Article: What is a web designer, Anyway?

As a web designer, I get all kinds of requests, for information other than web design, and as a web designer I'm not suppose to really to be able to do things outside of the web design area. I believe there are a few misconceptions about what exactly a web designer does. In this article I am going to nail down exactly what a web designer is and what they should be able to do. This article pertains to small business website designers and not to bigger businesses where they are looking for someone who specializes. First I'll touch on the differences between a web designer and a web developer. A web designer is someone who creates the visual design and layout of a web page. A web developer is someone who does the behind-the-scenes programming of a website.

Web designer's definition:

They give business organizations a web presence by building them a website. Web designers are professionals who organize information, create page layouts, while communicating the business's information opinions in a website. Web designer's create another medium for the business to expand into. Creating a website enables the business to attract new customers, showcase its services products, and to do business across countries.

What things do web designer's do?

That's a really good question. It is definitely hard to nail down what every designer must do in order to call themselves a web designer. A good web designer should be able to do both the design and the development, unfortunately for you the consumer it doesn't always work that way.

A great web designer also has knowledge of coding languages such as:

:: Python
:: Java
:: Cold fusion
:: SQL
:: PHP

Sometimes it might be difficult for a web designer to have all those different programming languages under their belt. It is like knowing English, French, Chinese and German. Quite complicated. The more languages they know the better. Well that should help you on your search for a good web designer!

Alicia Harper (owner)
Vancouver Web Design