Web design classes, certificates and bootcamps in NYC

Design and prototyping applications

In days past, the primary tools that interface designers used was a hand layout building tool (which was often as basic as a sheet of paper, scissors, various cut-outs representing assets and glue). When digital tools became available, this work was migrated to platforms like Adobe InDesign. In recent years, however, most web design projects are undertaken on dedicated design and prototyping apps, like Figma. Knowing how to utilize these applications, particularly in a collaborative context, is vital if you plan to find work in web design. What makes these applications unique is that they are tailored to the needs of designers working in a digital space. Figma, for example, is a browser based application, allowing users to not only collaborate with one another from anywhere, but also allowing users to view browser-based designs in a web browser.

These applications also provide designers with the ability to test and iterate on their designs though proto-typing features. This allows users to create working, practical models of their designs and interfaces so that real world users can use the interface and provide feedback on it. This is an essential part of the design process, since while it is one thing to consider whether or not a design looks good, it is another issue entirely to make sure that it feels good for users to engage with. Modern prototyping applications also greatly improve the speed at which designers can iterate on designs, conduct A/B testing and respond to user feedback. This streamlining of the design process is part of the reason that interface and web design philosophies change so quickly.

Front end web development

While not a required skill, it benefits Web Designers to have an understanding of the technical aspects of building a working web application. Learning how to work with HTML/CSS and JavaScript will likely help students of web design better understand the limitations of traditional web design practices and the required infrastructure that they need to ensure that their design either includes or does not obstruct. This will make designers and developers work better in tandem and it will ensure that projects suffer fewer hiccups as they move from design to development phases.

In addition, if you hope to work in web design as a freelancer, it is very likely that you’ll need to know how to code websites as well as design them. Only being able to do part of the work as a freelancer will put you at a significant disadvantage relative to your competitors, so knowing how to launch a website will be as important as knowing how to design them. This will also help make your application more competitive if you are applying for jobs at smaller firms or institutions that may require you to work as both a developer and a designer in some capacity. While you likely won’t need as much training as someone looking to become a professional Web Developer, learning these skills can open up a number of new career paths.

WordPress

WordPress is the most commonly utilized content management system in the world, with over 40% of all commercial websites using some amount of WordPress infrastructure. This makes learning how to use the platform a great way to shortcut design (and development) tasks, particularly the mundane ones that would normally consume time but not be particularly creative. Streamlining the design and development process will make designing complex websites easier than ever and WordPress offers a wide range of different plug-ins and templates, including tools to create digital storefronts.

If you become sufficiently skilled with WordPress (and with some rudimentary HTML/CSS and JavaScript), you can even begin making your own templates and plug-ins to add further functionality to your designs. This will be particularly useful for anyone looking to work as a freelance designer, since it will streamline the workflow and it will give potential clients a much better idea of the kind of website that you will produce when you are hired. It doesn’t take much time or energy to become relatively proficient working with WordPress and because the platform is so ubiquitous, this knowledge will be applicable in a wide range of professional and personal contexts.

Design principles

In order to succeed at web design, you’ll need to understand a number of important graphic design concepts. Even though websites are more “practical” in their application than many graphic design projects, they are still attempting to communicate ideas to an audience and persuade them to a specific course of action. This means that learning the basics of design principles, including things like color theory, composition theory and visual rhetorics is an important part of becoming a successful Web Designer. In most web design training programs, you’ll learn the fundamentals of visual design and the common application of these principles to designing in a digital space.

Learning design principles can also be useful for anyone looking to create websites that are themselves visual design projects. Not every website you create is going to be a storefront or a product announcement and creatives may find that the expansive digital canvas is an ideal place to create new and interesting works of art. Learning design principles as part of a broader web design education will help creatives expand their toolkit and become more adept at using platforms as visual tools.

User interface design

One of the most common aspects of web design is user interface design, the process by which a designer plans, prototypes and creates the look of an application that a user interacts with. This can include everything from the shape and color of the buttons to the layout of the interactive elements to the pace of scrolling images in a slideshow. Learning these design principles is important because users need to be able to understand and intuit the visual signals that a website is trying to communicate. For example, on Google Docs, the button to print a document utilizes a visual representation of a printer to clearly communicate the function of the button. This kind of visual language is a standard part of user interface design, so much so that many of these designs endure as self-sustaining iconography (floppy disks haven’t been utilized in decades, but an image of one remains the near universal icon for ‘save’). Knowing how to utilize certain shorthands and visual design techniques is important to creating easy to utilize and effective web applications. 

