A lot of professions require keeping up to date with standards and trends, but for interactive media, it is almost a weekly commitment and should be a part of the job. With interactive media, there are trends that appear every year and it is usually a good idea to follow them. It is almost expected that people accept these trends and throw away the old ones; if you don't, you'll quickly be called outdated. I've been there. Within development, there are frameworks are pop up every now and then. If you want to stay in the business, you must learn these new frameworks. Every couple of years, the semantics of code is changed and you must learn the new tags. Browsers are always being updated, operating systems change, platforms are introduced. So how do you stay up to date? Let's explore how.
Front-end Development
I've
already made a post about this, but following the key players is probably one of the best ideas. All of the big developers are on twitter and some of them have blogs. It's important to keep up to date with these guys because some of them are the ones making changes to the markup. Some are developing the platforms where your future code will rest. Others create new libraries, like jQuery for example. However, the best thing is that you can have a one on one interaction with these internet celebrities. More than not they will answer your questions. Additionally, you get access to their thought process, their random ramblings, their weird lunch thoughts. Today is a weird world; we pretty much have access to everybody's journal through twitter and blogs. Use it and hopefully you'll get a peak into an artist's process. Attend conferences. Here you will have a chance to see the most up to date technologies and trends. Attend field-specific conferences too, like front-end development conferences.
Web Design
Staying up to date with web design is pretty much on the same level as front-end development. In order to be the best web designer, you must know how the web works. If you don't know how stuff is made interactive, then you definitely have a disadvantage compared to other more well-rounded designers. To stay up to date requires observing others.
Dribbble, for instance, is a great way to see what other web designers are doing. You can take a peak into their process because a lot of the shots are works in progress. Dribbble is also a great way to see what is trending; the most popular page is full of trendy designs, fonts, colors, and methods. It is worth taking a lot at some agencies as well. These are the guys making the products for the startups. They should be making the most up to date stuff. And it usually looks good. Attend conferences. These conferences will be showcasing the most up to date technologies and trends. There are conferences all over the United States, but a must is SXSW. Attend the web design specific conferences as well; they'll have workshops and lectures.
Overall
Create. It's that simple. One of the best ways to keep learning is to keep working. Keep working on your own skills, but also explore some new methods. Experiment. Who knows, you might stumble upon the next trendy element in design.
