Twenty-twenty ushers in the beginning of a new decade and for those of a certain age a time to seriously start thinking about what skills to develop for the design jobs of the coming decade.
Starting my fourth year of teaching design/digital media, I’ve come to learn a thing or two from my students based on both feedback and classroom observations. Here is a list of the skills I think you should have.
Learn Frontend / Backend Web design / development + HTML5 / CSS3 + UI / UX + Animation and Translations + Multimedia: video audio table form + show your artistic side with typography.
Learn responsive web design, SEO, security, and performance tuning.
Learn Digital Marketing + Social Media + SEO + SMM
It’s all about the content
Learn JavaScript + PHP/MySQL + Python + Web Development Tools
Learn JavaScript Deeply
Learn Automation ML + AI + NLG
AI will touch all facets of digital design
Learn Cloud computing + Azure + AWS + Google Cloud. What’s cloud computing you say, start here: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2011/10/final-version-nist-cloud-computing-definition-published
Final Version of NIST Cloud Computing Definition Published
Learn WordPress & Drupal Development + “The Loop” + Custom Content Types + Gutenberg + Yoast + Schedule events + Security + Optimization + Responsive Mobile Design + Hosting + High Performance / Security + Media Management
HTML5 media tags: video and audio
Learn Google Analytics, get certified in Google Analytics.
Collect, configure, and analyze your data to reach the right audience.
A to Z Guide to Google Analytics infographic is the property of Orbit Media Studios, and is being provided here with the permission of Orbit Media Studios. http://roosdesignconsulting.com/a-to-z-guide-to-google-analytics/
Client tier – the Internet through your browser.
Middle tier – Web server (APACHE server listening for requests on virtual port 80) PHP application server (scripting engine).
Database tier – Database Management System MySQL.
I like the latter, I just installed the WordPress Facebook Messenger chat plugin. You’re looking at it (lower right corner).
Today, with so many people on Facebook there’s a good chance they’ll have Messenger open and more inclined to engage with our website.
I use the Pantheon web hosting platform in several of my web design classes at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines IL. During the semester students build two WordPress sites, one blogging site and one business website as their final project. Using Pantheon accomplishes several learning objectives: hands on experience configuring / managing a web server environments and an in-depth understanding of the WordPress backend. It is my experience that it’s easy to setup for students of all levels. It’s reliable and is high performance, so students get to experience a high-end, high-performance hosting environment. Last semester’s final projects were awesome.
I found this really great article on digital marketing conversion optimization and how Landing pages work.