In addition to making sure that your web designs communicate important information (obviously, you want users to know what button to press to take them to your webstore), you’ll also need to learn design principles that help you create certain emotions and affects in viewers, since you want to communicate how users should see your web presences as much as how they should use it. The website for a small Italian bistro opening downtown will want to look different than the website announcing the launch of a new tech product which will want to look different from a tractor supply company website. Knowing how to make these different kinds of designs will be important, especially if you are working as a freelance designer or working as part of a design studio.

User experience design

Unlike most graphic design projects, which are almost always static and primarily function as graphic design pieces, they are also tools that users need to interact with, so if they are too confusing or difficult to utilize, users are likely to move away from the website and find what they are looking for in a more convenient place. There is a reason that so many of the largest and most successful websites prioritize user-friendly design as an important aspect of their success. User experience design is the process of building websites that account for how real life users will interact with that website, since designers can never really be sure how users will engage with their designs. This means that web interfaces must be rigorously tested in real world situations in order to avoid design pitfalls or unexpected QA issues that arise when a website has been launched.

In addition, as more and more of the basic functions of our everyday life are migrated online, even things as fundamental as paying bills, applying for jobs or scheduling doctor’s appointments are done digitally, which means that the web applications used to facilitate those activities need to be designed such that anyone can use them. Making the internet more accessible for users, particularly older users and those with physical disabilities is an important job and it is the responsibility of UX Designers to frequently iterate upon designs and create the best practices used to create accessible web pages.

User experience design is a less tech-focused skill set and it is less concerned with visual design as opposed to accessibility. This means that UX Designer will primarily be concerned with testing the practical functionality of a web design, whether that be in focus groups, surveys, QA tests and A/B tests. UX Designers need to have a firm understanding of data analysis principles and the ability to gauge and sort through quantitative and qualitative feedback that they receive from testers.

Given that there are two main types of web design responsibilities, it follows that there are two main career paths for those interested in web design: UI Designers and UX Designers

UI designer

Also sometimes listed under titles like Web Designer or Visual Designer, a User Interface Designer is tasked with designing the layout of a web application or digital interface. As more and more aspects of lives are mediated by digital technologies, there are increasingly more interfaces that need to be designed. Take for example, the many drink dispensers at restaurants and theaters that now use a touch screen to let you select your beverage. Those required a UI Designer to build the interface. UI Designers handle the visual design components of almost all web development and software projects. They will often work as part of a design team, under the oversight of a design director and they handle the pre-development work, including wireframing and asset creation. In the US, a User Interface Designer earns an average salary of approximately $90,000 annually.

UX designer

User Experience Designers, on the other hand, are responsible for ensuring that a user interface has been thoroughly tested and iterated upon for user interactivity and accessibility. Becoming a UX Designer will require you to learn a lot of data analytics skills, since good UX design is the result of rigorous testing and proper applications of feedback from users. As a UX Designer, you’ll need to know how to properly collect data from testing groups, write surveys and interpret and analyze quantitative and qualitative data that can be used to improve the overall look and feel of an interface. They will also work to develop interfaces that are more accessible and easy-to-use, making it easier for people from all walks of life to utilize web applications as they become increasingly integral to our day-to-day activities. In the US, the average salary for a UX Designer is around $101,000 a year.

While they may sound interchangeable, web design and web development are significantly different parts of the work that goes into the completion of a web page. While professionals in the two fields will work side-by-side on the same projects, they handle radically different aspects of those projects and each professional path requires different kinds of specialized training. Web design addresses the visual and informative elements of a website while web development addresses the technical underpinnings that make them work. In smaller companies (as well as in freelance situations), it is possible that one person will be expected to handle both tasks.

Despite being different roles, the two are closely connected enough that it pays for anyone involved in either role to learn at least the basics of the other. As a Web Designer, understanding the capabilities and limitations of programming languages can help you design pages that more easily translate from idea to reality. As a Web Developer, understanding the design process will help you understand why certain specific decisions are made while designing a page and what aspects of that design cannot be abandoned.

Given that there are so many different web design classes to choose from, you’ll want to spend some time weighing various factors to decide what course is best for your particular needs. This will include issues that are related to the kinds of skills you want to learn and practical concerns like how much the class costs and what learning mode you feel will best suit your needs.

What are your goals?

The first question you’ll want to ask is “what do I want to get out of this program.” Since web design is important across a swath of different industries, there are a lot of professional development programs aimed at helping students become career ready upon finishing the course. These courses tend to be longer and more expensive, but they provide students with in-depth training that aims to take novice designers and have them ready to find a job in web design (either at a studio, a company or as a freelancer) as soon as they graduate. These courses tend to cover the most material and they often include some form of career support to help ease graduates into the process of applying for entry-level positions. 

