Professional web designer. The profession of a web designer: where to study. Is the game worth the candle

Welcome to the blog site! The profession of a web designer is one of the most popular on the Internet. This is a very demanded employee who performs a fairly large and serious scope of work. It is for this reason that he must have certain skills, knowledge and qualities. We will talk about who a web designer is and what he does later.

What is web design and who is a web designer?

First, let's take a look at what web design is and what role it plays in the field of internet business.

Web design is a field of activity aimed at developing the interface (appearance) of a website or virtual applications. Any resource that you visit on the Internet has its own unique design that differs from other sites. Its development was carried out by specialists who are called web designers.

Note! Web design is not a selection of pictures or the creation of a design for publications for a site, but the design of its appearance and functionality (header, menu, side column, footer, various buttons and graphic elements). The first is the content manager of the project, so do not confuse these professions .

The essence of the profession of a web designer

What is a web designer? This is a person whose responsibilities include the design of the site, as well as the development of its interface. This is a very responsible position that requires certain knowledge and skills. It is for this reason that many owners of Internet resources are looking for people who have a designer education, or close to that.

Who is a web designer, site owners know very well who do not have enough time to deal with all the work on the design of the project logo, navigation, information field and other elements related to the usability of the resource. We will talk about the responsibilities of such an employee further.

Features of work and responsibilities

To understand what a designer is doing, it is necessary to study in detail all the tasks that such a specialist faces. Web site design requires a person to:

precise definition of tasks and possible problems that may arise for site users;
careful thought over the interface of the resource so that it is convenient for all Internet users to use it;
development of the site structure;
development of convenient navigation through the portal so that the visitor is comfortable using the resource.

We have already figured out what a web designer does, but it is important to understand what functions he performs. This is important, first of all, for you if you decide to devote your time to the development of graphics and website design.

Working as a web designer involves performing the following functions:

preparation and approval of technical specifications (technical specifications) from customers before starting work;
design of all pages of the web resource (the main ones are the main, category, record page);
creating new ideas to improve the work of the portal;
development of a site administration profile layout (branding avatar);
creating a layout of the user profile (registered or unregistered);

Of course, the responsibilities of a web designer do not end there, since this is a specialist who must have a wide range of functions. However, if you learn to perform, at least, such work, in the future it will be easier for you to learn the basics of this profession.

Skills and personal qualities of a Web designer

To get started, you need to know what skills you need to have, and what personal qualities are valued by employers in the first place.

So, a computer designer must:

be able to operate with various graphic programs and applications (Photoshop, Corel Draw, Illustrator Macromedia Flash);
show creativity and originality;
know all the basics and rules of usability;
be able to work with HTML and CSS;
have an excellent understanding of internet marketing;
be able to always be online.

The job of a web designer also requires certain personal qualities. In particular, such as:

great creativity;
the ability to find a common language with clients - current and potential;
well-developed imaginative thinking and memory;
loyalty and patience;
accuracy and ability to concentrate on work;
sense of responsibility;
desire to learn;
the ability to recognize mistakes and shortcomings that were made in the process of work, and quickly correct them.

If you have these qualities, and you have enough time to always be in touch with customers, then you may well try yourself in this field of activity.

Advantages and disadvantages

What else a future web designer should know is the strengths and weaknesses of this profession. This will help you determine exactly whether this is the job that is right for you.

The advantages of this position include:

the relevance and relevance of the profession;
the opportunity to work not only in your own country, but also abroad;
opportunity (that is, remotely);
a wide range of possibilities;
professional growth prospects;
implementation of the idea without the need to make any financial investment in the project;
good salary.

However, work for a web designer will not be a joy if he does not agree on some aspects of the resource design with the site owner, who is the customer and pays you money for the work done. This is the main disadvantage of this profession. Some customers obsessively offer their design and navigation options, even if they are inconvenient to potential visitors.

Here are the most basic pros and cons of the design profession. If you are sure that you can cope with all the difficulties, then it's time to consider another important question - where can you learn the basics of this profession?

How and where can you learn web design?

Where do you need to study to master the profession of a web designer? There are several options here, from which you can choose the best one for yourself. Take a look at the list below:

Video course " The Basics of Commercial Web Design 2.0 ".
Online at " School of Design and Illustration ".
Take a free course on one of the distance learning sites. Read more in the article
Special training courses. This does not mean online courses, but classes based on a specific educational institution. One of the most prestigious universities where you can study to become a web designer is the "Specialist" training center, which works at the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman. In addition to training highly professional specialists, this institution can provide employment with a decent salary for a web designer.
MGUMO.
MEPhI.
National Research University Higher School of Economics.

If you have patience, you can master the profession on your own. Explore the materials and courses available on the web, constantly practice, improving your skills and mastery.

You already know what it takes to become a web designer and where to learn this profession. Now let's look at the question of where you can find a job in this position.

Web designer jobs - where to look and where to start?

