Web Designers in Cape Town have a BIG PROBLEM. In fact, I’m sure the same situation occurs the world over. With the current state of tertiary education in South Africa web design courses have been added as an after thought at the end of graphic design courses. Many greatly skilled graphic designers find their way to interviews for digital design positions thinking that great design skills and the three month section of their studies that covered web design will stand them in good stead for the position.
Upon seeing what actually goes into good interactive design, they end up shocked. To my knowledge, no courses currently running in Cape Town cover usability studies, best design practices, or even the latest advances in technologies like jQuery and Flash. The bulk of what I’m seeing taught is useless HTML design with no purpose. I refer to one large tertiary education institution in the heart of Cape Town whose final web brief was a four page design for a company selling cup cakes. In the real world of web design we face challenges of representing large bodies of data. Making it easy to use and an enjoyable experience for the user thereby incorporating technology that can add value and make the site smooth and functional.
These mislead designers might be shocked that actual industry professionals would tell them to close Photoshop and start with planning, sketching, wire-framing, usability study research and after the design, some serious testing and adjustment where necessary. Then there are aspects of the job that aren’t so obvious; planning, time management, knowledge sharing and continuous self-learning and research.
SO WHOSE FAULT IS IT?
I would say that tertiary education institutions are to blame offering sub-par courses without proper grounding in the main pillars of information architecture and usability and for merging short irrelevant web syllabuses with graphic design courses. Students getting into digital need to know what they are getting into and embrace it. Digital design definitely has a great future and is currently booming in SA especially, however, most people who are serious about getting into this industry will have to walk the path of self-learning as everyone I know and work with has.
SO WHATS THE SOLUTION?
Industry leaders need to teach students what it really takes to make it in the space - allow them to fail yet steer them in the right direction to find their digital niche. There is a great school called Hyper Island, which does exactly that. Until we embrace similar teaching methodologies in South Africa all the learning will take place at your work desk. Locally I’d have to tip my hat in appreciation of Quirk eMarketing who have offered great resources for anyone interested in marketing in the digital space. They have driven a large amount of traffic and attention to themselves whilst offering a standard for industry starters to work towards.
Check out a short explanation of Hyper Island…
By Ryno Van Niekerk
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Nice talk Ryno!
I can understand your frustration, but this issue is a little more complex than educators simply ignoring industry needs or being entirely ignorant (though there is certainly some of that).
The needs of industry have become far more specialized, especially in the digital media realm. If you look around a digital agency such as Hello, you dont see web designers, you see a host of highly specialized individuals working on niche areas of expertise. Industry wants graduates that can slot into those niches straight off the educational production line, which is understandable.
However, from an educational perspective there simply isn’t enough demand to justify entire courses geared solely towards those particular niches. Sure, the industry is growing, but how many usability experts or jQuery gurus can we actually absorb per year?
“however, most people who are serious about getting into this industry will have to walk the path of self-learning as everyone I know and work with has.” Absolutely! It confuses me that you can make this statement and then ask why design education isnt training niche-ready individuals.
Look around your own studio, how many of the jQuery gurus or even the creative directors actually learned their trade in design schools? This isn’t because design schools are entirely ignorant, it’s because training for such transient and niche skill areas isn’t feasible.
Even if institutions did dedicate the full 3 years of the average diploma/ degree program to web design or development you would still have the same problem.
Industry professionals also forget that education is not only about giving someone the design skill and technical knowledge to do a particular job. A lot of hard work has to go into basic design literacy and basic headspace development to get a student from matric to vaguely employable in a design context. Hence many design programs invest heavily in basic visual design, seeing it as a basis on which to build something.
Students also don’t know when they leave matric that “I want to be a php developer”. If institutions did have twenty students a year breaking down their doors begging for a comprehensive backend development program, institutions would be happy to oblige.
The digital media is always going to be a frontier industry and I think there has to be recognition that while design education can lay a basis and nurture the talent, the “real” vocational training has to happen on the job. This is why juniors get paid peanuts surely?
How does “HTML design have no purpose” …specially in South Africa.