Web Design Careers

Web Design/Development Career Overview

As a web designer or developer, you’ll be responsible for designing, creating and maintaining websites. Web designers have the opportunity to combine a wide variety of artistic and technical skills to produce and manage successful websites.

Because of the ever-increasing demand for well designed and content rich websites, schools are beginning to offer specific web design degree and certificate programs. A wide variety of other degrees can lead to careers in web design, such as fine arts, graphic design, computer science and other related fields. No matter what your degree is in, all web designers must have an interest in the internet and a basic knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the basic language of the internet.

The increasing demand for websites is leading to numerous employment opportunities in this growing field. The growing field is also leading to an increased number of specializations and less technical oriented positions.

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Web Design/Development Training & Education

The most important requirement for a web designer is to have the required technical knowledge. Some commonly required skills include:

• HTML/XHTML and CSS
• Computer graphics design programs such as Paint Shop Pro and Adobe’s Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Photoshop programs.
• Flash
• Java
• Visio
• ASP
• PHP
• SQL
• PERL
• C, C++, C#

Colleges offer numerous programs to prepare students for careers in web design. For many web developers, a background in graphics design, fine arts or film and video prepares them for the artistic challenges of web design. For those with a background in art but who lack the required technical skills, many schools now offer specific certificate programs in addition to longer and more traditional degree programs.

On the other hand, some web designers want to complete a B.S. in computer science in order to master their chosen languages and learn the theory behind how computer technology works. Pursuing an IT degree is another option for the prospective web designer who is interested in managing larger websites.

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Web Design Career & Salary Outlook

The number of employment opportunities for web designers is expected to grow rapidly in the next five years as companies continue to increase their online presence. To get a job as a web designer, it is most important to have a firm background in the technical aspects and a solid portfolio. However, many positions also require a four year bachelor's degree, especially if the job is complicated, high paying, or includes being in charge of other people.

The median salary for web designers in the United States was $50,372 in 2007. This number is likely to rise over the next five years. Jobs that require more technical and programming skills tend to pay higher, as do jobs that require management of other employees. Top web designers earn salaries of over $90,000 a year.

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Career Fields/Specializations

Webmaster Career

Webmasters are responsible for administrating the website. Webmaster tasks include making necessary updates, verifying HTML validity, enforce style consistency, and ensure that all links work properly. In addition to these clerical tasks, webmasters often work to improve web navigation and conduct quality control studies to improve the architecture of the site. It is also helpful for webmasters to have an eye for grammatical error. Strong writing skills are also valued for webmasters who need to write large amounts of text.

Webmasters working for small companies are often responsible for designing and building the website in addition to maintaining it.

Web Developer Career

Students more interested in coding and the technical aspects of websites, might be more interested in web development than web design. Web developers make world wide web applications or distributed network applications that are run from a web servers to web browsers. As the internet becomes more complicated, many web developers are specializing in user end or server side development, each with its own important specialized set of skills.

As web development places a much higher emphasis on technical skills than other specialties, formal education or training is especially helpful. Earning a B.S., M.S. or even a Ph.D. in computer science will help prepare you for this increasingly complex field. User end developers specialize in languages such as HTML, CSS, and Java, while server side developers use languages like ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP.

Web Designer Career

Successful web designers combine a variety of technical and artistic disciplines to create a website that is navigable, easy to use, and communicates ideas with the greatest of ease. The web designer is responsible for doing a little bit of everything: design, layout, and writing copy are all part of the web designers job. In addition, web designers are often responsible for building and coding the website. At smaller companies, web designers may also make the website’s illustrations and graphics.

Web designer specialists should know how to program in HTML and CSS, and knowledge of a graphics design program is essential when working for a company without a graphics designer.

Information Architect Career

Information architects are the librarians of the internet. They specialize in designing how information will be arranged and communicated on a website by performing tasks such as creating site maps and wireframes, and learning what customers want from the website. The overall objective of the information architect is to ensure website integrates into the overall management or marketing strategy of the company.

While some Information Architects are self-taught, and increasing number are required to have a degree or certification in information science. Information architects are often required to know HTML, CSS, llustrator, Photoshop, SQL and Dreamweaver. Most information architects work for larger companies and earn between $50,000 and $85,000 a year.

User Interface Designer Career

Similar to information architects, user interface designers are responsible for making the information organized by the information architect easily accessible to the user. It’s up to the user interface designers to make illustrations, buttons and icons, and prototypes of web user interface applications that employ consistent style guidelines. As the internet becomes more competitive, companies will place an increasing emphasis on website usability and presentation.

User interface designers can find degrees in marketing, graphics design and psychology helpful in their work. Helpful skills for the user interface designer include HTML, CSS, Visio, Photoshop, Flash, AJAX, and JavaScript.

Interaction Designer Career

While user interface designers construct the appearance of the website, the interaction designer focuses on what happens when a user actually clicks or otherwise interacts with the website. In addition to websites, interaction designers work with complex electrical devices such as mobile phones and palm pilots. Generally, interaction designers work with products that change how they interact with the user over time. Overall, the interaction designer’s goal is to create compelling experiences for users.

Many schools now offer specific degrees in interaction design. Though technical skills for this profession vary, common ones include Flash, PHP, CSS, and Photoshop.

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