tldr: I’m gonna become a web designer. Then a web developer. Then a UX designer. It’s gonna take some work.
Goals: I’m teaching myself User Experience design from the very beginning, starting with refreshers in the history of the internet, HTML5, CSS and Javascript. From there I’ll learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails. At that point I’ll move into learning the broader user science strategies of Info Architecture and UX. My reasons for wanting to go into this career field are tied into who I am, and I may or may not expand on them in this space in the future, but my immediate goal is to build a design portfolio that I can use to gain entrance into a design graduate program. I’ve chosen a sandbox WordPress template so that, in addition to functioning as my journal of progress as I learn, I can also use it to experiment as I work through new competencies.
Status: I’ve just now begun the learning process. Despite my database day job and a touch of HTML & CSS skills acquired over the course of a digital native life, I’m nowhere near a web professional. I’m ready to change that. I’ll be using WaSP Interact’s web student curriculum in tandem with Opera’s web standards library, along with books, blogs, and meetups with local UX professionals. This fall I’ll be interning at Contact, an unconference for web professionals & forward-thinkers designing the path forward for the user-centered social net. I’ll also be taking, just for fun, Stanford’s upcoming fall course on Artificial Intelligence.
Assignments this week include–
Video
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Readings
“History of the Internet and the Web”
“How Does the Internet Work”
“Better Writing Through Design”
“The Discipline of Content Design”
“The Web Standards Model”
“Concepts in Info Architecture”
“What Does A Good Web Page Need?”
“Color Theory”
“Web Standards: Beautiful Dream”
scratchup 