Many IT newbies don't know where to get started in web design. And you need to start, first of all, with the collection of a portfolio, according to which potential employers can evaluate you. As soon as you do this, you can safely send your resume for consideration by customers.

One of the options for getting the first orders and replenishing your portfolio are webmaster forums. In special sections "Work for a designer" you can create a personal theme for finding potential customers. If you do not have any examples of work at all, offer to make the first orders with a discount, for example 50%, and a mandatory detailed review of your work. At first, your task is to acquire examples of quality work and positive reviews from satisfied customers.

Another place where you can find work for a beginner web designer is. The convenience of freelancing exchanges is that you can design a portfolio on your profile page. Here, satisfied customers will leave positive reviews, increasing your rating on the site.

Having a good portfolio and a positive reputation, you will not need to run after customers. They themselves will write to you and offer to take on their order. While you are a beginner, you will have to fight, in the truest sense of the word, for the first orders.

If you find it difficult to start drawing a full-fledged layout for the site, start with small jobs. This can be drawing a logo, creating a header, banners, icons, buttons and other individual graphic elements of the site.

Who needs web designers, and where to look for a job for a beginner in this area of Internet business? First of all, pay attention to:

large IT companies;
enterprises that have an official website, or they are just going to create one;
advertising agencies;
web design studios.

In addition, web designers are often hired to create unique layouts and navigation for blogs and social media groups. When you master all the necessary basics of the profession, as well as acquire the necessary skills, you can even open your own web design studio. In the modern Internet technology market, such services are in great demand, but remember that there is tough competition here, so you should be prepared for the fact that you will face some difficulties.

Web designer salary

One of the most common questions among newcomers to the IT business is how much a web designer makes. It should be noted right away that the salaries of such employees are pretty decent, although everything, of course, depends on the qualifications of each individual employee.

There is no fixed salary for a web designer - it is piecework, and is discussed with each employer separately. Speaking on average, the salary of such a specialist can fluctuate between 30-50 thousand rubles per month. This is the salary of a novice web designer. As for a professional, he can receive over 100,000 rubles a month for his work.

Summing up, it should be noted that we have considered the most important aspects of who a web designer is, what his responsibilities are, what he must know and be able to do, and where you can get the necessary education. Before you make your final choice, be sure to weigh the pros and cons that we talked about earlier. Many beginners stop halfway, because at first glance it may seem to them that everything is simple and clear in this matter, but, faced with the first difficulties, they do not find the strength to move on. If you are confident in your potential and in your own strengths, then you can try yourself in this area, starting from the very bottom, and gradually moving towards your goal.

You will find out what the requirements are for specialists in this profession on the market, what is their responsibility and how much you can earn as a web designer.

We have already talked about:

Web designer - who is he and what he does

A web designer is a specialist who develops the design (appearance) of Internet sites and web applications. That is, it is the one who is responsible for the appearance, aesthetics, and perception of your site. It is he who thinks over the color scheme of the web resource, the arrangement of blocks and buttons, chooses the optimal font and everything else.

Often a web designer is confused with a graphic designer, and is charged with the responsibility of developing a logo and corporate identity. Yes, there are generalists who can do that too. But it is the web designer who develops layouts of web pages - sites and landing pages.

The web designer thinks over where the text will be located on the page, what kind of navigation on the site will be, how to make the resource have the optimal loading time.

A web designer can work for himself as an independent freelance specialist, in a design studio, in companies that develop websites, in large companies that pay a lot of attention to their own web projects.

Works in close cooperation with a marketer and a web developer, as well as in tandem with a layout designer (if layout responsibilities are not delegated to the programmer, or the designer does not take on them).

Among the advantages of this profession are:

decent wages;
interesting creative work;
the ability to work remotely;
opportunities for career growth or starting your own business;
open space for work for foreign clients or in foreign companies.

There are also disadvantages - first of all, high competition in the market, and nuances in working with different clients (for example, you may not agree in tastes, or you have to prove your point of view for a long time).

Responsibilities of a web designer

A web designer has a wide range of responsibilities. They include:

defining the tasks of site visitors, and how the design will help to solve them;
website navigation development;
development of site page layouts;
development of site or web page navigation;
finalization of the design of existing pages;
preparation of layouts for layout;
development of technical specifications for a layout designer;
selection of the color scheme of the site;
visual design of pages;
web and mobile banner design;
design of pages on social networks: development of banners, avatars, covers, teasers for posts, etc.;
occasionally - imposition of page layouts;
checking the site layout after layout.

In addition, the web designer must provide a unified, cohesive visual experience for the brand on the Internet. That is, the site, communities in the social network, banners must have a corporate design, a single style.

Customers and employers are often united in their requirements. Of the human qualities, a designer requires perseverance, the ability to work in a team, the ability to hear and understand the client (employer), a broad outlook, learnability, and creativity.

As far as professional skills are concerned, the requirements for them are best illustrated by screenshots of vacancies.

