Surely just about one of the most mis-interpreted and generalised titles within the I.T. market today must be the term Web-Designer? If you're wanting to get in to the industry, an explanation about the distinctive facets might help to clarify things. Web-Design incorporates the technical elements of a site as well as the creative aspects. Lots of people think a web designer is somebody who is responsible for the visual aspects of the site. Many individuals will consider a 'web-designer' a sort of artist. Having said that, a modern 'web designer' will in reality be as occupied with the 'technical' element of things as much as the 'creative' side. It becomes more apparent how things fit together when we break the work up into its various parts.

To start with, we have the graphic artists, that design & assemble the graphic icons & images that we find on a web-site. In real terms, graphic-artists are not really web site designers. More commonly they are multimedia artists who make use of software like Adobe 'Photoshop' and Flash to generate their results. Most graphic artists have been to university, and have a background in art & design. Plainly, this particular job calls for a good artistic bias.

Then come the web designers, who generate the layout & overall feel of a web-site by using a design-environment like Adobe 'Dreamweaver'. They take the graphics completed by the graphic artist, & in partnership with their clients develop an initial style & 'navigational' structure for the brand-new web site. A large number of novice web site designers concentrate to start with on the format of the site, instead of it's 'function'. If you want to construct a successful web site however, it's crucial to first of all look at what you actually want the web site to do. Is it predominantly an e-commerce web-site, that requires to be ready to receive payments securely, or is it an online product or service catalogue listing? Or maybe it will incorporate lots of video and heavy graphics. Then again it may be largely an info web-site, where it's essential to offer easy entry to specific web pages of copy. Whatever you want from a web site, it must - at its most elementary level - fulfil the 'function' for which it's designed. There is little point making a visually exciting website that is impossible for people to navigate! A professional web designer must effectively create an online experience that is both fulfilling and instinctive for the people visiting the website - that way they'll visit over and over again.

Obviously there are cross-overs with many of these jobs - we ourselves have connections with quite a few web designers who are capable in a lot of them. Then again that level of understanding takes some time to master. A web-design course then that will prepare you to get into the work-place should include the following disciplines - A briefing of the basics of web design first of all, then straight into using 'Dreamweaver' to a professional level & the key nuances of Flash too. The languages of 'HTML' & CSS need to be taught next, with a level of e-commerce teaching included here. 'PHP' really should be taught to ensure that dynamic websites can be created (ASP.NET is actually much more involved, & PHP is more straightforward to get into initially,) and a basic idea of databases & SEO should be mastered. Grasping these skillsets will give you a chance to start working on a very good cross-section of web sites. Similar to when you were learning to drive, you first have to attain the physical abilities, before you can ultimately push past them and achieve a degree of finesse. A thorough program of this sort could involve close to four to five hundred hours of part-time practice and study and can therefore be viably concluded part time over 12 months. Detailed planning to get the right training program for you is a good investment of your time - skilled career experts will help you sort the best route for you before you start.

Alternative skill sets which are relevant to web-site designers in the commercial marketplace are an in-depth understanding of e-commerce & project management. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) knowledge is very valuable for web-experts - this is the art of getting internet sites at or near the top of the Search Engines like Google for commonly used search phrases. And of course, we mustn't overlook the web-server installers & administrators who work behind the scenes making sure the whole thing works properly; although they normally originate from a network administration background.

The most important tools used by web-site designers are their design environments, with Adobe Creative Suite (now in Version 4 as of 2009/2010) staying essentially the most popular commercially. The software that builds website pages is Adobe Dreamweaver, and 'Adobe Flash' accesses 'graphical' content which can be animated & interactive. In a great many ways we could look at Dreamweaver as a rather fancy Word-Processor. It enables you to place text & graphics according to specific parameters & rules, & then create basic interactivity via page linking. Dreamweaver (or any other web design environment) creates HTML ('Hyper Text Markup Language') program-code behind the scenes. HTML is a 'script' which in simple terms 'draws' & controls the page on your monitor. It's the 'language' of web browsers. Alongside HTML are the layout tag 'languages' - for instance CSS and XML. Because they are 'standardised', these will work on multiple-platforms to allow more streamlined HTML coding and more effective lay-out techniques. The idea is that the web-page will appear exactly the same on any browser, whether it is Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, 'Safari', Opera or anything else. Subsequently the graphic blocks you are laying & the text you're putting in is being turned into coding in the background by 'Dreamweaver'. If you are going to be commercially feasible as a web-designer, you will have to have a thorough understanding of these 'languages'.

Its vital to realise that even the most effective web-design courses can only teach you the methods & procedures - none of them can actually turn you into a bona fide web designer. As you work on your training-course, take the time to put together & develop a good selection of your own web-sites to create a portfolio of your work. Produce websites about a favourite hobby, your family dog, a favourite band or TV show. Start to build interactive web sites and generate traffic on to them. This will all look much more favourable on your Curriculum Vitae, & in your portfolio, than a qualification from Adobe will!

The most technically trained web professionals are often the web developers. Along with being proficient in HTML, 'XML' & 'CSS', web-developers will know other highly regarded programming languages such as VB, 'PHP', 'Java', 'C#' and 'ASP.Net' etc. Many also have a solid knowledge of 'SQL', the database language - as the data on many large modern web sites is stored in this 'language'. A regular E-commerce site does not have a bunch of web-designers who've produced it's many hundreds of web-pages in layout form. What commonly occurs is a place holder 'template' is created, and the contents are dynamically fed from the Database to the web site. In addition to being hugely easier to create, manage & update, it also helps with the 'feel' of the web-site remaining consistent.

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