About WebWoman™
Web Designer, Teacher, Author
I've been developing web sites professionally since early 1995 and training web developers since 1996 at both colleges and continuing education centers. In fact, I was the first to teach web design & development at community colleges in the San Diego area. I love teaching others how to create usable, accessible, interactive, content-rich, cross-browser compatible, and standards-compliant Web sites that rank well in search engines.
Currently I teach several web development classes at Trident Technical College's Continuing Education Center in North Charleston, SC, including: Web Design for Business, Dreamweaver, JavaScript, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat.
My JavaScript textbook, JavaScript Concepts & Techniques: Programming Interactive Web Sites, is currently used by over 100 colleges and universities to train web developers across the nation.
Education & Training
As far as my formal education goes: I hold a Master of Science degree in Electronic Commerce, a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems, and an Associate of Science in Mathematics - all earned with honors, mind you.
I'm an expert in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I learned both HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) from the original language specifications written by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and later the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) long before there were any books available on the subjects. I learned JavaScript in much the same way, only my guides were the JavaScript Language References produced by Netscape Communications - the company who invented JavaScript. I'm also familiar with databases, can write CGI scripts in Perl, program in PHP, and am quite conversant with usability and accessibility guidelines and optimizing sites for good search engine ranking. Since studies show that 80% of a web site's traffic comes from search engines, that's an important skill to have.
To stay current and conversant with new technologies, standards, and best practices, I do a lot of research. Over the years I've read countless books, delved into more than my share of dry technical manuals and specifications, and perused countless web sites and online articles all to learn more about the myriad aspects of web development including: coding, client-side and server-side programming, search engine submission and ranking, database integration, e-commerce, intellectual property law, Internet marketing, user-centered design, usability, accessibility, writing for the Web, web server management, you name it. But I don't just read this stuff, I experiment with it, put it into practice, teach it and write about it to train others.
Web Design Philosophy
I understand that the Web is its own medium: it's not print and it's not television, perhaps, it's somewhere in between. The rules that apply to good print design do not inherently apply to the Web. Too many so-called Web designers are really graphic artists accustomed to the precision and detail of the print world, with no special training or true understanding of the Web, accessibility issues, usability standards, or search engine criteria for ranking. They often mistakenly try to apply their print rules of writing and design to Web development. I don't do that. I teach people how to write and design for the Web and the search engine goddess known as Google.
I believe that every web site should work in every browser and on every computer. After all, that's the whole reason the Web was created in the first place: to allow people to share information with each other irregardless of the computer platform, operating system, or web browser used to access that information. As such, I'm big on accessibility and adhering to usability standards and proven best practices that help get sites good ranking in search engines. I love to help people create web sites that work well, look professional, and rank high in search engines, too!
- Tina McDuffie, WebWoman™