The World Wide Web might not be a very recent phenomenon but nevertheless it is still the latest as compared to the traditional fields such as engineering, medicine, pure sciences and many more. Just like deciding on a career in the traditional sectors requires you to be quite discerning the same thing applies to a career in the domain of internet.
One career avenue that has seen an upward swing over the past few years is web
designing. Many people have opted for a career as a web-designer and have been highly successful. But there is a lot that goes into the making of a successful web designer.
Web-designing in itself is a vast term. It includes web graphic design, interface design, authoring including standardised code and proprietary software, user experience design and search engine optimisation. There is so much within the realm of Web Design such as HTML, design, layout, programming, administration, XML, graphics and much more. A web-designer works as part of a team of professionals working in different applications or sometimes works on all the applications. Web-Designing is a sunrise industry and multi-skilled web-designers are in demand and high on the job lists of recruiters across India.
In the US, the national unemployment rate for web designers is at just 3% and demand for their skills in animation, graphics, social media, apps design and video is at an all time high.
People with skills in web design, mobile and other similar technologies would find today's job market very much receptive. An increasing number of companies are regularly seeking new college graduates with the latest techniques in web design.
As a web-designer can work in multifarious of capacities and across the globe depending upon the skill sets that he has and his educational qualifications. Some of the job titles for web design jobs can be Digital Illustrator, Front End Designer, Graphic Designer, Interactive and User Experience Designer.
Skills
The skills associated with these jobs include proficiency in WordPress I/II, HTML/CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Servers, Debugging, Multimedia, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, etc. Subversion, Project Management: Basecamp, etc., Web Analytics, Wireframes, A/B Testing, API, Content Management and Development, Content Strategies, E-commerce, SEO, Site optimization, Site Testing and WAPT tools, Site validation, Social Media, User Experience (UX), Website Security Prevention and Response, WordPress Interface Customisation, Writing for the Web.
Depending upon the jobs listed above and in addition to the above skills and expertise, the educational requirements for the jobs are 2-6 years of higher education (college, university) in graphic design and illustration, web design and development, advertising, marketing, business, communication, and some web programming and certification in some technical and web programming programs. Minimum experience of 3 to 5 years helps in fetching a good jobContent is kingA career in web designing would take you far but only if you are willing to work hard for it. And that is the bottom line of it.
It is a well established fact that in the World Wide Web it is the content that is the king. A good web design with poor content on it cannot hold on the attention of the reader for far too long.
Quite similarly good content on a poorly designed website would always loose out to the good content on a beautifully designed website. Thus, web designing as a career would always pay rich dividends no matter where in the world you are working. In fact it has been projected that web designing would be the fastest growing careers in the next decade. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the next decade definitely belongs to the web designers.
In order to be a successful web designer you need to have strong fundamentals in website construction languages such as Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). You must know how to create graphics, animations and webpages and implement these elements and make them accessible via the internet.
A web designer is expected to create and design dynamic, visually appealing and intuitively navigable websites. Students or professionals willing to enhance their web designing skills can opt for higher degree programs in web designing that are offered by many institutes.