Undoubtedly just about one of the most misinterpreted & over-worked labels in the I.T. market nowadays has to be the words Web Designer? In fact, web-design does incorporate a number of distinctive aspects, & so it may well help to simplify things a little when we go through each one. Basically, there are two key sides to web-design; the 'creative' side & the 'technical' side. Many people believe a 'web-designer' is someone that is in charge of the visual areas of the site. Which means a web designer is basically an artist who has had some technical training. But in actuality, within modern day web design it's becoming more and more difficult to split up the technical side from the creative side, as both are so intertwined. It becomes a bit more evident how things sit together if we break the profession down into it's different roles.

Graphic-artists should come first - they design and create the symbols and images for a web-site. Most are not strictly web site designers per-se, and by and large are multimedia artists using graphic lay-out and animation software, (for example Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash.) Virtually all graphic artists attended college or university, and have a background in art & design. More than anything else, this kind of work demands a sound artistic talent.

Then there are the web-designers, who develop the layout and overall 'feel' of a web site by utilising a design environment like Adobe 'Dreamweaver'. Using visuals from the artist, they'll put together the 'navigational' composition of the website, working together with their client to make sure that the feel meets their needs. A novice web-designer tends to start with the 'form' of the web site, instead of the function. To be able to create a successful internet site however, its vital that you first look at what you really want the web site to accomplish. Maybe it is essentially an on-line brochure, or an e-commerce web-site where goods are offered there and then. Maybe much like this site the principle objective is simple access to pertinent information, or maybe it'll be a showcase for products via video and a heavily 'graphical' inter-face. Quite simply the site must be able to meet its needs - whatever those requirements are. There is no point building a visually inspiring web site that's extremely hard for individuals to get what they want from it! A professional web designer must basically produce an online 'experience' that is both enjoyable & intuitive for those visiting the website - that way they'll come back more than once.

The main thing to emphasise is that the training program alone will not make you a web designer; it will simply teach you the techniques. As you work on your training-course, make the effort to build and develop a large selection of your own websites to produce a collection of your work. A hobby or other interest might be a very good place to start, or perhaps your favourite dog or cat, or a holiday-resort you especially liked. You might even build inter-active websites and get traffic on them. Anything you do will enhance your CV, and indicate much more to an interviewer than an Adobe certificate.

Many of these roles can and do crossover needless to say, we use several free-lance web-designers who all can handle a lot of the above functions. You will need time however to acquire such an array of professional skillsets. You should be trained in a number of things on a professionally viable web-design training program: A synopsis of the basics of web-design first, then straight into using 'Dreamweaver' to a professional level & the key nuances of Flash too. This should then lead on to an understanding of HTML & CSS, with vital insights within the area of e-commerce. PHP should be mastered to ensure that 'dynamic' web sites can be built (ASP.Net is actually much more involved, and 'PHP' is very simple to get into at first,) and a simple idea of Databases & 'SEO' should be achieved. All this is simply to reach a standard of technical competence where you're able to work on a diverse enough array of web-sites. As with anything, we must learn how to do the physical skill-sets first, and then acquire increased finesse by way of practice and experience. A comprehensive program of this sort would probably require around 400 to 500 hours of part-time study & practice and therefore can be successfully finished part time over 12 months. As there are so many things to consider, its well worth taking a few minutes to look closely at any training programs you're interested in. Speak to a person with knowledge of the industry who can help you sort things out.

Professional web-site designers can also upgrade their offering if they choose to branch out into areas such as project-management & E-commerce for instance. Another field - which isn't to be under-estimated - is 'SEO' (Search Engine Optimisation). This is all about how to optimise website listings on search engines like Google and 'Yahoo'. And although they technically originate from a network administration background, we should remember the valuable function of the web-server installers & administrators, who keep the whole thing working behind the scenes.

The 'Adobe Creative Suite' is the most commercially popular design environment used by web-site designers nowadays. These vital applications are now (2010) on Version 4. 'Dreamweaver' is the software program which builds web-sites, with 'Flash' delivering access to animated & interactive graphical content material. In a great many ways we could possibly view Dreamweaver as a glorified Word-Processor. In accordance with certain rules & parameters, it helps you display text and graphics, and then through a process known as 'page linking' you can generate basic interactivity throughout the site. 'Dreamweaver' (or any other web design environment) creates 'HTML' ('Hyper Text Markup Language') program code in the background. 'HTML' is a 'script' which essentially draws and controls the web page displayed on your screen. Its the 'language' of web browsers. Lay-out 'tag' 'languages' like XML & CSS are associated with HTML. These tag languages allow more stream-lined 'HTML' coding & more efficient lay-out methods, which will work on multiple-platforms (because they're standardised). This means the web page looks the same on Microsoft 'Internet Explorer', 'Mozilla Firefox', 'Opera', 'Safari' and so on. (at least, that's the plan!) So though you're laying graphic blocks & adding text, in the background, Dreamweaver is turning this in to code. A comprehensive knowledge of these languages is very important if you're to be a commercially viable web-designer.

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