and CSS3 class at a local community college. It was eye-opening to learn that Adobe bought the Macromedia products, and floating divs were now being used instead of tables. I enjoyed the concepts of CSS3 and the increased flexibility with HTML5. I partnered with a company in the Philippines and with their help I was able to stay competitively priced. Together we developed WordPress sites, as these were easiest to complete and transfer off to the client for continued maintenance. To this day I prefer developing websites utilizing the WordPress interface.
Today, here we are yet again...due to full time employment, grad school and 2 busy children, websites are once again taking a backseat. I enjoyed this class, as it renews my excitement for web development. I learned some new tricks with regards to the background image in the first page project; and coding a nav without actual jpeg buttons or rollover images, such as that in the 1col.html page. With the book.html pages, I felt that the submission technique in which we were to turn in the assignments via a web page, was rather clever.
I must say though, as an old school developer with SEO knowledge, it irks me to have styles coded in with <head> tag on the index page. I'm honestly hoping we'll be taught how to create and link a css style sheet to the page, rather than coding the styles within the page itself. I wish this class would incorporate best-practices for SEO into the fundamentals as well. Also, if the class is being redesigned for semester-conversion, I'd consider incorporating a newer book. So much has changed since 2012 when the current book was published. Web design has shifted to the mobile sites and responsive designs, and I feel this type of coding should have a larger emphasis in the class.
Overall I feel this class has been manageable for me, as I've been dabbling with web design for the past 11 years. I hope to always keep this knowledge in my tool belt, as I have a goal of someday teaching a college class similar to this one. This particular class has not only helped to fill in some of my learning gaps, but it has also helped to renew my spirit in this craft.
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