Probably just about one of the most misunderstood & generalised expressions within the IT field these days must be the words Web-Designer? For anybody thinking of getting into the industry, some details of the distinct facets ought to help to de-mystify things. In essence, there are two principal areas to web-design; the creative side and the technical process. To the average man or women in the street, a web designer is somebody who designs the 'look' and 'feel' of a web-site. In other words, they look at web-designers as artists on the whole. In fact the present day web-designer's occupation is an inter-related combination of technical understanding and design creativity - and the two have become very difficult to split up. If you break down web-design into it's different tasks, then it becomes more apparent how everything sits together.

Graphic-artists should come first - they design & assemble the icons and pictures for a web site. Most often they bring this about by making use of graphic layout and animation software (like Adobe 'Flash' & 'Photoshop'), and aren't strictly web designers as such. Frequently, they'll have come from an artistic background, and may have undertaken studies at college or university level. This particular aspect is much more about creative expertise than any other function.

Web-designers are next - they employ design-software such as Dreamweaver to plan and design the 'look' & feel of the site. Through the use of graphics from the graphic artist, they will build the navigational framework of the web-site, working with the clients to make sure the 'feel' meets their needs. A web-designer with only limited knowledge would most likely focus on the form rather than the 'function' of a website. In order to build an effective web site however, its important to first of all look at what you really need the web site to do. It may be a web-based catalogue of items, or maybe its an e-commerce web site which needs to have the ability to sell straight from the web page. Or potentially it'll incorporate a lot of video and graphics. Then again it could be predominantly an informational site, where it's necessary to offer straightforward access to appropriate web pages of wording. Basically the website must have the capacity to meet it's required needs - whatever those particular requirements are. A lot of websites look fantastic but they are a pain to get around and find where you want - and so users leave and never come back. The over-riding purpose of every professional web-designers is to have people see their site repeatedly - so it really needs to be a relaxed and gratifying experience.

The key factor to stress is the fact that training itself will not make you a web designer; it will merely educate you on the techniques. Build as many web-sites as you possibly can as you work through your training course - the exercise will be invaluable and you will have a portfolio to show what you can do. Design web sites about your special interest, your family, a favourite band or even Television show. Construct an inter-active site, & begin building 'traffic' towards it. Anything you do will enhance your CV, & demonstrate much more to a company than an Adobe certification.

Additional skill-sets which are very useful for commercial web designers are a knowledge of project management & E-commerce. SEO ('Search Engine Optimisation') expertise is very valuable for web-experts - this is the art of getting internet sites to or near the top of the search engines for commonly used keyword phrases. And even though they generally originate from a network-administration background, we should remember the incredibly valuable job of the web-server installers and administrators, who keep the whole thing working in the background.

Web developers are the most technically trained of all. Together with a sound grasp of 'HTML', XML and CSS, web developers will know other highly regarded programming-languages such as VB, 'PHP', 'Java', 'C#' & 'ASP.Net' for instance. They will generally also possess a solid understanding of 'SQL' Database technology, since this is one way most contemporary large web sites store their data. A normal e-commerce website doesn't have a crew of web-designers who have created it's thousands of web-pages in layout format. Instead, a place-holder template will have been produced, & the material will be dynamically loaded from a Database. So in addition to far greater efficiencies with the site build, using this method also makes for an infinitely more consistent look and 'feel' as well.

Many freelance web designers can carry out several of these functions themselves; in fact we come into contact with a number who can quite frequently. But that degree of understanding takes a little while to master. You should be trained in a number of things on a commercially viable web-design training program: A briefing of the basics of web design first, then straight into using 'Dreamweaver' to a professional standard and the principal nuances of 'Flash' as well. The languages of 'HTML' and CSS should be covered next, with a certain amount of e-commerce teaching provided here. PHP really should be covered in order that 'dynamic' sites can be built (ASP.NET is much more involved, & PHP is easier to get into at first,) and a simple idea of databases & SEO should be mastered. The main reason you will need all these aspects is so that you have the technical grounding to be effective on an array of web-site builds. Much like anything else, we need to learn how to actually do the physical skillsets first, & then acquire more finesse by way of experience and practice. The majority of people can work through a manageable program such as this inside a yr - based upon part-time study & practice of about 400 - 500 hrs. Careful planning to get the correct training program for your needs is a worthwhile investment of your time - skilled training advisors will help you to sort the wheat from the chaff before you start.

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