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Future Skills for a Budding Web Designer?

Posted by Cliff on from the what-should-I-learn-next? dept.

ericdfields asks: "One of my lifetime career goals is to establish myself on some decent level or another as a well-rounded, (mostly) standards-based web designer with some backroom web development knowhow. The problem is I have no clue where to begin. HTML, CSS, JavaScript are an obvious start, but what about other web-driven languages? PHP, XML, SQL, Perl... the list goes on. Should I be looking to grab hold of some Flash and Director skills? What abilities will be needed on the horizon that I can get an early start on learning today?"

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Skills... by kosmosik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That depends in which direction you wish to go. Right know I find it good to have website built by few people. Usualy there should be one for website code/logic, second for database design and third for layout/visualisation/layout-specific-logic - for properly designed webpage (and such have future) it is extremely important to separate those things.

    So as graphics designer you probably need to have good knowledge of:
    1. Basics: HTML, CSS, graphics programs (loads of, depends on what is your artistic direction), maybe Flash (but I don't like it).
    2. More advanced stuff: template engines like smarty or common CMS systems, W3C specifications, accesibity, interfaces design methodology, typography.

    As database designer you should be aware of things like:
    1. Basics: SQL basics, popular RDBMS like MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL (go with this one), SQLite etc.
    2. Advanced: database optimalization, RDBMS specific issues, DB abstraction layers (to make code portable between RDBMS), DB server administration etc.

    As code/logic designer:
    1. Basics: PHP, Perl, Python - you should at least know few such languages.
    2. Advanced: internals of servers (like Apache), advanced programming (probably object oriented), use of popular extensions, systems (like Zope, Pear common CMS systems), templating engines (to work with graphics guy).

    Also there is another side of Web which is *content* - it is also wide area how to manage your site, analyze visits, clickpaths, focus on best stuff and forget not visited parts, marketing and so on.

    There is really lot to learn to be good webdesigner, you should know at least basics of those topics to be self contained designer. Otherwise I sugesst you focus on things you like the best (graphics/coding/managing etc.) and work in a team of narrow specialists.

  2. Ability to learn new skills... by karnat10 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...is the single most important skill you'll need.

    Don't specialize on technologies, focus on problems instead. You'll have to learn a new technology every year to solve the ever same problems.