Trends 2015: Why more and more “non-techies” study layout

Previously, the term "computer literacy" inherently meant the ability to work with an office suite, but life does not stand still, and now more and more experts (and even NBA star Chris Bosch) claim that the ability to become an extremely important skill for a wide range of people to program.

At the same time, programming is a huge area of ​​knowledge, only a small part of which can really be useful to an ordinary person (that is, a “non-techie"). We believe that the foundation of the “new computer literacy” should be compiled by layout knowledge. In today's topic, we will look at examples of how studying web technologies can help representatives of non-technical professions.

Why the value of web technology knowledge is growing

Almost every company is now somehow present on the Internet, and knowledge of the basic technologies on which it is built can be useful not only to technical specialists. Do not forget that many professions in themselves have become much more "technical".

For example, ten years ago, a marketer who writes excellent press releases and comes up with ideas for advertising campaigns would be a real star in his company. Today, the work of such specialists is based on data, the results of A / B tests, on the basis of which newsletters and landing pages are created. Now, to become a truly strong specialist, more and more knowledge of HTML with CSS is required.

It is also difficult to work with content on social networks without at least basic knowledge of web technologies, a partner of the SMM agency saysLittle Big Agency Maxim Yurin:

Even SMM employees sometimes require basic knowledge of layout and wiki markup, for example, to make an interactive post or Vkontakte page, to fix something in the Facebook tab, etc. When we hire employees, for us, layout knowledge is a big plus for the candidate.

Similar changes have occurred in journalism - many media have recently completely moved online, closing print versions. This means that journalists often have to not only write good materials, but also make them up in the “admin panel” of the web version of the publication. Often, such WYSIWYG editors behave unpredictably, and if you paste text from an editor like Word or Google Docs into them, the result can lead an unprepared person to a standstill.

Knowing HTML in this situation will help determine where the unwanted tags are located on the page and remove them. In addition, knowledge of layout makes it possible to save a lot of time and in some cases create for publication immediately “folded” documents in a notebook (formatting documents using HTML and CSSour free basic courses are dedicated).

For example, the editor-in-chief of Zuckerberg Calls Konstantin Panfilov agrees with the thesis about the importance of layout knowledge for journalists .

In general, it is strange to ask the question of the need to know the basics of IT in 2015, when our whole life is almost completely dependent on machines. A journalist working on the Internet must know at least basic HTML tags and a bit of CSS - all the admins I know allow you to edit the code manually, and you won’t be able to call your programmer every time you have a signature on the picture?

Because everyone knows that it is much more reliable to edit the code directly than to use a visual editor, which, it seems, cannot be completely eliminated from bugs. Therefore, I am glad that I learned HTML at school, and for those who did not have time to do this, I highly recommend that at least you will have a piece of bread after you ****** (kick you out) from work. The crisis is the same.

How else layout knowledge makes life easier

Companies do not always have dedicated designers who help marketers, which means that the latter have to take on some “design” tasks for themselves - for example, designing email newsletters or modifying site pages. In order to test the effectiveness of different versions of letters or landing pages, their template may need to be changed. Knowing layout and the ability to work with tables and forms in such a situation will help not to “break” the formatting, but if it did happen, return everything “as it was”.

In addition, technology companies occupy leading positions in many ratings of the best employers and provide truly attractive working conditions. That is why many people in non-technical professions tend to get into such organizations.

However, in addition to beautiful offices, social packages and lounges, IT companies have many techies whose mindset may differ from what a conditional marketer could get used to at previous places of work. And for successful work with them you need to try to find a common language. And techies value their time and don't like it when they spend it on simple tasks.

This is what Sergey Dmitrichenko, co-founder of AmazingHiring HR startup and managing partner of the GMS recruiting agency, is talking about .

When hiring non-technical specialists, but often interacting with developers by the nature of their activity, general technical literacy and knowledge of web technologies, in particular, are often important. Employers make relevant requirements for candidates.

Let me explain why this is necessary:

1. Communication with technical people is simplified. In order not to go far for an example, for the IT recruiter profession, technical knowledge is also needed when getting a vacancy from the customer - to understand the tasks and requirements, and when communicating with candidates, to talk about the technologies used in the project and correctly answer at least basic technical questions .
2. Such a specialist can solve some of the simple technical problems independently, without the help of developers. This saves a lot of time and is especially valuable for teams in which the resources of technical specialists are limited.

Some statistics

Recently, the economic situation is characterized by nothing more than the word "crisis" - many companies are forced to carry out staff reductions and add work to the remaining employees. This means that even older workers (45+) in order to save their places will have to learn how to interact with corporate sites - at least publish various documents on them. In addition, many people will find themselves in a situation where their past profession will not be in demand, and they will have to choose a new career path.

All of the above leads, among other things, to the fact that more people who are initially far from this are engaged in the study of programming and web technologies. According to our service statistics, from February 2013 to February 2014, the number of students over the age of 45 studying web technologies at HTML Academy was only 2.3% of the total:



Over the next year (February 2014-2015. ) this number was already 4.9%: The



number of female students also increased significantly - from 12.6% to 16.4%. Many of them work in journalism and marketing, so the growth of their interest in the study of layout is not surprising.

Another interesting point: students studying typesetting from the age of 35 years and older, not only became more, but they began to take a more responsible approach to learning. Last year, representatives of groups 35-44 years old and 45+ years old looked at about 7 pages on the HTML Academy website and spent 12 and 13 minutes on the website, respectively: This year, the share of visitors from these groups increased, the bounce rate dropped significantly, the viewing depth increased and time spent on the site for solving practical problems for training:

Conclusion

The trend to increase the demand for programming is obvious, and, as our statistics show, more and more people begin a closer acquaintance with the world of technology by studying HTML and CSS.

One of the main advantages of learning such basic web technologies (besides the fact that employers like job seekers who know them) is the fact that they are an excellent first step in learning other programming languages.

Not everyone will want to learn programming (and the same Linus Torvalds considers this to be correct ), but understanding the principles of the Internet in the age of technological development will certainly not be superfluous.