Its reasonable to say that one of the most widely interpreted & badly perceived definitions within I.T. is the label 'Web Designer'. If you're thinking of getting into the industry, an explanation about the different aspects should help to make things clear. Basically, there are two key areas to web-design; the creative element and the technical process. The average PC user believes web designers determine how a website looks and 'feels'. Meaning a web-designer is basically an 'artist' who has had some technical instruction. In reality the present day web designer's occupation is an inter-related mixture of technical know-how & design-creativity - & the two are becoming quite difficult to separate. We'll illustrate this with more clarity when we separate web design down in to it's various parts.

Graphic-artists come 1st - they design & assemble the icons and pictures for a web-site. Strictly speaking, graphic artists are generally not really web designers. More usually they're multi-media artists that make use of software like Adobe 'Photoshop' and Flash to create their finished results. Frequently, they will have an art background, and could have studied at college or university level. Most importantly, this specific work calls for a sound creative ability.

Second of all, there are the web-site designers, that work with design-environments such as Adobe 'Dreamweaver' to create the layout and 'feel' of the web site. Using artwork from the graphic artist, they will construct the navigational composition of the web-site, working with the client to ensure the feel is right. A lot of inexperienced web site designers concentrate to start with on the 'format' of the website, instead of it's 'function'. But, to really develop a useful website, you must begin with a clear understanding of the things you need the web site to really do. It's possible it's effectively an online inventory, or an e-commerce site where merchandise are offered directly. Perhaps you need to show goods via video & a largely 'graphical' inter-face, or perhaps its mainly an informational site where the necessity is simple access to key text content (such as this particular web site.) Basically the web site must have the facility to meet its requirements - whatever those requirements are. Consumers will give up on a site and not go back if it is too difficult to get around - however attractive it looks on the surface. The purpose of any good web-designer is to first & foremost create an event that individuals enjoy and are comfortable with - so that they come back again.

The most technically trained internet professionals are generally the web developers. Not only will web developers understand the languages already mentioned, they will also have had training in additional languages, for instance 'C#', Visual Basic, PHP, Java, ASP.net and so on. Quite a few also possess a very good understanding of SQL, the Database language - because the data on most sizable modern sites is stored in this particular language. An average E-commerce web-site does not have a crew of web-site designers who have created it's 1000s of web pages in lay-out format. More commonly, following the creation of a place holder template, the material will be extracted from a database & 'dynamically' inserted. Apart from being hugely more efficient to build, manage & up-date, it also helps with the feel of the website being constant.

Needless to say you will find cross overs with a lot of these roles - we ourselves have contacts with quite a few web designers who're skilled in most of them. However, it takes time to acquire that much expertise. A web design program then that will equip you to enter the workplace should consist of the following - First, an introduction to basic web-design, followed by training in Adobe 'Dreamweaver' and an understanding of the primary elements of Adobe 'Flash'. Next you need to understand the 'coding' languages 'HTML' and CSS, & then be taught a synopsis of how E-commerce operates. Some database & 'SEO' knowledge is vital, & an awareness of the programming language 'PHP' (instead of the more complex ASP.Net) for you to construct 'dynamic' websites. The reason you need each of these components is they will give you the technical wherewithal to work on a variety of website builds. Similar to when you were learning to drive, you have to first obtain the actual physical competencies, before you can in essence move past them and achieve a certain amount of 'finesse'. You would have to allow something like 400-500 hours to study & competently grasp a wide-ranging training program like this - so if your aim is to accomplish this along-side employment it could be done within 12 months. As there are various things to consider, it's worth making the effort to look carefully at any training programs that interest you. Talk to a person with knowledge of the industry to help you sort things out.

The main point to emphasise is that the training program itself will not make you a web-designer; it will simply provide you with the methods. As you complete your training course, take the time to create & develop a large selection of your own web sites to create a portfolio of your work. A pastime or interest can be a good place to start, or maybe your favourite dog or cat, or a holiday-resort you especially liked. Build an inter-active web site, & begin building 'traffic' towards it. 'Adobe' certifications are useful, but showing how you can apply what you've learned says a lot more about you as a web-designer!

The most important tools used by web-site designers are the design environments, with 'Adobe Creative Suite' (currently in Version 4 as of 2009/2010) being the most popular commercially. Dreamweaver is the software program that builds websites, with Flash delivering access to interactive and animated graphical content material. Dreamweaver might be considered a rather fancy Word-Processor in a great many ways. It lets you lay text and graphics according to particular parameters & rules, and then develop basic inter-activity via page-linking. 'HTML' (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) program coding is developed in the background with Dreamweaver, just as with any web design environment. HTML is a script which in essence draws & controls the page on your monitor. Its the 'language' of web-browsers. Associated with 'HTML' are the layout 'tag' languages like CSS and XML. As these tag languages are standardised, the streamlined and rather more efficient results work effectively on many different platforms. The concept is that the page will look exactly the same on any internet browser, whether it's Mozilla Firefox, 'Internet Explorer', 'Safari', 'Opera' or whichever. As a result the graphic blocks you're laying and the text you're including is being converted into 'code' in the background by Dreamweaver. It is crucial to gain an in depth knowledge of these types of languages to be able to be a web designer at the commercial standard.

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