The Website Design Skill set are…
1. HTML – Having a good understanding of HTML, XHTML etc is fundamental in Website Design, and almost becomes second nature to more experienced Website Design professionals. Although this is regarded as the easiest of web technologies, it almost becomes the most essential.
2. CSS – Ability to represent your design using as CSS wherever possible will reduce your overall file sizes and loading times, and will certainly increase performance in search engines. Being able to manipulate CSS, to a degree where you can create completely cross browser compatible pages from any design file is certainly one of the most valuable skills in the industry.
3. GRAPHIC DESIGN – If you are working as a freelance web designer then your graphic design skills will come into play much more than if your responsibility in a larger organisation means that you are just working as a developer for example. Graphic design comes in at number 3, as these days, having both sides to the coin is not only becoming advantageous, but more essential.
4. JQUERY – This is latest website design craze, with the ability to interact with the server on the fly. For a while now, we have seen on larger corporate sites, the introduction of what appear to mainly be usability improvements, and slick CSS transitions and effects. A nice example as we see demonstrated very well on the Apple site, is the search functionality, where initiates a database connection on the fly, and brings back in real time, a refined search for every additional character that is typed.
5. PHP – Regarded as the Internet’s number one choice for server-side languages, its open source benefits come right out on top again. PHP is used widely throughout the internet from simple functions for using dynamic dates, and including template files right through to complete object oriented application development.
6. FLASH – Animation on the web is as popular as ever with more focus on 3D tools interactivity and compatibility. Having the skills to be able to create nice animations can certainly give your work the wow factor that will sell your work to your clients. Animation and video are one of the best ways to get the attention of your users. If a picture speaks a thousand words, does a video speak a thousand pictures?
7. SEO – Search Engine Optimisation is the Website Design profitability holy grail. With powerful SEO, websites can gain exposure to the target audiences and out perform those that don’t. It is virtually useless to create a beautifully designed, user friendly website with the very latest in web technologies, if no body is going to be able to find it. If your websites business model is to generate leads, enquiries or sales from the web, then you’ll soon find, that prowess in this field is worth two in the bush!
8. SERVER ADMINISTRATION – There are certainly many areas of web design that are not glamorous, but equally as important if you are to maintain a high level of service. Administering Domains, Hosting, Emails, servers, backups etc is essential for smooth website running.
9. PROJECT MANAGEMENT – When running or working for a web company, although not necessarily related to website design, but more good business practice in general, being able to manage the project to the constraints of time, budget and resources, could be the difference between a successful project with on going support, maintenance and future developments and a disappointed client that looks elsewhere for future Website Design
10. MYSQL – Open source technologies on the web have so far dominated when it comes to all round uptakes. Web designers of all levels can use MySQL technology freely within the Website Design. With the bulk of web applications using MySQL along with PHP, it’s no surprise that having this skill set can certainly be valuable in this day and age.
I worka s a freelance web designer in UK and use exactly the fields you have identified in your post. Interestingly enough I initially come from a Linux and Java background. However with time as I have been working on Web development contracts in the SME market, I have had to focus primarily on PHP, MySql, Jquery, HTML, CSS and ofcourse SEO which is a now a must for anyone in the web industry.
Nice article, but I disagree with flash being on the list. Hopefully it’ll be replaced by HTML5 in the coming couple of years.
I disagree with flash being on the list too. If we’re trying to push for a clean and semantic web then we should avoid flash at all costs. JQuery is the way forward for animations.
I always thought that:
Web Designer skills – photoshop, fireworks
Web Developer skills – all coding part – basically what you have listed here :p
two completely different jobs, plus you have an article how to tell two things apart.
I disagree rimbo.
The job of a web designer and front end developer should be very close.
How can a designer, design a webpage without fully understanding the potential technologies that can be utilised within the page? In order to do this; the designer must also be a developer.
I support the posts left by Gary on both accounts. Flash (in it’s time) use to be an effective tool for animation, however on a SEO/SEM standpoint it is highly ineffective. Adobe is currently working on this but at this time Gary is right. You can’t effectively use Flash in your pages.
Second: Often I have listened to Graphic Designers with minimal web skills to misunderstand the terms back-end and front-end of web development. Photoshop, Fireworks and the entire suite of creative tools are designed to aid ease and effectiveness in developing both ends of the development process. They are the current professional standards in the industry. Graphic designers with less focus on web or with entry level knowledge on web often assume that creating the visual aspects of the web experience is front-end web development. Unfortunately, the front end also covers html, css, jquery and more. Back-end is more of a server side range of the web development like Php, MySQL, cold fusion and more. Designers are often dreaded to learn they have to introduce them selves to coding on the front end because most would rather not have to deal with what they feel is developers skill-set but today it’s a must.
All-in-all I’m one of those designers. I would rather just design the visual aspects of a page and hand it off to a developer to do the code but today it is in fact a necessary evil. I’ll close with saying once a designer makes that leap and they find good resources to learn front end development skills, it comes naturally after a short period of time and you gain a bigger picture of the development process now that you are part of it.