Web designer
The task of the web designer is to create and maintain websites on the World Wide Web . The web designer is primarily responsible for the design, structure and user guidance, i.e. the interface design and the implementation of the corporate design .
In larger internet agencies , the web designer is often used exclusively for the layout and design of the websites . Further tasks such as responsive web design are then implemented by specialized web developers.
An important part of the web designer's job is to find the best compromise between the client's wishes, the demands of the visitors and the technical possibilities. A good web designer also informs his client about typical customer behavior on the Internet and creates the page accordingly.
Professional requirements
In job advertisements for permanent or freelance employees in the field of web design , knowledge in the following areas is usually requested:
- Design , in particular web design
- Ease of use (English usability ) and accessibility
- Image processing with graphics software
- HTML / XHTML (mostly cross-browser) for structuring the page content
- CSS for the design, layout and design of the site
- Content management systems
- popular HTML editors
If the web designer is to be used to create a dynamic web application , one or more of the following additional skills are usually required:
- JavaScript / DHTML for programming client-side scripts - increasingly in connection with AJAX
- PHP for server-side programming
- Node.js for server-side programming with JavaScript
- Perl for server-side programming
- Java / JSP for server-side programming
- ASP / ASP.NET for server-side programming
- Python for server-side programming
- Ruby for server-side programming
- SQL for controlling SQL databases (e.g. MySQL , Oracle , Microsoft SQL Server , Db2 )
- HTML5 for the creation of multimedia and dynamic web content
- Web server (e.g. Apache web server or Microsoft Internet Information Services )
- Application server (e.g. JBoss , Oracle application server , BEA Weblogic , IBM Websphere )
- Operating systems (e.g. Linux , Windows or macOS )
education
Due to the rapid development and the relatively young professional profile, this specialization is usually self-taught . In some cases, the "web designer" profession is also trained as an individual profession without prior knowledge of computer science, media design or graphics, provided that the person is suitable . The profession of "web designer" is not subject to any statutory regulation and is taught exclusively as advanced training at private educational institutions or at chambers of industry and commerce. That is why, in principle, anyone can call themselves a web designer who can create a website. With new tools, such as website building kits, the quality of the work can sometimes vary extremely.
Aids used
Depending on the task at hand, tools such as image processing programs , HTML editors, integrated development environments ( IDEs ), content management systems and often software solutions for creating animations , online games , screen presentations, etc. are used.