One of the best things about a career in web design is that it can combine both your artistic and technical abilities. Web design courses are for training both of your brain’s hemispheres, which will make you a well-rounded individual. Not to mention that it makes for interesting work! Web designers are the tightrope walkers of the IT world, with the balance being the key to a successful career. They craft a combination of design and IT skills to create, develop and maintain websites.
When creating a website, you have to consider how a user will experience the visual aspects, as well as the functionality of the site. To come up with that perfectly balanced result, web designers must consult with clients thoroughly. This way you can determine what the client needs from the site, come up with a design for the underlying architecture of the website, and design the visual layout of each page. In some cases, you will have to custom develop programs to deliver the website functionality that the client requires.
Lucky for you, a career in web design can take you straight to a job. While the employees of many industries are being made redundant, web design is sitting pretty according to the statistics. Employment for web designers has risen by a solid rate of 17% over the past 5 years and is expected to grow very strongly through 2017.
Pursuing a career in web design means you must always be evolving and learning new code languages. Web designers must be proficient in a lot of different platforms, from operating systems to graphics packages and basic programming languages. So expect to start to talk in Windows, Macintosh, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, PHP, and jQuery (just to name the basics). Web designers should love to learn, as there are always new skills and codes being created that could make your next project amazing.
Good web designers must learn to communicate and listen to others in order to do well. Working with clients to determine a mutually satisfactory end design is what a good web designer does best. Both parties need to reach an understanding of how the end product should look, and this can sometimes be quite a challenge.
Never forget that communication is the key to your success. If you can create a finished product that leaves both you and the client satisfied, it may lead to more work via your client’s networks, not to mention an awesome site to add to your portfolio.
A career in web design requires you to have a steady stream of creative ideas. You’ll have to think fast and love a challenge. What you spend hours envisioning may well be a great concept for a site, but your client may not agree. If this is the case, you’ll need to have backup plans or be able to think on your feet to come up with an alternative.
Web designers must be able to keep their heads under pressure and handle any unexpected demands of the job that may rear their heads.
Web designers can work from anywhere that they can set up a computer and have access to a high-speed Internet connection, so there are many different workplace options to choose from. You can be part of a large scale operation in places like big design firms or multinational magazines, or there are currently a lot of jobs working for Internet start-ups, as well as for production firms and smaller companies. Many web designers also work freelance from a remote location, making this job a good one if you have a case of wanderlust.
Web designers will almost always be part of a team to create a great end product. Depending on your client and their desired site, you could have team members like illustrators, graphic designers, marketing and sales members, and other experts in various fields. Web designers can make a living with freelance projects that allow them to work solo, but more often than not work will be a team affair.
If you’re a qualified web designer then you’ve got skills in creating apps, speak fluent script language, and can navigate around all operating systems. But there’s a lot more to creating a career than these things.
Once you know your way around web development and the world of e-commerce, what’s next for you? You should also be proficient in how good business is run. You’ll need skills in management, how to best run a project, and if you plan to work freelance, you may need to know how to start your own business.
If you wish to learn how to become a web designer, or if you already have the basic training but would like to refresh your skills, check out the IT (Web Design) course at ICI today.
Gladys Mae serves as the General Manager and Head of Student Services at the International Career Institute. Gladys holds a degree in Mass Communication - Broadcast Media from the University of San Jose-Recoletos. She joined ICI in 2010 and has over the past 12 years been instrumental in providing leadership and guidance to staff and students alike. Prior to joining ICI Gladys led a multifaceted career with key roles in the banking and business process outsourcing industries.
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