{Interactive Web Design Blog}

Have you had any recent thoughts about learning web design? It seems like the profession everyone is trying their hand at these days. As an almost graduate of an interactive web design program I have a few ideas that may help you map out a plan of action.

After ten years out and about in the work force, I decided that I wanted to change careers but I knew that  I was not one of those people that could “teach themselves” web design. I had a huge list of questions and tons of things to consider.

I spent some time surfing around the web, reading posts from graduates of local Vancouver web design schools. I wanted to find a program that was going to offer a broad introduction to the industry since I wasn’t bringing a whole lot of industry experience to the table. I knew straight out of the gate I wasn’t going to be a web developer per say, but as someone with management experience, an organization fanatic, and art enthusiast I was motivated to learn.

After a bunch of research, time spent talking to a few random people, attending a couple of information sessions, checking out campuses, and a lot of long thought sessions on life in general, I made the decision to start the Interactive Design program at Capilano University (it was Capilano College then, but we have moved up in the world since!)

Some of the most important considerations on my list were:

Class size – I wanted a program with classes on the smaller size to ensure that the teachers would have enough time to offer individual help as well as ensure that it would be an interactive teaching environment.

Variety – having courses that covered a broad range of subjects touching on everything from development, design principles and information architecture, to dabbling in audio and rich media editing and project management.

Practicum – School is great, but if your experiences aren’t tied to real life situations you end up with a huge hurdle to jump over when you are ready to enter the industry. I knew that a practicum opportunity was a must for me.

Price – education is important, but breaking the bank never makes sense.

Learning user experience based design – these days it seems that almost anyone can sit down and build a basic website, but do they consider the user? Do they understand the concept of usability? Do they even know that these topics play a huge factor in our web design education?

After reading my list you probably have a few things of your own that you could add. There are a few other schools in Vancouver that offer programs in web design and development.

Vancouver Film School offers a program but they fell off of my list because they don’t offer a practicum.

The Art Institute offers a program complete with a downtown campus and  state of the art Mac labs, but their program is jammed into one epic year instead of 2, and the cost seems to be through the roof.

BCIT also has a campus downtown, but yet again their program costs seem high, and the school seems focused on the development aspects rather than design which didn’t really work for me.

There are several other programs that you can find in Vancouver but they didn’t really make it onto my list. I found a home for myself at Capilano University, the instructors are all industry professionals, the classes are small, it is a 2 year program including a practicum and the range of topics covered are broad. It is a bit of a treck out to the North Vancouver Campus but being up in the North Shore Mountains makes it all worth it.

There are tons of things to consider when looking for a program to join, hopefully you pick right, become a killer designer or developer and help turn the Internet into a better, cooler and fancier place.

If you want to see for yourself how the Capilano University teachers and crew hooked the Robot Salmon team and the rest of the web design students up in the North Shore Mountains browse on to Interactive Design

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