The term Web-Designer is perhaps one of the more over used & misunderstood labels within the I.T. marketplace. In truth, web design does contain a lot of different fields, & so it may help to clarify things when we go through each one. Web-Design incorporates the 'technical' elements of a successful site and also the creative aspects. To the average person on the street, a 'web designer' is someone that creates the look & feel of a website. In other words, they think of web-site designers because 'artists' in the main. In spite of this, a professional web designer will realistically be as involved with the 'technical' side of things as they are with the 'creative' element. We'll illustrate this with greater clarity when we break web-design up in to it's component parts.

The people that design and build the images & graphic icons to go on a web-page are generally known as graphic-artists. Most often they do this by making use of graphic lay-out and animation software (such as Adobe Flash and Photoshop), & are not really site designers per-se. Generally, they'll have an artistic background, & may well have undertaken studies at university or college level. Most importantly, this work demands a strong creative talent.

Second, we have the web site designers, who make use of design-environments like Dreamweaver to create the layout & 'feel' of the web page. They take the work created by the graphic artist, and together their clients generate an initial look & navigational framework for the brand-new web page. A web-designer with little knowledge would most likely focus on the 'form' rather than the function of a web site. However, you must essentially begin with an understanding of the functions its required to do to create a truly productive web site. It may be an on-line catalogue of items, or maybe it is an e-commerce site that requires to have the capacity to sell straight from the site. Maybe much like this web site the primary function is straightforward access to relevant details, or perhaps it's going to be a show-case for merchandise by way of video and a heavily graphical inter-face. Whatever you need from a web-site, it must - at its most elementary level - carry out the 'function' for which it's designed. Most people will give up on a web site and not go back if it's too hard to 'navigate' - however attractive it looks on the surface. The aim of any good web designer is first and foremost to construct an event that people enjoy and feel happy with - so they will come back again and again.

The key resources used by web-designers are the design environments, with 'Adobe Creative Suite' (currently in Version 4 as of 2009/2010) being essentially the most commercially popular. The software which builds web sites is 'Adobe Dreamweaver', and Adobe Flash accesses graphical content material which can be interactive and animated. In some ways we could look at Dreamweaver as a glorified Word-Processor. Text and graphics can be displayed (within known limitations) and then a basic interactivity can be established by means of page linking. Like other web design-environments, 'Dreamweaver' produces the program-code HTML in the background (HTML is short for Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML is a 'script' which in simple terms 'draws' & controls the web-page on your screen. It is the 'language' of web-browsers. Associated with 'HTML' are the lay-out tag languages like XML & CSS. As they are standardised, these tag languages can work on multiple platforms to enable more stream-lined HTML coding and more efficient lay-out techniques. And so regardless of what internet browser a person uses, (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera or anything else.) the web page will ideally appear exactly the same. So even though you lay the graphic-blocks & put in the textual content, Dreamweaver is converting this in to code in the background. If you're planning to be a commercially feasible web designer, you will need an in-depth knowledge of these 'languages'.

Needless to say there are cross overs with many of these roles - in-fact we have connections with quite a few web-designers who're skilled in a lot of them. It will take time though to build such a range of professional abilities. A web-design program therefore that can prepare you to get into the work-place should include the following disciplines - Firstly, an introductory tutorial to basic web design, followed on by teaching in Adobe 'Dreamweaver' & a synopsis of the primary aspects of Adobe 'Flash'. The languages of 'HTML' & CSS need to be taught next, with a certain amount of E-commerce training included here. To construct 'dynamic' sites it's important to gain knowledge of 'PHP', which is a simpler programming language to start off in than ASP.NET. In addition , you need a rudimentary grasp of Databases and SEO. All this is simply to reach a standard of competence technically where you are able to work on a broad enough array of web sites. Similar to when you were learning to drive, you have to first develop the physical abilities, before you can ultimately move beyond them and achieve a certain amount of 'finesse'. You would have to allow around four hundred to five hundred hrs to study & competently master a broad-ranging training-program like this - so if your plan is to get this done alongside a job it could be carried out within 1 year. Detailed preparation to obtain the appropriate training program for your needs is a good investment in your future - skilled training advisors can help you to sort the best route for you before you decide to get going.

Alternative skill sets that are relevant to web-site designers in the commercial market are a good grasp of E-commerce & project-management. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is another field which deals with how a web-site is listed with search engines like google - to ensure that it can be more easily found (this really is almost a whole job in itself.) And behind the scenes but vitally important are the web-server installers and administrators that make sure that everything works smoothly. Strictly speaking they are network administrator professionals though.

The most important factor to emphasise is that the training alone won't make you a web-designer; it will simply coach you on the methods. During your study and training, you have got to apply yourself to constructing and creating as many sites as you can, to practice and build your portfolio. Make websites about a hobby, your dog, your favourite band or even TV show. Build an inter-active site, and begin generating traffic towards it. Anything you do will enhance your Curriculum Vitae, and indicate more to an employer than an 'Adobe' certification.

Web developers are members of this equation, and the most technically-minded. These people won't only understand HTML, 'CSS' and 'XML', but will have studied 'proper' programming-languages like PHP, ASP.net, Visual Basic, 'C#', 'Java' among others. They'll generally also have a good understanding of 'SQL' database technology, as this is one way most modern substantial sites store their information. A normal e-commerce web site doesn't have a bunch of web-designers who have produced it's thousands of web pages in layout format. What generally occurs is a place-holder 'template' is produced, & the details are dynamically inserted from the database to the site. In addition to being vastly more efficient to construct, manage & up-date, it also helps with the 'feel' of the web site staying constant.

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