Web Design Competition (1 Viewer)

[WSA Web Design]

Do you want to gain national and international recognition for your skills?
Do you want to have the opportunity to exhibit on a national level?

If so, then why not enter the WorldSkills Australia Web Design Regional Competition...

WorldSkills Australia Competitions are held each year in over 50 skills areas.

The competitions are designed by leading Industry experts and give competitors a head start in today's fast paced work place.

Top performers in these competitions could get the opportunity to enter an International WorldSkills Competition.

Could it be you travelling to London WorldSkills 2009 to compete against Web Designers from across the World?

Enter online by 1st June 2009.

www.webdesigncompetition.com.au

 

[jirwin]

Does anyone have any additional information they could share? Date, locations, process etc

 

[WSA Web Design]

Competitions entries are currently open and will stay open for another 2-3 months. Due to the scale of the competition (over 5,000 competitors in over 50 trades) dates are times are not currently confirmed for most regions.

The process works as follows:

1. Find your nearest region at www.webdesigncompetition.com.au/enter
2. Apply to complete using the application form.
3. Fax back the application form.
4. You will be notified of the competition date and location as soon as your region has been confirmed.
5. Detailed pre-competition instructions will be sent to you.
6. Turn up on the day to compete.

Please let me know if there are any additional questions.

 

[jirwin]

What happens if I apply to compete but then change my mind?

 

[WSA Web Design]

If you apply and then don't compete... then there will be an empty chair in the competition room

 

[Fenrisulvur]

A few questions,

1. Is this competition intended for individuals, or small groups (ie one programmer, one artist)?
2. Is graphical flair a significant factor?
3. PHP irks me, I'd prefer the versatility and power offered by J2EE technologies such as Servlets. This adds no further requirements to the client's setup. No-go?
4. HTML is old hat, do participants get bonus points for taking the XHTML Strict DTD route and acknowledging W3C standards?
5. Most web browsers (even, in fact especially, IE) support XML and XSLT. Can we utilize this, and will the judging panel admire our visionary pursuit of Semantic Web solutions? (ie is this worth bonus points?)
6. The "Web Design Skills Tested" list doesn't make any mention of the storage "back-end" aside from implying it in planning/design fundamentals*; does this mean we're free to pick and choose? Or are we simply not allowed a real database back-end? Or does it mean you'll neglect to include the implementation in your judgement?

And finally,

Do you want to gain national and international recognition for your skills?

Yes. I'm currently looking into starting up a web development business - I already have one high-profile client, but I could really use the exposure. Is there room in the formalities of the competition to put in a mention of my business, though?

I think that's all, for now.


*Which is misspelt, btw.

 

[Ben Netanyahu]

omg bump my comrade here wants to know

WOT IS GOIN ON!?1

 

[Ben Netanyahu]

omg bump my comrade here wants to know

WOT IS GOIN ON!?1

 

[WSA Web Design]

Hi Fenrisulvur.

The competition is intended for individuals. The AU regional competition has been setup this way to mimic the structure of the international competition.

Graphical flair takes up a part of the marking scale. The competition is usually pretty even between the code and design. Part of the marking scale is looking at the validation of code to W3C standards.

PHP is the selected language, once again as this matches the International Competition. All code created must be your own, without any pre-written scripts.

You can use whatever style of backend that you wish, however please take note that it is only an 8 hour competition.

Please let me know if there are any additional questions.

 

[SnowFox]

So let me get this straight, there's a competition that relies on a individual to design a website from the ground up, including graphics, pages and linking.

Id be screwed if i had only 8 hours to do that, seeing it takes a group around a week to get it done.

 

[WSA Web Design]

That's correct. The competition is for 8 hours and you are definitely pressed for time. Not everyone finishes the project, but around 70% of competitors can get the site up to a standard level with the time provided.

At the National Competition you are provided with 18hours, but there is additional work to get completed.

 

[jirwin]

I know you weren't/aren't able to provided dates as yet, but would you have a rough idea of what Month it would be held?

 

[Fenrisulvur]

Graphical flair takes up a part of the marking scale. The competition is usually pretty even between the code and design. Part of the marking scale is looking at the validation of code to W3C standards.

I'm yet to find someone who can claim to competently perform both roles. The good artists tend to be incapable of programming and naive to the technical foundation of the web system, and the real programmers usually can't draw. I probably wouldn't hire someone for a dual role, really, even if they did demonstrate aptitude in both roles.

That said, what graphics tools will the work areas be outfitted with?

You can use whatever style of backend that you wish, however please take note that it is only an 8 hour competition.

I don't know what you're getting at - a database back-end is far more efficient and quickly designed than textfile I/O, that's why they were conceived in the first place.

More to the point, though, will the work areas come with pre-configured database back-ends of a given flavour? Will we be able to install alternatives before, or during the contest? It seems a bit loose to permit "whatever style of backend that you wish", without providing these details.


Also, you missed the following queries:

Most web browsers (even, in fact especially, IE) support XML and XSLT. Can we utilize this, and will the judging panel admire our visionary pursuit of Semantic Web solutions? (ie is this worth bonus points?)

For the record, XML and XSLT became W3C recommendations in 1998 and 1999 respectively.

And,

I'm currently looking into starting up a web development business - I already have one high-profile client, but I could really use the exposure. Is there room in the formalities of the competition to put in a mention of my business, though?

I would only bother to enter at all if a good result generates some amount of publicity for my prospective business. Is this something you could provide some information on?

 

[WSA Web Design]

My apologies for the slow response.

The Hunter Competition will be held at Cessnock TAFE in early Term 3. For more information about the Hunter Competition, feel free to email David Summerville on david@ozwebdesign.com.au.

The competition is to find who is the best at both Design and Programming. I agree that it is very rare to find someone who is 10/10 at both. Marks are evenly split in both Planning, Client Side, Server Side and Graphics.

The Regional Competition is structured in a way that it is a downsized version of the Nationals... which is a downsized version of the Internationals. This means that the Regional Competition marking scale and the test project are both based on a smaller version of the International Competition. Competitors are purposely pushed in the competition (hence the stress of completing the site within the 8-hour time limit) in order to find the best all-round Competitor who can perform well under competition conditions.

No pre-configured backend will be provided. You may find that the Regional competition simply asks for a contact form to be stored in a database and be emailed. In 8 hours you will not be tested on everything to do with server side scripting... just enough to find who will do the best for their region on a National level (and then for one person, internationally).

There are no "bonus points" as such. You will be provided with a marking scale on the day of competition. This marking scale will be used to judge all competitors sites with.

If you were to receive a gold, silver or bronze medal then your region will make sure that your local paper/media know about it. Either way and it is a good marketing opportunity to promote your skills.

 

[WSA Web Design]

The 2 Sydney Regional Competitions are now confirmed, competition dates are as follows:

Sydney
Venue - Hornsby TAFE
Date - 23rd July 2009

Sydney West
Venue - Blue Mountains TAFE
Date - 24th July 2009

Entry forms are available at: www.webdesigncompetition.com.au

Entries close on the 30th June 2009!