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The position is a bit of a jack of all trades affair, so the candidate needs to know hand coding of HTML to a competant level and basic JavaScript. Other required skills will include familiarity with DreamWeaver, Photoshop, the joys of search engines and domain name basics.
What kinds of things would you include in a test to determine suitability? Asking them to write a basic HTML page that displays a specified output is an obvious one, as is producing a small piece of JavaScript & asking them to identify what it does.
Anyone have any suggestions?...nothing too cruel, obviously!...;)
R.
If you must test their javascript then give them some simple (but not too obvious) code and ask them to tell you what it does. Otherwise just ask them for some reasonable applications of javascript. Asking them to hand code a piece from scratch is silly because next-to-no programmers (never mind web designers) actually do that, they work from reference books or past code.
If they can code a page of HTML/CSS by hand then theres a pretty good chance they could cope with dreamweaver with few problems.
Just use common sense really and remember not to decided against someone because they make a silly mistake, thats what testing is for, look more for the methods that they would use, clean code, standards compliant, lack of gimmicks etc.)
Does it really matter to you that someone can use that software? Wouldn't it be better if a person knew how to hand code html, and/or glue together template bits in PHP?
As to tests, mine would involve showing them a CSS file and asking them to critique it. I had one that was mixing px, em and % notations. Needless to say, the person that noticed and fixed this is definitely a "keeper" even though they are not yet completely competent with some of the CSS issues.
Specific skills are teachable. A person that observes and knows how to think is a rare thing.
Pretty basic, but it tends to seperate the FrontPage jockeys from the people who know their code.
It is pretty easy to test Photoshop skills, I usually have them make a logo in photoshop based on the logo from a biz card (obviously I choose one that uses available fonts, etc.
For what it is worth, MHO,
Shane
Dreamweaver....does it really matter to you that someone can use that software?
Unfortunately yes. Although HTML by hand is an essential skill for this role, Dreamweaver comes into the equation as this is our standard package for web design and build - rolling out template updates for a 150 page site, or creating a database driven site is much quicker in Dreamweaver than by hand, hence the need for someone with a degree of familiarity with the product.
I don't think gospel knowledge of the package is necessary though - can't beat a bit of learning.
Thanks again guys,
R.
Someone who knows Dreamweaver, OTOH, may not be able to learn hand-coding.
There are a lot of jobs I could have applied to that I never bothered with, simply because they mentionned Dreamweaver.<snip>
Someone who knows Dreamweaver, OTOH, may not be able to learn hand-coding.
I have been hand-coding since early 1994 using Mosaic, vi and a NetBSD box. I first saw Dreamweaver around 1998 and pooh-pooed it. Later I worked for Macromedia but didn't get a chance to use the company's products properly but began to appreciate them. After getting laid off, I have been using DW almost daily, yet I edit in Notepad to make a quick change while logged into ws_ftp.
Unless you take the trouble to see the wealth of plug-ins and support material that surrounds DW, and its convenience when working with ASP, CFM, PHP etc, you could be short-changing yourself.
To comment on the original topic, I'd ask some general questions, e.g.
Some of the thing I was planning to ask about include:
Write down all the things you expect the new person to do, and perform a test that mimics your expectations.
Also, their personality is important. Once you get to the final 2 or 3 candidates, have them take a personality test. These help with finding their basic temperaments, and helping to avoid a hiring mistake.
WFN :)
walk the candidate through sites you like and dislike to see if they are able to critique the sites properly. I'd be more interested in the degree to which the candidate has good reasoning/design skils and a good head on their shoulders than by any narrow experience with a specific tool like Dreamweaver.
Getting people to do exercises in my experience (albeit in a software engineering context) is a waste of everybody's time.
I had an interviewee who lied and claimed to have built a site that they didn't make.
Also there are many instances in larger companies where someone might be doing maintenance / updates on a site built by someone else, or may not have been permitted to place their credits on the site for whatever reason.
I would bet that performing a design review on the site would show up whether they were lying or not. if they are a bit cagey about the site and unwilling to talk in detail about the decisions they made then either they are bad communicators or they didn't make the site. either way, they may not be someone you'd care to hire.
