Mark DuBois Weblog

We are about to start the Spring, 2012 semester where I teach. Our college [Illinois Central College] has been recognized as a Web Professional Academy since 2006 (when the Web Professional Program began). Before we start the semester, I though I would reflect on what it means to me to be a web professional. I look forward to your comments (please place them below). Note that I must approve all comments due to the vast amount of spam comments received.

So, what are the characteristics of a Web Professional?

1. They make a concerted effort to constantly learn. Anyone who has worked with web technologies for any length of time recognizes that our field changes daily. There is always some new technology which can be employed to better address client problems. Part of this learning is that we must also unlearn and relearn. This is something I try to convey to students every semester. If you think that you already know the answer to a problem, stop and do a little research. Chances are that something has changed which will impact how you help solve a client’s problems.
2. They stay in contact with other professionals. Whether this is through the use of social media (like Twitter, Google+ or the like) or via participation in conferences or some other means. Our field is rapidly expanding and it is impossible for any one person to stay on top of all the changes. Being in contact with other professionals often helps me decide where to focus my efforts at continual learning.
3. They give back to their community. Yes, I spend a lot of hours serving as Director of Education for WebProfessionals.org and as an Adobe Education Leader and user group manager. However, I have found that it is through these interactions I often meet incredible people and establish lasting friendships with people throughout the world. I also find that these contacts help me learn where to focus my efforts (ok, this is also covered in my second point). From a selfish perspective, I have found that I always get back so much more than I can contribute when I help others in the community.
4. They understand their short comings and make a concerted effort to improve. We all have faults and blind spots. We need to recognize that and actively work at improving. If a deadline is missed, fess up to it and apologize (if necessary). Make a concerted effort to never make the same mistake twice. Always strive to improve (every day).
5. They give credit where it is due. We can not be masters of everything, but we can identify best practices and recognize those who have helped us.

What are your thoughts on what it means to be a web professional? I look forward to your comments.

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”  This quote by Carl Sagan essentially sums up how I feel about this past summer. I have learned so much and had so many incredible experiences and met so many knowledgeable and passionate people and renewed a number of friendships. For those who are curious, we also now have a third grandson – Owen Mark. That was definitely the highlight of this summer (that and spending a week with our other two grandsons). However, as we start the fall semester at school, I wanted to share a few thoughts on my experiences with technology and education this past summer and some of the activities I have had the privilege to be associated with. This has been a summer of conferences and contests. I doubt this is a complete list, but here goes…

• Working Connections conference – Springfield, Illinois, May – I had the distinct honor of teaching a week long class on HTML5 and CSS-3 to a group of very dedicated and passionate teachers (and individuals involved in both state government and  industry).
• WOW Web Design Contest – Kansas City, Missouri, June – I was able to help run these contests for both secondary and post-secondary students. I believe this is the 8th year we have done a national contest with a focus on web standards and professionalism. This was my first year to actually award the medals. It is an incredible experience to be on stage with over 18,000 people in the audience.
• MPICT conference – San Francisco, California, June – I also had the pleasure of speaking on HTML5 and CSS-3 for another week with an emphasis on aligning and modernizing web curriculum. I met many colleagues from across the western states (including Hawaii) and have made a number of new friends.
• D2W conference – Kansas City, Missouri, July – Not only was I able to participate in this conference at the last moment (many thanks to Dee Sadler), but I was also able to travel to the Designer to Developer Workflow conference with two colleagues from central Illinois. It was a great experience and a chance to learn even more about mobile development issues.
• Adobe Education Leader Summer Institute, San Jose, California, July – I have been privileged to attend this event for the past 3 years. This year, I gave a five minute presentation on how we are teaching Business Catalyst as part of our web business class. I also got to participate in a panel discussion with collegaues entitled “Tell Adobe.”
• SchoolOfWeb.org initiative – I have been asked to co-chair this initiative focusing on interdisciplinary education. Although this is a daunting task, we simply must succeed. Our fragmented efforts at various education initiatives need to coalesce and I am honored to be a part.

Ok, those are some of the highlights. I have left out many others as I want to focus on what this means for students in our web classes and why I think it is important for everyone to become more involved.

