Web Designing

Web designing involves designing web pages or entire sites, providing original content, or placing existing print documents online. This is basically a process of creating a single web page or entire web sites and involves understanding of drawing and creating aesthetically pleasing combinations of color and form. In addition, they should have an understanding of web-specific design factors such as screen resolution, image compression, usability, accessibility, and website architecture. Since the web designers are responsible for everything from designing a website's "look and feel" to incorporating features such as e-commerce, online community, search engine optimization, animations, interactive applications, and advertising hosting into the site, it is important that they have working knowledge of many fields such as graphics and animation, design, content creation, search engine optimization, HTML/XML authoring, JavaScript programming, and ecommerce development etc.

Lot of things should be kept in mind while designing websites or web pages. Most important is the browser compatibility. Since there are lots of browsers on the web, it ids difficult to estimate, who will use what – thus the best option is to for the most popular or widely used browsers so that maximum people can view the site correctly. Mostly, people use either a Microsoft or a Netscape browser. For security and stability reasons JAVA and JavaScript options are switched off.  It is better to go for industry standards such as HTML 4.0, Javascript 1.2, and CSS 1.0 or 2.0.

The content is equally important. There is no point in compromising on the quality of the writing. Good grammar and spelling as well as clear and concise topics and articles will make people wanting to come back for more.

Thus the basic use of web design is to create a web site -- a collection of electronic files that reside on a web server/servers and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. And a web site is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. The basic things that should be kept in mind while designing a sit is its content (information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with), easy usability such that the interface and navigation are simple and reliable, appearance (good consistent style that flows through each page showing unity of structure and thought.) and visibility (the site should have search engine friendly content so that it is easy to find)

Requirements:

A good knowledge base in Internet technologies and programming is a must along with a basic software engineering degree. HTML and XML are now the prerequisites to be a web designer. The other technological skills include working knowledge of Perl, SQL, Java, JavaScript, ASP, or Cold Fusion – preferably a combination of these. Since the technologies keep on changing, it is important to have the ability to learn by oneself and keep abreast of newer technologies. This can be done via online tutorials which are available free of cost on net or through networking sites and groups. A degree in visual design from a reputed institute is an added advantage. There are some institutes which are offering a diploma in web development as a part of their online courses. Many professionals also move into this field after working on their own for a while doing amateur work for family and friends.

Opportunities

Mostly Web designers are employed in advertising, marketing, or design agencies, or at Web consulting firms, which build and manage websites for client organizations. Another option is to go for freelance work. There are lots of websites providing freelance opportunities for the professionals such as getafreelancer.com or Elance.com etc.