Undoubtedly one of the most mis-interpreted and over-worked expressions in the I.T. market today has to be the term 'Web-Designer'? Web-Design takes on board a lot of diverse facets, & a good understanding of these may help anybody seeking to get in the marketplace. Web Design involves the technical elements of a website as well as the creative elements. Most people imagine a web-designer is somebody that designs the visual aspects of the website. In other words, they see web-site designers because 'artists' in the main. Yet, a modern web designer will in reality be as occupied with the 'technical' element of things as they are with the 'creative' side. If you break web design down into its various functions, then it becomes much more obvious how each thing sits together.

Graphic-artists are first - these people design & construct the icons and pictures for a website. They most frequently bring this about by making use of graphic lay-out and 'animation' software (such as Adobe 'Flash' & Photoshop), & aren't actually web-site designers per-se. Virtually all graphic artists went to university or college, with a qualification in artistic drawing. Plainly, this role demands a strong artistic bias.

Web-site designers come next - they employ design software such as Adobe 'Dreamweaver' to prepare and design the 'look' & 'feel' of the site. By employing graphics from the graphic artist, they'll put together the 'navigational' structure of the website, keeping in touch with the clients to confirm the 'feel' meets their needs. An amateur web designer often starts with the 'form' of a website, rather than the function. If you want to develop an effective site though, its important to first look at what you actually would like the web site to do. It may be an online inventory of products, or maybe it is an e-commerce site which would need to be ready to sell directly from the web page. It's possible you'll want to show off products and solutions by way of video & a heavily graphical interface, or it could be its predominantly an 'informational' web-site where the necessity is simple access to essential text data (such as this web site.) Quite simply the site must have the facility to meet its needs - whatever those particular needs are. A lot of web-sites look wonderful but are a nightmare to get around & get where you need - & so people leave and never come back. A professional web designer must basically create an online 'experience' that is both pleasant & instinctive for those visiting the web site - that way they'll come back over and over again.

The main factor to emphasise is that the training program alone will not make you a web designer; it will simply coach you on the techniques. During your training and study, you should spend time building & creating as many web sites as possible, to practice & assemble your own portfolio. Produce web sites about your favourite hobby, your family dog, a favourite music group or even TV programme. Start inter-active web-sites & generate traffic on to them. 'Adobe' certifications are helpful, but how you can use what you've learned says far more about you as a web-designer!

Commercial web-designers may also up-grade their offering if they choose to branch-out in to areas such as project management & e-commerce for example. 'SEO' (Search Engine Optimisation) know-how is also extremely useful for web-experts - this concerns the art of getting web-sites at or near to the top of the Search Engines for frequently used keyword phrases. And even though they typically originate from a network administration background, we should remember the incredibly valuable job of the web server administrators and installers, who keep everything working in the background.

Web-developers are members of this equation, and also the most technically trained. Not only will web-developers know the languages already mentioned, they will also have mastered other languages, like C#, 'VB', 'PHP', Java, 'ASP.Net' and so on. Quite a few also have a very good understanding of SQL, the Database language - as the data on many sizable modern web sites is stored in this language. The majority of e-commerce web-sites aren't the result of a big group of designers who have built 1000s of web pages in layout form. Rather, a place-holder 'template' will have been produced, and the material will be 'dynamically' fed from a database. This process makes not only the building, management & enhancements vastly more efficient, it also tends to make a more consistent site.

Naturally there are cross-overs with a lot of these roles - we ourselves have interactions with a number of web-designers who are skilled in many of them. But, it takes quite some time to acquire that much expertise. A web design program then that will equip you to enter the workplace should include the following - A synopsis of the basics of web design first of all, then straight into using 'Dreamweaver' to a professional level & the principal nuances of Flash as well. The languages of HTML & 'CSS' need to be covered next, with a level of E-commerce instruction provided here. 'PHP' has to be mastered to ensure that 'dynamic' web-sites can be built (ASP.Net is much more involved, and PHP is easier to get into initially,) and a simple understanding of Databases and 'SEO' should be achieved. Grasping these skills will give you the ability to start working on a decent cross-section of web-sites. Much like anything, we need to learn how to actually do the physical skillsets initially, & then establish increased finesse by experience & practice. You'd have to allow roughly 400-500 hours to study and properly master a wide-ranging training program of this nature - therefore if your plan is to do this along with a job it could be completed within one year. An experienced advisor will be able to help you prepare your path through this quagmire of commercial-learning, and we highly recommend that you plan your path with care before you begin your training program.

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