As for the case when someone has not been responsible for a whole site. I still don't think that this is a problem. Perform a design review of the bits of the site they did contribute to. it is a good integrity check to see if they claim credit for things they didn't do.
That is why something as simple as using notepad to layout their resume in HTML was a quick, 15-20 minute project that proved rather quickly if someone actually has basic HTML skills or not.
Of course, I request sample sites etc in addition.
I understand that people must understand what they are coding but I wouldn't count them out because they don't use notepad vs. dreamweaver. Frontpage and other programs are a different issue.
Looking at their portfolio is the best way. (IMHO)
If you are hell bent on giving a test give them a very simple JavaScript code. Also give them a very hard code that no one can figure out. Two reason for this, one if they can figure it out that’s a bonus, two if they can't figure it out they can tell you were they would look to find the answer.
The best coders might not know the code off hand, but they know where to look and have the recourses to get the answer.
It's not just some sort of elitist thing. Working with Tiles/JSP, with a minimum of 5 files going into making each page and everything tested on a staging server, you don't have much of an option -no WYSIWYG editor that I know of could handle this. So I need someone that understands the code inside out.
I had an employee for a short time that was overly-dependent on the WYSIWYG editors and inserted all kinds of garbage errors into a site:
image files being called from the C Drive
Text and Hyper links formatted like this:
<b>Ke</b><b>yword</b>
<a href="page.html">Clic</a><a href="page.html">k Here</a>
etc.
Guess who had to spend 4 days cleaning that up? Myself and the new hire who could hand code.
a program that speeds upThis reminds me a little of the ledgend of John Henry. A good hand coder can in many cases, especially with complex pages, code faster than a WYSIWYG coder, unless you don't care at all about bloat and standards. For that matter, are there even any WYSIWYG editors which can code strict?
It dawned on me today that why should anyone even expect MSFP to be able to handle CSS right when MSIE can't.
But to try to get this thread back to the subject, WYSIWYG editors don't have a steep learning curve and thier proper use can be easily and quickly learned by someone who is skilled at hand coding, the reverse isn't true. Therefor, if you start with someone who can hand code, you'll quickly have someone who can do both. If you start with a WYSIWYGer, it's likely that's all you'll have for a while.
You get nice code colors to make everything easier on your eyes.
Have people do tests with notepad is alright, but don't force that turd on anyone for any length of time...
My web-author was using Notepad, and I promptly got him working with UltraEdit. It has ready highlighting for HTML, Java, Javascript, Perl, PHP, C/C++, C#, VB... and you can add your own keywords.
It's hard enough to master a text editor (at least if it has powerful regexp search and replace, macros and other nifty features), so I would not like to have to use a different one every time I switched from one file type to another.
You probably don’t want someone producing tons of pages based on identical template.
So give the applicant access to the software, images, scripts, libraries ... anything you expect to be used. And ask the applicant to create a simple 1-3 page website (with stated necessities) for specific time.
Results:
1.level of creativity
2.level of coding skills
3.effectivity
4.solving unexpected tasks
5.working under time pressure
plan
1. Did they do the work they were assigned? Did they spend some time at it, or just take a cursory look and note a few cosmetic details?
2. What kinds of issues did they find? Were they related to one discipline, or spread among design, code, usability, etc.?
3. How complex are their observations? What level of experience would be needed to notice the things they noticed?
4. Do they have solutions for their complaints? Do they ask you questions about why you made the design decisions you did?
5. Bottom line: You're hiring this person to make your site better. Are they capable of that and, if so, how will they do it?
I assume we're talking about a fairly hefty position...
...nope - it's a no-frills, full time position with good scope for progression for the right candidate. I'm certainly not looking for a web-designer as this isn't what the position is for, but as the role will involve hacking at other people's sites for updates and additions, the HTML is a must.
We use DreamWeaver for mass template updates to a number of sites including database driven, hence a desire to find somebody with a familiarity of DreamWeaver. Whilst the debate over hand coding versus WYSIWYG is eternal, the fact that a new layout can be applied to a several hundred page site within seconds via DreamWeaver - rather than half an hour or more by hand - means some familiarity with this product is a must.
Either that or somebody who can code on twenty machines at the same time. :)
R.
