It's fair to say that perhaps one of the most broadly interpreted & badly defined terms in I.T. is the expression 'Web-Designer'. In fact, web-design does contain a number of distinctive aspects, and so it might help to clarify things a little if we break it down. You'll find there are essentially two sides to web-design - the technical side & the creative design part. The typical PC user considers web-site designers determine how a website looks & 'feels'. Many individuals may consider a web designer a form of 'artist'. However, a modern 'web designer' will in actual fact be as involved with the technical element of things as much as the 'creative' side. If you break web design down in to it's various tasks, then it becomes more evident how everything sits together.

Graphic artists come first - these people design & create the icons and images for a web page. Strictly speaking, graphic-artists usually aren't really web-site designers. More usually they're multi-media artists that employ software like Adobe 'Photoshop' and Flash to bring about their end results. Most have been through higher-education, typically with a degree-level art qualification. Evidently, this particular job requires a solid artistic flair.

Next, we have the web-site designers, that make use of design environments like Dreamweaver to produce the lay-out & feel of the webpage. They use the visuals completed by the graphic artist, and together with their client generate an emerging look & navigational structure for the new web site. A novice web-designer tends to start with the form of the web site, rather than the function. However, you must actually start with a grasp of the functions it's required to perform to construct a truly productive site. Potentially its basically a web-based brochure, or an e-commerce website where products and solutions are sold there and then. It could be you need to accentuate goods via video & a largely 'graphical' interface, or perhaps its mostly an 'informational' website where the need is easy access to key text content (such as this particular website.) No matter what you want from a website, it must - at its most elementary level - carry out the 'function' for which it's designed. There's no point building a visually exciting web site that's extremely hard for people to get what they want from it! A professional web designer must essentially produce an on-line 'experience' that's both satisfying and user-friendly for those visiting the site - that way they'll visit again and again.

Many of these roles can & do cross over needless to say, we work with a number of freelance web-designers who each can handle most of the previously mentioned functions. It takes time though to acquire such an array of professional skills. A web-design program therefore that will prepare you to get into the market should encompass the following - First, an introductory tutorial to basic web design, followed by teaching in Adobe Dreamweaver and an understanding of the principal components of Adobe 'Flash'. Next you need to understand the 'coding' languages HTML & CSS, & then be trained in a synopsis of how E-commerce works. Some Database & SEO expertise is essential, & an understanding of the programming-language PHP (rather than the more complicated ASP.NET) in order to construct 'dynamic' web-sites. All of this is just to get to a standard of technical ability whereby you are able to work on a wide enough array of web-sites. As with anything else, we have to learn how to do the physical skillsets first, and then acquire greater finesse via practice & experience. The majority of people can work through a flexible training course such as this within a year - supposing part time study & practice of about 400 - 500 hrs. Careful preparation to get the appropriate training course for your needs is a great investment of your time - knowledgeable career experts can help you sort the best route for you before you get started.

Alternative skill-sets that 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 also very valuable for web-experts - this is the skill of getting web sites at or near to the top of the search engines for commonly used search phrases. And in the background but hugely important are the web-server administrators and installers who ensure that everything operates efficiently. Strictly speaking they are network-administrator experts though.

The Adobe Creative Suite is the most commercially-popular design-environment used by web site designers right now. These essential applications are currently ('10) on Version 4. The software that builds web-sites is 'Adobe Dreamweaver', & Adobe Flash accesses 'graphical' content material that can be animated & interactive. Dreamweaver may be looked at as a rather fancy Word-Processor in many ways. Text and graphics can be layed (within certain rules) & then a basic inter-activity can be established via page-linking. Just like other web design environments, 'Dreamweaver' produces the program code 'HTML' behind the scenes ('HTML' stands for 'Hyper Text Markup Language'). Effectively, this language of web browsers' is a script which draws and controls the web page being looked at. Layout tag 'languages' like XML and CSS are matched up with 'HTML'. Because they are standardised, these tag languages can work on multiple-platforms to facilitate more stream-lined 'HTML' code & more efficient lay-out techniques. The concept being that the web page will look exactly the same on any web browser, be it Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera or whatever. So even though you place the graphic blocks & add the text, 'Dreamweaver' is turning this in to coding in the background. A thorough understanding of these various languages is essential if you're going to be a commercially-viable web designer.

The key factor to stress is that the training program alone won't make you a web-designer; it will merely provide you with the methods. Build as many websites as you possibly can as you go through your training course - the exercise will be invaluable & you'll have something to show just what you can do. A craft or interest is a good place to start, or perhaps your favourite dog, or a holiday-resort you particularly enjoyed. You might even create inter-active web-sites and get traffic on them. Anything you do will enhance your CV, and present more to a recruiter than just an 'Adobe' certification.

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