So what? I know that is likely the main question readers are asking. Ok, Mark had a fun summer and did a lot of traveling. What this means is that I made a concerted effort to keep my knowledge and skills up to date. This is something every person in this field should be doing. If you are a student in a rapidly changing field (like web systems) ask your teacher what they are doing to keep up with current trends and enhancements. As you may well understand, the pace of change in the field of web systems is rapid and accelerating. We now think in terms of mobile and multi-screen development first and web pages later. We need to think of the web as an immersive experience, not just information. I also made a concerted effort to network with as many people as possible. This is one of the main reasons I attend conferences in person. Twitter, webinars and the like only go so far. One needs to actually communicate with people physically. Additionally, I believe I have made a difference. Whether discussing aligning web curricula with current best practices, teaching HTML5, or discussing what we are doing in central Illinois, I understand that I have had the chance to influence a number of programs throughout the United States. By my count, this represents between 40 and 50 school programs (mostly community college and high school). In addition to specific classes, our national web design contest is a grass-roots effort to improve curricula throughout the US. Students who participate realize the only way they can achieve excellence and get on the medal stand is to fully understand and employ web standards and professionalism. They are taking this message back to their teachers and asking that these topics be covered in depth. If one includes all the colleges and high schools touched by our web design contests, we are well over 100 institutions that I have been able to directly influence this summer. To me, that is making a difference and raising the bar for web standards and professionalism in education.

Now for those who have read this far – why am I mentioning this at the beginning of the fall semester? This is a new semester and academic year. One of the reasons I enjoy teaching is that every year and every semester is a new beginning. We can constantly improve over past semesters. Those who have had classes before may have become complacent. Those who are just getting started may feel overwhelmed.  Don’t (in either case). Use this semester as an opportunity to network (learn from others). Everyone has unique knowledge and skills they bring to our classes. Use this semester to take advantage of challenges and activities outside of class. For example, we have a meeting of our local Web Professionals chapter and Adobe User Group meeting every month. Participate. Yes, I know you are busy. So am I. However, unless you make an effort to grow and stretch, you will remain exactly where you are. Don’t just consider or think about participating in the web design contest – do it. Commit now and make an effort to test you knowledge, skills, and abilities against others in April. If you do well at state, you will go on to compete nationally. If you don’t do well, that is ok. Learn from your mistakes and try again next time.

You have some great opportunities available to you as you take classes in our web curriculum. Use this as an opportunity to grow and expand. Don’t just limit yourself to class work. If you only do the minimum, how will you differentiate your accomplishments to potential employers? “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Venture outside of your comfort zone and find the incredible.

I participated in the WOW/ Web Professionals web design contest in Kansas City last week (June 21 – 24). I wanted to take a moment and share my observations and include a few comments received from the judges. I am providing these hoping that we will continue to see gradual improvements in the competition every year.

First (and most importantly), I believe everyone competing at the contest demonstrated significant professionalism and enthusiasm. The contest is all about employing web standards, demonstrating professionalism and exhibiting a positive attitude. I observed these traits many times during the week.

Obviously, everyone participating had to win first place in their respective state competitions in order to participate in the national contest. The fact that you competed in Kansas City means you are a winner. We held separate contests for high school (secondary) students and college (post-secondary) students. Although both competitions had some similarities, there were a number of differences. Both competitions consisted of a series of 6 challenges (per competition). When all are combined, one would have many of the components of a working website.

Much of the contest is about professionalism. That is why we ask for copies of software licenses (operating system and applications – such as Adobe Creative Suite). This is also what we stress during the interview process. The following comments are meant to provide some feedback to participants (and to help those who plan to compete again next year). These notes are not comprehensive (only some of the common observations from judges). Obviously, a large part of this competition also focuses on adherence to web standards and established best practices in our industry.

First (and most importantly), focus on accessibility. This is important when choosing fonts and colors and when designing the structure of the site. Best practice is to include leveled headings and image descriptions (alternate text). Red/ green color schemes should be avoided as they will not appear as you think to those who are color blind. Similarly, one should stick with common sans-serif or serif fonts. Tightly spaced or script fonts can be difficult to read for those with poor eyesight.

