Why Consider Web Designer Training For A New Career?
Can you think of any company that's thriving today that doesn't have a website of it's own? A presence online is now seen as the norm with the explosion of the internet into so many homes around the world. With one web address, a whole series of pages can act as a point of contact, a business promoter, a sales brochure, and a product educator. Very often when we're looking to buy something, the first thing we do is a product search on Google to find suppliers, make cost comparisons etc.
Greatly In Demand
Obviously more websites creates a need for more talented and skilled people to design and build them. If web design is something you'd like to get into, you'll need to train and get your certifications.
You can do this via a college or training provider, either by going in-centre or studying at home. When you look at the range of trainers who are advertising, don't rush through them too quickly. Get a feel for the quality of the training itself, and how you'd fit the different study methods into your current lifestyle.
Web design courses should furnish students with a number of key skills that will be necessary to gain employment. Before we go any further it may be worth pointing out the difference between a web designer and a web developer.
Web developers learn programming skills, and essentially work on the 'out-of-sight' areas of a website (such as the processing of credit card payments). We're concentrating here on the design side of the industry, for people who want to create attractive and innovative website pages.
Imaginatively Inspired
If you're innovative and artistic you could well be suited to web design. You should also have good people skills, as the work involves a lot of interaction with clients. The client usually starts with some thoughts on how they'd like the designer to put their site together. You then have to bring those wishes to life, with an interesting, artistic and appropriate site that is easy for the user to find their way around. An experienced web designer will hope to carefully lead their client as well, and make possible recommendations where appropriate.
Renowned Training Courses...
Most commercial Web Design courses train students to use a range of Adobe products. Becoming Adobe trained enables students to gain a number of Adobe certificates, which are universally acknowledged in business.
Two very functional packages to become competent in are Adobe Flash Creative Suite 4 and Adobe Dreamweaver Creative Suite 4. Adobe abbreviate Creative Suite 4 to CS4 - make sure you don't register on a course still teaching CS3. Dreamweaver will give you the ability to create exciting and innovative designs for web pages. However, if you add Flash to your Dreamweaver skills you'll be able to bring those pages to life. When used together, Dreamweaver and Flash are extremely commanding design tools.
...And Certifications
It's essential whilst doing your course that you prepare a portfolio of some of the designs you've created. This will stand you in good stead at interview. A great deal of what constitutes good web design is subjective, and so you must be able to show what you can do at interview.
Anyone who plans to set up their own small Web Design business after studying may not need to get certified. However, go for the ACE or ACP certifications if accreditations are what you're looking for. You can take either of these in both Dreamweaver and Flash.
Commercially Competitive
Many students of Web Design limit their career opportunities by only learning about how to do the 'pretty bits' of a website. As well as learning how to use the Adobe tools, find a course that will teach you supplemental web design skills as well. You will benefit from an in-depth tutorial on HTML and CSS. They're the underlying languages and layout descriptions that Dreamweaver creates in the background for you. If you want your websites to be more than simple catalogues, you'll need to cover PHP Programming and dynamic HTML. Thirdly, look for some teaching on your course about e-commerce websites and how they work.
And to conclude the list for now, a requirement that's very overlooked by many is SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation.
The internet is a crowded place - which is why it's so important to learn the art of featuring highly on Google and co. With so many new sites going online each day, only the well optimised ones will see the light of day.
Inspiringly Innovative!
Careers in Web Design and the Internet can be exciting and innovative. Equipping yourself with the appropriate skill-sets will allow you to join this exceptional movement. Text and pictures on websites are starting to give way to animations and video - which will no doubt give way to full-screen presentations in 3 dimensions before long. Enjoy a worthwhile and progressive career by getting on board with this thrilling technological evolution.
