Without doubt just about one of the most mis-understood & over-worked expressions in the I.T. field these days must be the term Web Designer? In fact, web design does contain quite a few distinctive aspects, & so it may help to clarify things a little if we go through each one. Fundamentally, there are 2 main areas to web design; the 'creative' element & the 'technical' process. The typical PC user believes web-site designers are responsible for how a website looks & feels. Which means a 'web designer' is fundamentally an 'artist' with some technical training. In reality the present day web designer's job is an inter-related mix of 'technical' know-how & design creativity - and the two have become very hard to split up. If you break down web design in to its various functions, then it becomes more obvious how each thing fits together.

Firstly, there are graphic artists, who design & construct the graphic icons and images that we see on any website. They most frequently bring this about by using graphic layout & 'animation' software (like Adobe 'Flash' & 'Photoshop'), & are generally not really web-site designers per-se. Usually, they'll have an artistic background, and may well have undertaken studies at college or university level. Above all else, this kind of role calls for a sound artistic talent.

Next, there are the web-site designers, that utilise design environments like Dreamweaver to set-up the lay-out and feel of the web site. By using artwork from the artist, they will develop the 'navigational' framework of the site, keeping in touch with their clients to confirm the feel meets their needs. An amateur web designer often starts with the 'form' of a web-site, instead of the 'function'. But, you need to actually start with an understanding of the functions it needs to do to create a truly effective web site. Is it for the most part an E-commerce web site, that needs to have the ability to receive payments securely, or is it a web-based product catalogue listing? Possibly somewhat like this web-site the primary objective is easy access to relevant info, or maybe it's going to be a show-case for merchandise by means of video and a heavily graphical inter-face. Fundamentally the website must have the facility to meet it's required needs - whatever those requirements are. People will leave a web-site and not go back if its too difficult to 'navigate' - however pretty it appears at first glance. The purpose of any professional web-designer is first and foremost to produce an experience that individuals enjoy and feel relaxed with - so that they return again & again.

Several of these tasks can and do cross-over of course, we work with a number of freelance web designers who all can handle a lot of the previously mentioned roles. But, you will need time to develop that level of knowledge. You have to be trained in several things on a commercially feasible web-design training package: Firstly, an introductory tutorial to basic web-design, followed on by training in Adobe Dreamweaver & an overview of the key aspects of Adobe 'Flash'. This should then move onto a comprehension of HTML and CSS, with vital insights into the field of E-commerce. 'PHP' really should be mastered to ensure that 'dynamic' web-sites can be designed (ASP.NET is much more involved, and PHP is more straightforward to get into initially,) and a basic idea of databases and SEO should be achieved. All this is just to get to a level of competence technically whereby you can cope with a broad enough array of sites. Much like taking driving lessons, you first have to develop the actual physical abilities, before you can ultimately push past them & achieve a certain amount of finesse. Most students can get through a variable program of this nature within a year - based upon part time study & practice of close to four to five hundred hrs. A skilled advisor can assist you to plan the right path through this labyrinth of professional training, & we recommend that you prepare your route with care before you begin your web design training.

Supplemental skillsets which are important to professional web-site designers are a knowledge of project-management and E-commerce. 'Search Engine Optimisation' (SEO) is another discipline that tackles how the web site is listed with search engines like google - so it can be easily found (this really is sometimes an entire job in itself.) And in the background but vitally important are the web server installers and administrators that ensure that the whole thing runs as it should. Strictly speaking these people are network-administrator professionals though.

The design-environments used by web-designers are their most important tools. Adobe Creative Suite 4 is the most commercially accepted in the market today (as of '10). Whilst Adobe Flash offers access to animated and interactive 'graphical' content material, 'Dreamweaver' is the software program which builds sites. In a great many ways we could possibly view Dreamweaver as a glorified Word Processor. It will let you lay graphics & text in accordance with particular rules & parameters, & then build basic interactivity through page linking. Dreamweaver (as with any web design environment) produces HTML (Hyper-Text-Markup-Language) program code behind the scenes. 'HTML' is a 'script' which essentially 'draws' & controls the web-page displayed on your monitor. It's the 'language' of web-browsers. Lay-out 'tag' 'languages' like XML and CSS are paired with HTML. As these tag languages are 'standardised', the streamlined & more efficient outcomes work effectively on many different platforms. The theory is that the web page will appear exactly the same on any browser, whether it is Mozilla Firefox, 'Internet Explorer', 'Safari', 'Opera' or whatever. And so although you are placing graphic-blocks and adding text, behind the scenes, 'Dreamweaver' is turning this into 'code'. Its extremely important to achieve a thorough understanding of these 'languages' if you would like be a website designer at a commercial level.

Web-developers are essentially the most technically-trained of all. Along with a sound grasp of HTML, XML and 'CSS', web developers will know other highly regarded programming-languages such as Visual Basic, 'PHP', Java, C# & ASP.net for instance. And as most modern websites of any kind of size store their data using 'SQL' Database technology, they're likely to have a strong handle SQL too. A regular e-commerce website does not have a team of web designers who have created it's many hundreds of web-pages in layout format. More often, after the creation of a place-holder 'template', the contents will be taken from a database and dynamically inserted. So along with significantly better efficiency with the web site build, this process also makes for an infinitely more consistent look and 'feel' as well.

The main point to stress is that the training program alone won't make you a web designer; it will merely provide you with the methods. During your training and study, you must spend time building and creating as many sites as possible, to practice and assemble your portfolio. A craft or other interest is a good starting place, or maybe your favourite animal, or a holiday-resort you particularly liked. Build an inter-active website, and start building traffic towards it. This will all seem much more constructive on your CV, and in your portfolio, than a qualification from Adobe will!

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