Color schemes should support the type of website (for example, one would typically use a different set of colors for a bakery compared with a florist). Once you have a color scheme, it should be used consistently throughout the challenges (unless there is a specific reason to vary).

From a validation perspective, it might be easier to rely on the HTML5 doctype instead of XHTML 1.1 strict. The former is much more forgiving to the validator. Regardless of the doctype employed, don’t forget to include meta elements to help with search engine ranking (keywords and descriptions). When comments are included in the HTML and CSS code, they should be concise and provided to make the site easier to maintain. The purpose of each comment should also be evident.

If you design for a smaller screen size (such as a smartphone), don’t forget to use responsive web design techniques (perhaps percentages) to reduce the amount of horizontal scrolling.

Although not every team met the JavaScript challenge, everyone should understand these fundamentals. For those who were unable to complete this challenge, I recommend reviewing JavaScript fundamentals.

Lastly, there were some challenges with a title of “Untitled Document.” This should definitely be avoided.

Overall, many of the teams provided interesting approaches to each challenge. Many mentioned during their interview that lack of resources was actually helpful to their team (they could be much more creative). A number also mentioned that it would be helpful to have discussions with an actual client.

I appreciated all the feedback received during the debriefing and we will be making changes to this competition next year to reflect some of those comments. Overall, it was a great week and I hope everyone present enjoyed the competition as much as I did. Until next year…

I had the distinct honor of being part of the WOW/ Web Professionals web design contest. This competition was held in Kansas City last week (June 21 – 24). Teams of two (web designer and web developer) competed for over $210,000 in scholarships and prizes. I plan to post a few comments about the competition itself (based on feedback received from the judges). That will be the subject of another entry in this weblog. In the meantime, I wanted to share some photos. All were taken by either myself or Jonathan Worent. I hope these convey some sense of the excitement and enthusiasm we encountered all last week. What a positive experience for all.

I recommend clicking on one fo the thumbnail sized images below and then viewing the entire set at the Flickr website (you can also view these as a slideshow at the Flickr site).

I just completed supervising the 11th annual WOW web design contest for the state of Illinois. I have done this every year (with the exception of 2008 when I was giving a pre-conference seminar at the 17^th International WWW Conference in Beijing). There are separate competitions for secondary and post-secondary aspiring web professionals. This contest is held as part of the SkillsUSA competitions in Springfield every April. The contest consists of a series of challenges, a quiz and an interview.The contest itself would not happen without the support of the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW). I am Director of Education for WOW. Prizes for this contest were donated by lynda.com. My sincere thanks to everyone on the lynda.com team for going the extra mile to support aspiring professionals in the web design field.

To the contestants themselves let me offer my congratulations. You are all winners. I mean that. It takes an extra spark to put forth the effort to travel to Springfield, Illinois and spend two days away from family and friends. Of course, there can be only one winning team at each level. These two teams will be going on to the national contest in Kansas City in June. That being said, everyone present demonstrated their courage to test their knowledge, skills, and abilities related to web design against others in the state.  Everyone who participated demonstrated their willingness to put forth an extra effort. That is precisely what employers are looking for today. For those who are considering entering this contest next year – do so. Be passionate and committed to your profession. Demonstrate that you are willing to take risks.

To the judges (Brandy and Jonathan) I express my gratitude. Your assistance was greatly appreciated. The fact that you both took a day off work to judge is impressive in these tough economic times. I also appreciate that you are practicing professionals and are so willing to “give back” to help the next generation of web professionals. Having you there as part of the de-briefing session at the end of the competition was a distinct plus. This allowed the participants to directly hear your comments and suggestions.

Every year, I try to impart some observations and insights to those who participated. Surprisingly many of the same items come up year after year. I will only touch on some of these points below. I have tried to group them into technical (coding) and professional (non-coding) areas. For those reading this who are advisers and teachers, feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more about any of these items. We at WOW are always willing to help faculty by reviewing curricula and verifying class materials focus on web standards and modern design techniques. This is why we stress web standards as part of this competition every year.

