No doubt just about one of the most misunderstood & over-worked labels in the IT market nowadays must be the words 'Web-Designer'? Website Design includes quite a few different aspects, and a good understanding of these facets can help anyone seeking to get in to the industry. Basically, there are two main sides to web-design; the creative element and the technical process. To the average person in the street, a 'web designer' is somebody that creates the look and 'feel' of a web-site. A lot of people may consider a web designer a kind of artist. The truth is the modern web designer's job is an inter-related mix of 'technical' expertise and design creativity - and the two have become quite difficult to separate. It will become more evident how things sit together when we break the job up in to it's component roles.

Individuals who design and put together the images and graphic symbols that go on a website are referred to as graphic-artists. They most often do this by utilising graphic layout and 'animation' software (like Adobe Flash and 'Photoshop'), & aren't strictly web-designers per-se. Most have come from higher-education, with typically a degree standard art qualification. More than anything else, this work demands sound artistic talent.

Web-site designers are next - they employ design software such as Dreamweaver to prepare & design the 'look' and 'feel' of the web-site. They use the work created by the artist, & along with their clients create an emerging style and navigational structure for the brand-new website. A web designer with fairly limited understanding might begin with the form rather than the function of a web-site. And yet, you must really begin with an understanding of the functions its required to carry out to develop a truly effective site. Is it mainly an e-commerce web-site, that really needs to have the ability to receive payments safely and securely, or is it perhaps a web based product or service brochure listing? It could be you need to show off merchandise by way of video and a heavily 'graphical' inter-face, or perhaps it's mainly an informational website where the need is straightforward access to essential text information (like this web site.) Essentially the website must have the facility to meet its requirements - whatever those particular needs are. There is no value in making a visually impressive web-site that's too hard for individuals to get what they want from it! A professional web designer must basically develop a web based experience that's both fulfilling & instinctive for those visiting the site - that way they'll come back again.

The Adobe Creative Suite is the most commercially-popular design environment employed by web site designers these days. These vital tools are now ('10) on Version 4. Whilst Adobe Flash provides access to interactive & animated graphical content, Dreamweaver is the software which builds websites. You could actually state that 'Dreamweaver' is the Word Processor of the Adobe Creative Suite series. It lets you lay graphics & text according to specific rules & parameters, and then produce basic interactivity through page linking. As with other web design-environments, Dreamweaver creates the program-code HTML behind the scenes ('HTML' is short for Hyper Text Markup Language). 'HTML' is a script which in essence draws and controls the page displayed on your screen. Its the 'language' of web-browsers. Lay-out 'tag' languages like XML and CSS are paired with HTML. These allow more stream-lined 'HTML' coding and more effective lay-out techniques, which will work on multiple platforms (because they're 'standardised'). And so which-ever internet browser somebody uses, (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, 'Opera' or anything else.) the web page will hopefully appear the same. Consequently the graphic blocks you are placing & the text you are adding is being turned into 'code' behind the scenes by 'Dreamweaver'. It is extremely important to achieve an in-depth knowledge of these 'languages' if you wish to be a website designer at the commercial level.

A lot of independent web-designers can carry out several of these jobs themselves; certainly we liaise with several who are able to on a regular basis. However, you will need quite some time to develop that level of expertise. You should be trained in a number of things on a commercially feasible web design training program: A basic introductory tutorial to web-design, and then how to utilise Adobe Dreamweaver & have a fundamental knowledge of Adobe 'Flash'. Next you must understand the coding languages HTML & 'CSS', & after that be taught a synopsis of just how E-commerce operates. Some Database & 'SEO' know-how is essential, & an awareness of the programming language PHP (rather than the more complex ASP.Net) in order to construct dynamic sites. The reason why you require each of these components is so that you have the technical grounding to be effective on a variety of web site builds. The actual physical skills must develop first of all, before you fine-tune them to a natural and flowing style - similar to when you were learning to drive a car. Most candidates can work through a manageable course like this within a year - supposing part-time study & practice of around 400 to 500 hrs. As there are so many areas to consider, it's worth taking a few minutes to look closely at any training programs that interest you. Speak to someone with industry knowledge to help you put things together.

Some other skill sets that are highly relevant to web-designers in the professional marketplace are an in-depth understanding of e-commerce and project-management. 'Search Engine Optimisation' (SEO) is another discipline that deals with how the web site is indexed with Search Engines - so it can be easily found (this really is almost a whole job by itself.) And of course, we must not overlook the web server administrators and installers who stay in the background making sure everything functions as it should; although they normally come from a network administration background.

The one thing you have to grasp is no training course can make a web designer out of you. The actual program will merely cover all the techniques & skills. As you get into your training course, take some time to put together & develop a good selection of your own web sites to build a profile of your work. Your own sites should be about anything you like - the local music scene, farm pets, a writer you admire or motorbikes. Start to build interactive websites & create traffic to them. Adobe accreditations are very useful, but how you can apply the training says much more about you as a web designer!

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