The internet has literally tens of millions of web sites, all of these will have been developed and built by a web designer, either on their own or as part of a team. As the Internet continues to grow at an amazing pace, and web design tools become more complicated, there is a every growing demand for professional developers meaning many more web designer jobs in this fast moving industry.
Job description
A web designer’s job is to design good quality web sites that are informative and also useful to users and visitors to its site. They must also meet the needs and requirements of your customer or employer who ultimately will be paying the bills.
Web designers can either work as freelance, or they can work full time for one employers either on a contractual basis or permanent. There are many public sector jobs that advertise for web design work that IT contractors can tender for.
As you can imagine you will be spending most of your day sitting in front of a computer and focusing on lines of code. Some people may find this uncomfortable, so it is important to ensure you have a comfortable chair to ensure you don’t get any back problems. It can be a frustrating job if something does not appear to be working as it should. However once a site has been developed and is online then it can be very satisfying.
A web site can be designed in a number of different web development languages and tools like HTML or dream weaver. Ensure that the site promotes your clients or employers corporate identity. Each of these packages has its own strengths and weaknesses, and are useful for designing specific types of web styles. For instance if you want to develop a flash website then you should be competent in a graphic design, the same principle applies if you want to create static pages, or a database driven site etc.
When developing a site you should take into consideration many important points like the audience that the site is being targeted at and web usability. As well as search engine optimization , accessibility, the structure and layout of the site, hyperlinks within the site itself etc. The placing of images in the site as well as relevant content like text is also very important. If you are developing a ecommerce site then you need to install a shopping cart so customers can place orders. Paying mechanisms like paypal are also important to process credit card payments.
Once the site has been developed another task of yours will be to maintain it. This will include you updating pages with more content, creating and ensuring that firewalls are working well to keep the site protected from spam and viruses. As well as maintenance of email servers. Web designers are also sometimes known as webmasters, and are a very important part of the Internet community.
There are many online tools that can help you in any web jobs, for instance websites that provide templates and professional photos and logos that you can use. As a web developer you will also work closely with dedicated programmers and graphic designers who use their technical knowledge of languages like Javascript and .Net to help improve the users experience.
Training and qualifications
One of the first points you will have to decide on is what programming and development language you want to use, as there are so many platforms to choose from.
Then research online from training providers for a beginners course, whichever one you choose a certain knowledge of scripting languages like PHP would be advantageous.
Further information
UK Web Designers Association
Website: www.ukwda.org
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