Its fair to say that perhaps one of the most widely interpreted & poorly understood definitions within I.T. is the label Web-Designer. In fact, web-design does include a lot of distinct aspects, & so it may well help to explain things if we go through each one. There are essentially 2 sides to web design - the technical process and the creative design part. The typical laptop or computer user thinks web-designers are responsible for how a website looks and feels. Meaning a 'web-designer' is basically an 'artist' with some technical instruction. The truth is the modern web-designer's career is an inter-related combination of 'technical' understanding & design-creativity - & the two things have become quite hard to split up. When you break down web design into it's various functions, then it becomes much more evident how each thing sits together.

Graphic artists should come first - these people design and create the symbols and images for a webpage. These are not exactly web-designers as such, & in many cases are multi-media artists utilising graphic layout and 'animation' software, (such as Adobe 'Photoshop' and Adobe 'Flash'.) Generally, they will have an artistic background, and may have undertaken studies at university level. More than anything else, this kind of job involves a sound artistic skill.

Secondly, we have the web-designers, who utilise design environments like Adobe 'Dreamweaver' to create the lay-out and 'feel' of the website. They make use of the visuals that are made by the graphic artist, and work with their clients to start to develop the feel and navigational framework of the web-site. An amateur web-designer tends to start with the form of a web-site, instead of the 'function'. However, you should essentially start with a grasp of the functions its required to perform to develop a truly successful web-site. Is it mainly an E-commerce web site, that wants to be able to take payments securely, or is it perhaps an on-line product or service brochure listing? Possibly somewhat like this web site the main function is simple access to pertinent info, or it could be it's going to be a showcase for products and services by way of video & a heavily graphical interface. Whatever you require from a web site, it must - at its most basic level - fulfil the 'function' for which it is intended. Consumers will abandon a site and not return if its too hard to 'navigate' - however attractive it looks on the surface. The aim of any good web designer is first & foremost to create an experience that people enjoy and feel happy with - so that they will come back again and again.

Web developers are the most technically apt of all. These people won't only understand HTML, 'CSS' and XML, but will have trained in 'proper' programming languages like 'PHP', ASP.net, VB, C#, 'Java' and the like. Quite a few also have got a solid understanding of SQL, the Database language - because the data on most sizable modern web-sites is stored in this 'language'. An average E-commerce web site does not have a crew of web-designers who have created it's 1000s of pages in lay-out form. Rather, a place holder template will have been built, and the contents will be 'dynamically' inserted from a Database. So in addition to far larger efficiencies with the website construct, this process also enables a much more uniform look and feel as well.

Other skill sets that are relevant to web-site designers in the commercial market are an in-depth understanding of E-commerce and project management. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) know-how is also very useful for web experts - this is the art of getting web sites to or near to the top of the search engines for frequently used search phrases. Also of course, we should not overlook the web-server administrators & installers that stay in the background ensuring the whole thing functions as it should; though they normally originate from a network-administration background.

Its essential to understand that even the finest web-design programs can only show you the methods and processes - none of them can actually convert you in to a bona-fide web-designer. During your study and training, you must spend time constructing & developing as many sites as you can, to prepare & assemble your own portfolio. Your websites should be about anything you like - your local music-scene, farm pets, an author you admire or performance cars. Start interactive web-sites and create traffic on to them. Anything you do will add to your Curriculum Vitae, & demonstrate much more to a recruiter than just an 'Adobe' certification.

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