19 August 2010

Know more. The easy way.

I want to keep up with everything I'm supposed to know as a digital designer, but lets face it, that's a dung load. In a field that never stops morphing at light speed, that means web design standards, photography techniques, video technology, mobile device design strategies, constantly new versions of software packages, ways of incorporating new online social trends, graphics manipulation, font design, information architecture principles, usability research... and oh yeah, I have to keep doing my full time job. This is where I cry out "thank you Lynda!"


Self-teaching is how I learn most things but it has its limitations and plenty of time gets wasted in the hunt for quality content. Lynda.com is a training site for people like us and it genuinely provides an excellent service. It's a library of instructional content (high quality, well structured videos with experts) on all the topics mentioned above and more. Unsurprisingly, as a multimedia designer, I'm an audio visual person, so I would MUCH rather have someone show me what to do and tell me what I need to know. Lynda.com content provides just that. It's also chunked into perfect bite-size nuggets, so even if you only have a spare 5 minutes you can inch forward in your understanding and continue later. Or you can sit and dedicate an hour or a day to getting something entirely under your belt. It's not tips and tricks, it's comprehensive in bite-size chunks.

There are a variety of subscription options, so you can treat it as a magazine or a university course. Check it out. http://www.lynda.com