It's reasonable to state that one of the more widely interpreted & badly perceived definitions within I.T. is the label 'Web-Designer'. For anybody thinking of getting in to the market, some details about the distinct aspects might help to de-mystify things. There are essentially two elements to web design - the 'technical' side and the creative 'design' side. The typical laptop or computer user thinks web-site designers determine how a web-site looks and 'feels'. To put it differently, they think of web-designers because 'artists' on the whole. Having said that, a professional web-designer will in reality be as involved with the technical element of things as much as the 'creative' element. If you break web-design down in to it's component roles, then it will become more obvious how each thing fits together.

Firstly, we have the graphic-artists, that design and construct the graphic symbols and pictures which you see on any web-site. They are not really site designers as such, and most of the time are multimedia artists employing graphic lay-out and animation software, (for example Adobe 'Photoshop' & Adobe Flash.) Virtually all graphic artists attended college or university, with a background in artistic drawing. Evidently, this particular role calls for a keen artistic flair.

Web site designers are next - they utilise design-software such as Dreamweaver to create and design the appearance & feel of the website. They use the visuals completed by the artist, & in conjunction with their client deliver an emerging style & 'navigational' framework for the new web page. A web-designer with fairly limited understanding would probably begin with the 'form' instead of the 'function' of a web-site. To develop a successful web site though, it is crucial to first look at what you actually need the web-site to accomplish. It could be it is in effect an on-line inventory, or an e-commerce web-site where products and services are available there and then. Or maybe it'll consist of lots of video & graphics. On the other hand it may be predominantly an informational web-site, where it is important to offer simple entry to relevant web-pages of wording. Fundamentally the site must have the facility to meet its required needs - whatever those requirements are. There is no value in producing a visually appealing web-site that's hopeless for people to get to where they want! A good web-designer must in essence produce a web based experience that is both fulfilling and user-friendly for the people visiting the web-site - then they will come back over and over again.

Naturally there are cross overs with a lot of these roles - in-fact we have connections with several web-designers who are proficient in most of them. But that level of understanding will take a little while to master. The ideal commercial web design training-program therefore needs to teach several things: A basic introduction to web-design, followed by how to use Adobe Dreamweaver and have a fundamental knowledge of Adobe Flash. The languages of 'HTML' and CSS need to be taught next, with some E-commerce instruction provided here. Some database & SEO expertise is essential, & a knowledge of the programming language 'PHP' (rather than the more complicated ASP.NET) for you to construct dynamic sites. The reason you require these components is they will give you the technical grounding to operate on a range of web site builds. The actual physical skill-sets have to come first, before you can finetune them to a natural and flowing style - similar to the time you learned to drive your first car. Most trainees can work through a variable training course like this inside a yr - based on part-time study & practice of approximately 400 - 500 hours. Careful preparation to obtain the best training course for you is a worthwhile investment of your time - knowledgeable career advisors will help you sort the wheat from the chaff before you get started.

The design environments used by web-site designers are their most important resources. Adobe Creative Suite 4 is really the most commercially utilised in the market today (as of '10). Dreamweaver is the software program which builds web-sites, with 'Flash' delivering usage of interactive & animated graphical content. You might state that Dreamweaver is the Word Processor of the Adobe Creative Suite series. It will let you lay graphics & text in accordance with particular parameters and rules, & then build basic interactivity via page-linking. Like other web design environments, 'Dreamweaver' creates the program-code 'HTML' in the background ('HTML' is short for 'Hyper Text Markup Language'). HTML is a script which in simple terms draws and controls the web-page displayed on your monitor. It is the language of web browsers. Layout 'tag' languages like XML and CSS are matched up with 'HTML'. These enable more streamlined HTML coding and more efficient layout techniques, which will work on multiple platforms (as they're standardised). This means the web page looks the same on Microsoft 'Internet Explorer', Mozilla Firefox, Opera, 'Safari' etc. (at least, that's the plan!) So although you place the graphic blocks and put in the text, Dreamweaver is converting this into code in the background. It is important to gain a thorough knowledge of these various 'languages' in order to be a website designer at the commercial level.

Commercial web-designers can also up-grade their offering if they choose to branch-out into areas such as project management & e-commerce for example. Search Engine Optimisation ('SEO') is another area which deals with how a web-site is listed with search engines like google - in order that it may be more easily found (this really is sometimes an entire job by itself.) And behind the scenes but hugely important are the web server administrators & installers that ensure that the whole thing runs as it should. Strictly speaking these people are network administrator experts though.

The thing you need to understand is absolutely no training course can actually make a web designer out of you. The course will merely cover all the techniques & skills. As you work on your training course, take some time to put together and develop a good selection of your own sites to build a portfolio of your work. A hobby or other interest might be an effective place to start, or simply your favourite pet, or a holiday resort you especially liked. You might even set up inter-active web-sites and get 'traffic' on them. This will all appear much more favourable on your CV, & in your portfolio, than a certificate from Adobe will!

Self-Study Certification Training In Networking & Security >>