It's reasonable to say that perhaps one of the most broadly interpreted and improperly understood definitions within IT is the label 'Web-Designer'. In truth, web design does contain quite a few diverse fields, & so it may help to clarify things a little when we break it down. In essence, there are 2 principal sides to web design; the 'creative' side and the 'technical' process. To the average man or women in the street, a web-designer is someone who creates the look & feel of a web-site. Quite simply, they think of web designers as 'artists' on the whole. But in fact, within modern-day web-design its getting more and more difficult to separate the 'technical' side from the creative side, because both are so intertwined. We can illustrate this with more clarity when we break web-design up in to it's component parts.

Individuals who design & assemble the pictures and graphic icons which go on a website are called graphic-artists. In real terms, graphic artists usually aren't really web-site designers. More commonly they're multimedia artists who utilise software such as Adobe Photoshop & Flash to produce their results. Frequently, they'll have an art background, & may possibly have studied at university or college level. This particular element is more about artistic expertise than any other function.

Next we have the web-designers, who produce the layout & overall feel of a website using a design environment like Dreamweaver. They employ the images which are supplied by the artist, & work with the client to start to create the 'feel' and navigational composition of the web-site. A large number of amateur web-site designers focus first on the format of the website, as opposed to it's function. However, to really create a successful website, you need to begin with an understanding of what you need the site to actually do. It could be a web based catalogue of items, or possibly it's an e-commerce web site that really needs to have the facility sell directly from the page. Perhaps much like this web-site the chief objective is straightforward access to pertinent information, or maybe it'll be a show-case for goods by means of video & a heavily 'graphical' interface. Essentially the web-site must have the capacity to meet it's required needs - whatever those requirements are. There's no value in making a visually appealing website that is difficult for people to get what they want from it! A professional web-designer must basically create a web based 'experience' that is both satisfying & intuitive for those visiting the web site - then they will visit more than once.

The design-environments utilised by web designers are their most important resources. Adobe Creative Suite 4 is really the most commercially accepted in the industry right now (as of '10). The software that builds web-sites is 'Adobe Dreamweaver', and Adobe Flash gives access to 'graphical' content which can be interactive and animated. In some ways we could see Dreamweaver as a glorified Word-Processor. In accordance with specific rules and parameters, it allows you to display text and graphics, & then via a procedure called page-linking you can generate basic interactivity inside the website. 'HTML' (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) program code is produced behind the scenes with 'Dreamweaver', just as with any other web design environment. 'HTML' is a script which basically draws & controls the web page on your monitor. It's the language of web-browsers. Alongside HTML are the lay-out 'tag' 'languages' - such as XML and CSS. These enable more stream-lined HTML coding and more efficient layout techniques, which will work on multiple platforms (as they're standardised). What this means is the web-page will look the same on Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, 'Opera', Safari and so on. (at least, that's the plan!) So although you lay the graphic blocks and put in the textual content, Dreamweaver is converting this into coding behind the scenes. A thorough understanding of these languages is essential if you are to become a commercially viable website designer.

The most important point to stress is that the training 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 put together & develop a good selection of your own web sites to produce a profile of your work. Your own sites should be about anything - the local music-scene, horses, an author you like or even motor bikes. Start to build inter-active web-sites and generate traffic on to them. Anything you do will enhance your Curriculum Vitae, & present more to an interviewer than just an Adobe certification.

A lot of free-lance web-site designers can handle a number of these functions themselves; indeed we liaise with a number who are able to regularly. Although that degree of understanding will take some time to master. You have to be trained in a number of things on a commercially feasible web-design training course: Firstly, an introduction to basic web-design, followed by training in Adobe Dreamweaver & a synopsis of the primary components of Adobe 'Flash'. Next you must understand the 'coding' languages 'HTML' and CSS, & then be trained in an overview of just how e-commerce works. Some Database & 'SEO' know-how is really important, & a knowledge of the programming language 'PHP' (as opposed to the more complex ASP.NET) for you to build 'dynamic' web-sites. The reason why you require these components is they will give you the technical ability to operate on a range of web site builds. The actual physical skills must develop first, before you finetune them to a more natural and flowing style - just like the time you were learning to drive your car. Most students can get through a manageable program such as this inside a yr - based upon part time study and practice of close to 400-500 hrs. As there are various areas to consider, its well worth making the effort to look carefully at any training-programs that interest you. Speak to someone with knowledge of the industry who can help you put things together.

Further skillsets which are important to professional web-site designers are an understanding of project-management and E-commerce. Another discipline - which isn't to be underestimated - is 'SEO' (Search Engine Optimisation). This is focused on how to optimize web-site indexation on search engines like Google and Yahoo. And of course, we should not forget the web server administrators & installers who stay in the background ensuring the whole thing works; though they normally come from a network administration background.

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