Professional

• Ask questions. Ask insightful questions. Verify that you really understand the challenge. If you don’t understand a response, ask again.
• Don’t forget to diagram your work before diving into the actual coding. Scaffolding and wire framing are quite helpful techniques to allow you to focus on those aspects of each challenge which must be completed first (and which aspects should be consistent across all challenges).
• If you are told not to use templates (such as those found within Adobe Dreamweaver) and frameworks (such as Spry or jQuery) – Don’t use them. Yes, the judges notice this in a heartbeat and you lose points quickly.
• Divide and conquer – each team member has strengths and weaknesses. Identify those and play to your strengths. Don’t both work on the same aspect of a challenge at the same time.
• Keep on top of emerging trends (yes there were some questions about HTML5 on the quiz). Even if HTML5 is not yet a W3 recommendation, many browsers are starting to support. Yes, it takes time to learn new materials. This constant change is typically what attracts us to this profession.
• Make certain you take the time to thank your teachers and advisers for help they provided you to prepare you for this competition (and for your entry into the field of web professionals).

Technical

• Review your work. Make certain you have no “Untitled Document” in the <title>. Yes, the judges saw a number of these this year.
• Similarly, rely on CSS (not &nbsp;) for properly arranging materials on the page.
• Think progressive enhancement and graceful degradation as you develop pages for multiple browser environments (and different screen sizes and resolutions).
• Don’t rely exclusively on the design view in Dreamweaver. Know how to directly manipulate the code. It can be much faster to change CSS (for example – if you know how to code this directly).
• Regarding CSS – rely on inheritance and the cascade. Keep classitis to a minimum (this would be the use of a class for every item).
• Use the tool (Dreamweaver) to validate your code. I know the judges valiated the code and every team had multiple validation errors in basic HTML.
• There were not a lot of entries which relied on tables for their overall layout (but there were a few). Please learn CSS and web standards. Tables make it incredibly difficult for those using accessible browsers to navigate your pages and glean content (among other reasons why tables are not a good idea).

As the supervisor of this competition, I was glad to see that all teams competing relied extensively on Adobe tools. In my opinion, these are the best in terms of helping with web design. Yes, I am an Adobe Education Leader, but I said that long before I was chosen for that honor. The overall distribution of versions this year was the following:

• Creative Suite 5 - 55%
• Creative Suite 4 - 10%
• Creative Suite 3 - 35%

I provide a link to some photos I took during the competition. I hope you enjoy them (view them as a slideshow at Flickr). I also hope they convey the intensity and desire and passion present during the competition. Just follow the link below to view the photos in larger dimensions (and as a slideshow).

A recent post on MeyerWeb got my attention. Essentially, someone asked Eric Meyer whether they should drop out of school (they are pursuing a computer science degree at a 4 year college). They wondered how useful a degree in computer science was for web development. You can read Eric Meyer’s response. I thought I would provide my own thoughts on this as well as solicit feedback from current and former students (I have been teaching web systems for 11 years).

My advice would be for the person to stay in school at this point. An education is valuable and often will allow you to get your first job. Once you have your foot in the door, it will be up to you to keep the job (based on your knowledge, skills, and abilities). By staying in school, you have the ability to hone these aspects. I would add that anyone considering entering this field might consider taking classes at a community college for the first two years. That being said, I have observed that there are vast differences in what is offered at various colleges and universities (some are still teaching materials which were out of date in 2001; others are staying at the cutting edge). Students should shop around and verify that the college is not only accredited, but also vetted by some web specific organization (for example, our program has been reviewed by the World Organization of Webmasters). One should verify that web standards are being taught consistently in the program (sadly, some programs do not teach web standards in any of their classes) and that current best practices are encouraged.

I am also curious as to what current and former students think about this topic. I know a fair number of former students have gone on to significant jobs in various aspects of web design and development. I also know that some students are struggling in the current economic climate. If you are reading this and you are a current or former student, please post a comment regarding your thoughts as to the value of your education (particularly the web systems classes). I do not plan to filter the comments (except to block the obvious SPAM drivel which plagues most content management systems these days).

After the winners were announced at Kemper Arena, they moved on stage and were introduced to the crowd of over 15,000 people.