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Web Design at Adrian College

Our Web Design major is intended to prepare students for a job as a Web Designer or Developer with skills in UX, visual design, marketing, and programming.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Median Salary for Web Designers is $77,200.

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Developed with Real Businesses

The skills in this program directly reflect the demands of companies hiring web designers today.

Median Salary of $77,000+

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Median Salary for Web Designers is $77,200 with 13% job growth this decade. 

Hybrid Learning Options

Some courses in this program are taken online & powered by Rize. The core curriculum will be taken on-campus, giving students the best of student life with the flexibility of some online learning. 

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Program Details

Information on what you'll learn, how the degree is built, and the careers that are possible after graduation.

Why Web Design Matters

Did you know that 93% of first impressions come from web design? 75% of a website's credibility come from the design, too. Web designers power the most important asset of nearly every business.

This program teaches a broad range of essential skills that you'll actually use on the job and enables students to specialize and dive into the areas of greatest interest. 

Faculty Contributors

Dr. Charles Severance, University of Michigan - Dr. Charles Severance holds a PhD in Computer Science from Michigan State University. He is the former Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation, and one of the world’s leading online CS educators. His contributions and curriculum form the basis of our programming curriculum

Dr. Colleen Van Lent, University of Michigan - Dr. Colleen Van Lent holds a PhD in Computer Science from Pitt. Her work focuses heavily on web design and development, especially in the field of accessibility. The Web Development course series is based on her Web Development for Everybody curriculum.

How does this degree align with the real world?

We conducted interviews with over 20 Fortune 500 employers and distilled the problems in education today. Traditional Web Design majors often overlook the fact that this is a synthetic discipline, combining elements of programming, graphic design, and marketing. These programs often produce graduates with skills that are either half-baked, or overly narrow. Our Web Design major was built to produce graduates who have all of the skills necessary to be effective Web Designers.

  • An understanding of key marketing concepts, and the importance of intent in web design
  • Programming skills necessary to build polished, database-backed websites
  • Robust skills in visual design and aesthetics
  • A comprehensive background in User Experience design, and a working understanding of how the best websites drive visitors to take desired actions
  • An understanding of the product development cycle

Career Outlook

There are over 700,000 jobs available in tech today, most of which require some technical experience. 

The most common jobs for web design majors are: 

  • UX Designer (Med. salary $90,400)
  • Web Designer (med. salary $77,200)
  • Front-End Designer (med. salary $90,800)
  • Interactive Designer (med. salary $99,000)
  • Senior UX Designer (med. salary $134,255) 

Curriculum Highlights

In addition to the major requirements, the core web design courses include:

  • User Experience I: Understanding User Experience
  • User Experience II - Building Compelling User Experiences
  • Goal-Oriented Web Design

 

Start Your Application Today

You can begin your application in as little as two minutes, for free & online.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Web Design.

No, but you may need one to get hired, and having a degree in Web Design provides a massive advantage in earning potential and salary. People with a bachelor’s degree also have a 50% lower rate of unemployment, and on average they make an additional $630,000 to $900,000 over their lifetime, even more in high growth fields like this one.   

Yes! The only way to make sure our program gives you the skills you need to get hired and teaches you to work through real-world problems that actually matter is to partner with the people out there who are actually doing it. Our collaboration with Fortune 500 companies and subject matter experts means that their multi-billion-dollar expertise is reflected in everything you’ll study here. 

Web design is huge, and our graduates can use their coveted skills to secure many different kinds of high-growth employment. If you are more of an artist, you may want to work in graphics and UX design. If the idea of building a website from the ground up is appealing to you, you may want to work more on the programming side of things. As a Web Design grad, the high-paying possibilities available to you across industries are essentially endless. 

If you are interested in working with cutting edge technology, if you have a knack for creative problem solving, if you are looking for a degree that opens a ton of doors to different high-growth careers, if you want to have a job that never gets boring, and if you want to gain a skill set that makes you more and more valuable as your career progresses, you should consider this major.   

Flexibility. Optional Synchronous means our Web Design courses can be attended together at one time with other students, or on your own schedule. Many students prefer the learning that comes with live interactions, while other students love the flexibility of doing them whenever they fit into their schedule. 

This major is part of an exclusive partnership between Adrian College and Rize Education, which means you’ll be learning with students from your campus, as well as students from a selective consortium of schools across the country. The goal is to help you begin building a national network of people in your industry before you’ve even graduated. 

A flipped classroom is one where the focus is not on lectures, but on discussion, projects, and problem-solving. Students in flipped classrooms get the chance for more instructor feedback, and as a result have been found to learn much, much faster.   

Not at all! In fact, recent research shows our “language brain” is more important to programming ability than our “math brain.” So rest assured that, no matter how good (or bad) you are with math, Web Design could be the subject for you to earn an incredible salary.