It's reasonable to say that perhaps one of the most widely interpreted & improperly perceived terms within I.T. is the label Web Designer. Web Design includes several diverse facets, & an understanding of these facets could help anybody considering getting in the industry. Web Design involves the 'technical' elements of a successful site and also the creative aspects. The average laptop or computer user thinks web designers are responsible for how a site looks & feels. Quite simply, they see web-site designers because artists on the whole. The truth is the present day web-designer's function is an 'inter-related' blend of 'technical' expertise and design-creativity - and the two things are becoming very difficult to separate. It will become more obvious just how things sit together if we split the work up in to its component roles.

The people who design & build the images and graphic-icons which go on a web page are called graphic-artists. They are not strictly site designers as such, and usually are multimedia artists utilising graphic lay-out and animation software, (such as Adobe 'Photoshop' and Adobe 'Flash'.) Generally, they will have an artistic background, & might have studied at university or college level. Evidently, this job requires a good artistic ability.

Web-site designers come next - these people utilise design software such as Adobe 'Dreamweaver' to plan and design the visual aspects & 'feel' of the website. They work with the images that are provided by the graphic artist, & talk with the clients to initially develop the 'feel' & navigational structure of the website. A web designer with fairly limited understanding might start with the form instead of the function of a web-site. But, to really create a useful site, you have to begin with a clear understanding of the things you require the web-site to really do. Is it largely an e-commerce web-site, that needs to have the capacity to receive payments securely, or is it perhaps a web based product or service brochure listing? Maybe you need to present products and solutions by way of video and a largely 'graphical' interface, or it could be it is mostly an informational site where the necessity is easy access to key text content (like this particular web-site.) Regardless of what you want from a web-site, it must - at it's simplest level - fulfil the 'function' for which it is designed. A lot of web-sites look fantastic but they are a nightmare to navigate & get what you want - & so visitors leave and never come back. A good web designer must basically develop an online experience that's both enjoyable & intuitive for those coming to the website - that way they'll come back over and over again.

The most important tools utilised by web-designers are the design-environments, with 'Adobe Creative Suite' (currently in Version 4 as of 2009/2010) being essentially the most popular commercially. 'Dreamweaver' is the software which builds web-sites, with Flash delivering access to interactive and animated 'graphical' content. In some ways we could possibly view Dreamweaver as a rather fancy Word-Processor. Within certain rules & parameters, it lets you place text & graphics, & then through a method known as page-linking you can generate basic inter-activity throughout the web site. 'Dreamweaver' (as with any web design environment) produces HTML (Hyper-Text-Markup-Language) program code behind the scenes. It's the language of web browsers, & is a script that effectively draws and controls the web page you're seeing. Lay-out 'tag' languages like XML and CSS are paired with HTML. These tag languages allow more streamlined 'HTML' code & more efficient lay-out techniques, which will work on multiple platforms (because they're standardised). Therefore the web-page will look the same on Microsoft 'Internet Explorer', Mozilla Firefox, Opera, 'Safari' etc. (or shall we say, that's the plan!) So even though you lay the graphic blocks & add the textual content, Dreamweaver is converting this into code behind the scenes. A thorough knowledge of these types of languages is very important if you're to become a commercially viable web designer.

Extra skill-sets which are very useful for commercial web-site designers are an understanding of project-management and E-commerce. 'SEO' (Search Engine Optimisation) expertise is also very valuable for web-experts - this is the skill of getting sites at or near the top of the Search Engines for frequently used keyword phrases. Also of course, we mustn't overlook the web server administrators and installers who stay in the background ensuring the whole thing works; though they usually come from a network administration background.

Its vital to realise that even the finest web design programs can only show you the methods & processes - not one can actually convert you in to a professional web-designer. Throughout your study & training, you have got to apply yourself to building & developing as many web-sites as you possibly can, to practice & build your portfolio. Produce web sites about a hobby, your family dog, a favourite music group or even Television programme. You could even set up inter-active web sites & get 'traffic' on them. Anything you do will enhance your CV, and present much more to a company than an 'Adobe' accreditation.

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