You’re creative. You’re independent. You’re a hacker type and a self-taught web designer. You don’t need all those rules, now do you? After all, if you wanted rules, you’d go to school. Well, let’s get real. Best practices in web site design exist for a reason: they help designers create web sites that optimize user experience. And tight, right code is the fingerprint of professional web design. The best time to assert your design independence is after you get your credentials, not before.
Best Practices emerge from the collective intelligence of the web site design community, so designers ignore these universal guidelines at their peril—and at the peril of their clients. The web’s most elegant and efficient solutions to site design problems arise from the experiences (and the frustrations) of many designers. Best practices, then, signify the collective wisdom that
It’s one thing to say you’re a professional web site designer and to hope that your portfolio speaks for itself. It’s another to offer a credential—certification, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree—or even beyond. A credential isn’t just your own opinion of your worth; it’s some else’s testimony that you know your stuff. And you can bank on that testimony. Formal educators embrace best practices, so educated web site designers use best practices effortlessly. After all, their design school programs won’t let them get away with any bad web site design habits.
The best way to both exercise independence in web site design and get someone to certify your skills is to hone your natural design abilities in an online site design program—not to invent design on your own or make people take your word that you know your stuff. Online schools let you have it your way—and still get the credentials that will prove your worth to potential customers and users alike. Both you and your site designs can reach maximum potential by using the collective wisdom of best practices.
A formal education and a web site design degree are your best practices for creating an elegant career.