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Recapping the 2024 SkillsUSA National Web Design and Development Conference

Steve Waddell • July 10, 2024

Our founder and lead developer, Steve Waddell, recently returned from the 2024 SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference that took place in Atlanta, GA at the Georgia World Congress Center from June 24-28. Steve has been helping Web Professionals Global administer the Web Design and Development competition in various capacities since 2005 and in person since 2013.

Steve was part of a team that included other web professionals who are passionate about helping students develop their skills and compete at the national competition. The team, led by CTeLearning curriculum partner Web Professionals Global, also helped a number of states administer their state Web Design and Development competitions in the months leading up to the national competition.

Competition Overview

For those not familiar with how the SkillsUSA National Web Design and Development competition operates, the guidelines were as follows: Teams of two completed a series of challenges focusing on creating a website for a client and a specific target audience. Judging focused on meeting the client's needs, usability and accessibility, and industry-standard best practices. Teams were evaluated on the process they used to meet the challenges and how well they worked as a team. Teams used the internet to access all competition materials (including the coding environment).

This year's main project was to build a website for a new non-profit organization embarking on a project building small studio homes for the homeless and struggling veterans. The design teams not only had to create the website but also take the organization’s logo, images and story and bring them to life on the web to help generate support and get the message out to the greater community. The competitors had the opportunity to interview the client, asking questions about the project vision and target audience.

The Web Professionals Global Organization SkillsUSA team provided the students with not only a competitive environment to test their technical skills but also real-world training from real-world professionals and networking opportunities.

The competition was divided into the following days:

Monday, June 24

Mark, Executive Director of Web Professionals Global, arrived late Sunday and worked with Courtesy Corps to get the tables set up and covered with paper for the competition. He also tested the wireless environment as best he could prior to the stress test of numerous teams on Wednesday.

Tuesday, June 25

Competitors took an online exam to verify their knowledge concerning web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, for example). Each team had one hour to complete the exam. We held a mandatory training session where we reviewed the online coding environment and how to use it. The competition was discussed and the teams were read passages from the book of wisdom, a collection of past common mistakes teams make that serve as a cautionary tale of what not to do over the next two days. Additionally, we hosted a panel discussion with Dan and Tammy (both practicing web professionals) to help competitors better understand the current landscape and job opportunities. AI was discussed at length and competitors developed a better understanding of how this is presently being incorporated into work flows.

Wednesday, June 26

The secondary (high school) competition was held on Wednesday. Competitors were presented with client assets (often oversized images or in the wrong format) along with a back story of the client. Teams were introduced to the client and had the opportunity to ask questions of the client as a group. Each team was asked to develop their own process and low fidelity wireframes to address the business problems brought by the client. Once the team had completed their wireframes, they were asked to place those aside and they were given more professionally developed low fidelity wireframes for multiple pages. This is what they were asked to implement as a solution in a website (with multiple pages). Each team was also interviewed and was asked separately (by other web professionals) to describe their process and explain how they developed the wireframes they made.

Thursday, June 27

The post-secondary (college) competition was held on Thursday. Competitors were provided with similar materials and a similar approach to creating the websites. Teams were introduced to the client and had the opportunity to ask questions of the client as a group. It was interesting to see the slight differences in the questions asked by the post-secondary teams vs. the secondary on the previous day. After this competition ended, both secondary and post-secondary teams were invited to a debriefing session held in a different room. Competitors were asked to provide feedback regarding improvements they would like to see in future competitions. Judge comments were also reviewed in general to help competitors better understand what judges saw (and how they might improve on their processes as well as tips for better interviewing in the future). Scores were submitted by 9 p.m.

Friday, June 28

The event wrapped up Friday night with the awards ceremony held in the State Farm Arena. Gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded to teams at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. Roughly 17,000 individuals were present in the arena to witness the awarding of medals. There were 115 separate competitions with roughly 6,700 competitors this year. We understand that is the largest number of competitions and competitors in the history of SkillsUSA.

Steve had this to say about the experience: “This year we had the largest number of web professionals helping us with the event than ever before. In the past, we have always scrambled to wear many hats to make sure the competition ran smoothly. However, this year we had three new people join our event team. Tammy, Dan and Na'Im were there for the whole event along with four regulars: Mark, David, Bryce and myself. This year we were missing Jonathan, who took a break to spend time with his two-week old daughter—big congratulations to Jonathan and his family. The competitors once again brought their A-games and the quality of their work speaks well for their futures and the future of the web design industry as a whole. The SkillsUSA national team was terrific as always and everyone should put it on their bucket list to attend the final award ceremony at least once in their lives. I so much appreciate all of our team who showed up and helped Web Professionals Global put on this competition. Also, shout-out to the SkillsUSA advisors and competitors' parents who worked so hard to make the trip to Atlanta happen and for their sacrifice of time and money.”

Competition Winners

High School

Gold: Rhys J./Steven S., Meridian Technical Charter High School, Meridian, ID

Silver: Leah S./Tyler C., Barren County Area Technology Center, Glasgow, KY

Bronze: Alexander R./Ethan D., Dover Area High School, Dover, PA

College

Gold: Chloe G./Zachery S., Ozarks Technical Community College, Springfield, MO

Silver: Sam T./Caeden S., Southern Adventist University, Collegedale, TN

Bronze: Kenli S./Yan D., Northwest Kansas Technical College, Goodland, KS

Stay tuned for future articles from us with more details about the week in Atlanta.

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