At the beginning of this semester, I was really excited to take this class. And looking back on it now, I realized I learned a lot when it comes to web design, coding and other topics in web development. When I started at the beginning I knew that websites had a basic HTML structure, and I knew there was something called CSS that I would often use to stylize my blog design on Blogger or other websites. But I didn’t know the difference between the two or the exact rules to follow. Coming out of this class, I better understand the reasoning behind HTML and CSS rules, the semantics and the syntax of them all. Putting together everything I learned, I think this class will be very useful in my future career.
While I’m unsure of my career path, I am leaning towards working in the creative field of communications, and I can see web design playing a role in what I do professionally. As a strategic communications major, I’ve seen how websites play a role in delivering an organization’s message and how the web can be used to strengthen a brand’s identity. The web is an evolving platform that contains a variety of media coming together in one place: images, graphics, video and more. It’s this content that makes up a brand’s online presence. It’s important to strengthen this presence through different strategic means as audiences are increasingly consuming information from online visual formats.
Web development and writing for the web has been a topic in many of my communications classes, and it’s interesting to see the overlap between classes. I think as communications professionals, knowledge of how the web works and how users receive information will be important to any communication professional not only designers but writers, strategists and others. I’ve learned that one of the most important things a brand can do to strengthen its online presence is to improve its website. It might sound obvious, but sometimes we think a brand could enhance its social media presence or do other things online. As controlled mediums by a company, a website is a credible source of key messages for a company’s audience. Websites are where people often look first to find out about a brand. When working for different clients or organizations, it’s important to see how they’re communicating online and to see how well they invest in their website as a tool for reaching their audience.
As I combine my interest in writing graphic design, and web design, I think it’s important to keep in my everything I learned across my classes. I hope to work for nonprofit organizations or perhaps in a creative agency. While it would be awesome to work in web design, I think I need more practice right now, and I’m looking forward to gaining more experience through other classes, online tutorials and some of my favorite blogs by freelance graphic and web designers.