By contrast, students who aren’t as sure that they want to pursue a career in the field, including anyone who is looking to design websites for personal projects or is hoping to expand their design skill set, these classes may be too long, expensive and involved to be worth the effort. For these students, shorter and more focused courses, like the bootcamps offered by Noble. These courses can be completed in only a few class meetings and they aim to provide specific skills training, giving students the ability to be more discrete and selective in what they learn and how they learn it. These courses can also help you slowly build up your skills or prepare yourself for a more advanced bootcamp or certificate program in the future.

Should you learn in-person or online?

Students will also want to consider how they want to receive their lessons. With online learning options becoming more common (and of higher quality), students will have access to a wide range of different teaching modalities that they can mix and match to fit their personal needs and desires. This includes live in-person classes, live online classes and asynchronous classes, all of which have advantages and disadvantages to consider.

For students who can’t commit to a regularly scheduled class and don’t want to take courses piecemeal, asynchronous courses are likely the best option. These classes, which are usually the least expensive training option, let students learn at their own pace, since they are not tied to any physical set of lessons taught by a live instructor. Often composed of individual, recorded lessons, these classes give students the opportunity to learn at their own pace and to build their own curriculum as they see fit. This gives students with unreliable or inconsistent schedules an opportunity to still learn web design and these classes can help students focus more intently on the specific areas of study they are looking to become more adept at. The drawback to these classes is that, without access to a live instructor, it is far easier for students to fall behind and become lost, which, because there is no fixed schedule, leads to an increasing amount of students abandoning their studies. 

Students with the time and availability to attend an in-person course should choose that option if they want to succeed, especially in a career-focused context. This will leave students with two major options: live in-person and live online classes. In-person classes, which are thought of as the traditional way to learn, give students access to all of the equipment and instruction they need to become well-versed Web Designers. These classes let students work face-to-face with their teachers and alongside their cohort, which can be very helpful for ensuring that students continue to focus on their studies. Students can also get direct, immediate feedback from their instructors, which can help them bridge some of the more difficult lessons when learning web design (especially if they are new to coding). The drawback to in-person courses are almost all logistic in nature. These classes will, obviously, need to be attended in person, so you can only enroll in classes that you can actually attend and you’ll need to account for travel time and other associated costs, which can both add up quickly in a place like NYC. 

The alternative to live in-person classes are live online classes, which you can take from anywhere. Thanks to advances in teaching technology over the last few years, online classes have begun to catch-up to their in-person counterparts, so you aren’t losing any depth of training or sacrificing anything to enroll in an online class. You’ll still get to work alongside classmates in real time (potentially collaborating with them on designs through applications like Figma meant specifically for this kind of remote group work) and your instructor will be addressing the class live in a private digital classroom space. They can still interact with students directly (even being able to make changes to a student’s desktop with their permission) and they can provide the kind of personalized feedback that is so important in the design process. Students will also benefit from learning these skills on their personal devices, which can be incredibly beneficial for anyone hoping to work from home or freelance. The drawbacks to these classes are that despite all of the leaps in online learning, the distance between yourself, the instructor and the rest of the class can be alienating and it will require students to be more proactive in ensuring that they do not fall behind in their work. Students will also need to work harder to ensure that they are not distracted and focused on their lessons, particularly if they do not have a dedicated workspace.

Are web design classes worth it?

Given the important premium that is being placed on every company, start-up and institution to have a solid and memorably web presence, learning web design skills can be useful regardless of what field you ultimately opt to end up working in. Learning web design skills will open the door to well-paying careers that allow professionals to express themselves creatively as they produce dynamic and interactive websites. In addition, learning web design can be useful for start-up entrepreneurs who want to ensure that their initial launch is paired with a website that looks and feels exactly how they want it to without having to hire and micromanage several potential freelancers or studio designers.

Learning user experience design is also an important and valuable skill to learn, since the market for digital applications and websites is so crowded that a project can live or die based solely on how easy the website is to navigate and operate. This means that user experience designers are in high demand and they are at the cutting edge of shaping what the modern internet looks like. If you are interested in joining this profession, you’ll need a wide range of different skills, all of which you can learn in a dedicated UX design course or web design bootcamp. UX design is also an important skill to learn if you are interested in participating in the movement to make the internet more accessible and democratized, since physical and digital access is an important part of creating an internet that works for everyone.