The term 'Web Designer' is quite possibly one of the more over-used and misinterpreted titles in the IT marketplace. In reality, web design does include many diverse areas, and so it may well help to clarify things a little when we break it down. Essentially, there are 2 main areas to web design; the 'creative' element & the 'technical' side. The average PC user considers web designers determine how a site looks and feels. Lots of people might consider a 'web designer' a form of artist. But in fact, within modern web-design it's becoming more and more difficult to separate the technical side from the creative part, as both are so intertwined. We can demonstrate this with greater clarity if we separate web design down into its different parts.

Individuals who design and put together the pictures and graphic icons that go on a web-page are known as graphic-artists. They're not really web-site designers as such, and usually are multimedia artists utilising graphic layout & animation software, (for example Adobe 'Photoshop' & Adobe Flash.) The majority of graphic-artists went to university, and have a qualification in artistic drawing. This aspect is much more about creative expertise than any other function.

Next there are the web designers, who create the lay-out and overall feel of a website using a design-environment such as Adobe 'Dreamweaver'. Bu utilising graphics from the graphic artist, they will assemble the 'navigational' structure of the site, working with the clients to ensure that the feel is correct. A novice web designer tends to start with the form of the website, instead of the 'function'. And yet, to truly build a useful site, you need to begin with a clear understanding of what you need the website to actually do. This could be a web based inventory of products and solutions, or possibly it's an E-commerce web site that needs to have the facility sell straight from the page. It could be you want to showcase products and services through video and a largely graphical inter-face, or perhaps it's largely an 'informational' site where the need is simple access to key text content (like this particular website.) No matter what the customer needs from a site, the basic requirement is that it actually addresses the basic specification. There is little point producing a visually exciting web site that is extremely hard for anyone to navigate! The aim of any reputable web designer is first & foremost to create an event that visitors enjoy & are relaxed with - so that they return again & again.

Of course there are cross-overs with many of these roles - in-fact we have connections with quite a few web-site designers who're skilled in many of them. But that degree of understanding takes a little while to master. The ideal professional web-design training program therefore should teach a number of things: A synopsis of the basic fundamentals of web design first, then straight on to using Dreamweaver to a commercial standard & the principal technicalities of 'Flash' as well. The languages of HTML and 'CSS' need to be taught next, with some E-commerce teaching incorporated here. 'PHP' must be taught to ensure that 'dynamic' websites can be constructed (ASP.NET is far more involved, and 'PHP' is more straightforward to get into initially,) & a simple understanding of databases & 'SEO' should be achieved. All this is just to get to a standard of ability technically where you can cope with a diverse enough array of sites. The physical competencies must be learned first of all, before you can elevate them to a natural and flowing style - similar to the time you were learning to drive a car. Most trainees can work through a variable course like this inside a year - supposing part-time study and practice of close to four to five hundred hours. An industry expert will be able to help you prepare your way through this quagmire of commercial-learning, and we recommend that you take the time to plan your route carefully before you start your web design training.

Some other skills which are highly relevant to web-site designers in the professional market are an in-depth understanding of e-commerce & project-management. 'SEO' (Search Engine Optimisation) expertise is extremely valuable for web experts - this deals with the skill of getting web-sites to or near the top of the Search Engines for commonly used keyword phrases. And whilst they technically originate from a network administration background, we should remember the valuable work of the web server administrators and installers, who keep the whole thing working behind the scenes.

The Adobe Creative Suite is the most commercially-popular design-environment employed by web designers nowadays. These essential programs are currently ('10) on Version 4. 'Dreamweaver' is the software which builds website pages, with Flash delivering access to interactive and animated graphical content. You could actually say that Dreamweaver is the Word-Processor of the Adobe Creative Suite range. In accordance with particular rules and parameters, it lets you display graphics & text, & then through a procedure known as page-linking you can create basic interactivity throughout the site. 'Dreamweaver' (as with any web-design environment) produces 'HTML' (Hyper-Text-Markup-Language) program code behind the scenes. In essence, this 'language of web-browsers is a script which 'draws' and controls the page being viewed. Along with 'HTML' are the lay-out tag languages - for instance XML & CSS. Because they are standardised, these tag languages will work on multiple platforms to enable more stream-lined HTML code & more efficient lay-out techniques. The theory is that the web-page will look exactly the same on any web browser, whether it's 'Mozilla Firefox', 'Internet Explorer', 'Safari', 'Opera' or anything else. Subsequently the graphic-blocks you're laying & the text you're putting in is being converted into code behind the scenes by 'Dreamweaver'. A thorough knowledge of these various languages is essential if you are going to be a commercially viable website designer.

The most important factor to stress is the fact that training program itself won't make you a web-designer; it will merely educate you on the techniques. As you get into your training course, take the time to put together & develop a good selection of your own web-sites to build a profile of your work. Your web sites can be about anything you like - the local music-scene, farm pets, an author you like or performance cars. Build an inter-active website, and start generating traffic towards it. Adobe accreditations are of help, but how you can apply what you've learned says far more about you as a web-designer!

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