Web designer in Moscow:

Another web designer vacancy:

Requirements for a leading web designer in a digital company:

As you can see, you need to be able to work in special software, have a portfolio and work experience - this is at least.

As of March 2018, according to trud.com, the average salary of a web designer in Russia is 25,000 rubles. The highest salaries for web designers are in Moscow and the Moscow region - up to 60,000 rubles a month.

As of May 31, 2018, 245 vacancies were opened in Russia, of which 39% of vacancies indicated a salary of 20-40 thousand rubles.

HH.ru gives slightly different statistics - the average salary of a web designer in Russia is 50,000 rubles.

As for independent freelance specialists, the price bracket for work is very large. It all depends on the skills and ambitions of the performer. Beginners earn from 10-15 to 30 thousand rubles a month. Craftsmen who have been freelancing for several years and have acquired assistants can earn at least 100 thousand rubles a month.

Going through the freelance exchange, looking at projects in the web design category, you can see different prices. Starting from 1000 for website design development and up to infinity. For example, they are ready to pay 10,000 rubles for the development of a new website design:

With the development of high technologies, more and more new professions appear that people of the older generation have never heard of. For example, a web designer. What is it, what is he doing and what are the features of his profession?

Definition

Design is artistic construction. It is based on two principles: creativity and rationality. This is the complexity of the job. And not every person can be a good specialist in this area. But a designer is a general concept, there are many narrow areas of activity: landscape, interior, costume, advertising. What is a web designer? This is the one who develops the sites. Their task is to come up with a beautiful design for the website that matches the specifics of the customer's activities and his wishes. In this case, it is necessary, in addition to external attractiveness, to make it convenient to use.

How the website is created

The whole process of creating a website consists of several stages.

Creation of technical specifications. Before doing anything, you need to determine its parameters. How the page should look like, how many should there be. How and where the navigation menu is located. All this information should be contained in a document - a work plan. To avoid conflict situations, the terms of reference are agreed with the customer. Typically, this preparatory phase is handled by the project manager.
Structuring. This stage includes a wide range of issues and is often time-consuming. It is necessary to think over the functional structure of the future site. How to correctly arrange information, where to place the menu, which active buttons to extract, how and where the information should be presented. Effective elaboration of this stage will make the website as user-friendly as possible, since a beautiful but completely incomprehensible portal for the user, where it is impossible to find anything, will make it go to the customer's competitors.
Graphic implementation of the site. After thinking over the structure, you need to think about the attractive appearance of the site itself and the interesting design of the menu items. This is what the designer does. The design takes place in special editors. The result is a graphic file for the future site.
Layout. To make a beautiful picture functional and able to be displayed in a browser, you need to divide it into elements and translate it into code. For this, HTML and CSS technologies are used. This part of the work is done by a programmer or layout designer.
Webmastering is the final stage of working with a website. When the product is ready, you need to host it and optimize it so that you can find it. After that, it becomes available to the general public.

All these steps can be performed by one person - a web designer. The profession allows you to have the required skills. However, he can only do part of the work. It all depends not only on his knowledge, but also on the working conditions. As an employee of a large website company, a designer may not have as many responsibilities as a designer. That being said, there is a difference between a simple designer and a web designer. Both can work in the field of Internet technologies, but the task of the first is to create graphics and work out the convenience of the interface, and the second must know all aspects of the production process from scratch to the direct launch of the site. With the division of functional responsibilities, the web designer is able to control all stages.

I want to become a web designer

After understanding what a web designer is, you need to know what you need to do to become one. We'll have to get the necessary knowledge. To design a site, you need to understand and be able to work with color, light and shade, fonts, know what lines, sizes, shapes, space and shapes are. To do this, it is necessary to study the characteristics of the elements, their behavior in various conditions. Basic theoretical knowledge about each graphic element is not enough. You need to understand how they connect and interact with each other. That is, it is important to understand categories such as proportion, scale, balance, unity, contrast. Art graduates are familiar with these categories. Therefore, with an art education, training for a web designer is greatly simplified.

In the absence of such, it is recommended to find quality courses that will allow you to learn the basics in a relatively short time. It is important to pay attention to their duration. An institution, concerned about the quality of teaching, organizes art courses for two years, while at a higher educational institution it will take 5-6 years.

Many organizations offer training courses that last only a few weeks. During this time, teachers are trying to put such an amount of information into the heads of students that nothing remains in it except for the complete confusion.

Knowledge of programming

How to become a web designer without knowing the basics of programming? Even if the technical part is in the developer's area of responsibility, it will be difficult to effectively interact with developers without understanding the coding rules. By understanding how the code works, you can tell right away which ideas are realizable and which aren’t. You can use site templates, which does not require an understanding of coding. They are a lifesaver for beginners. At the same time, you should not limit yourself to learning programming if there are gaps in knowledge in this area. Some sites need to be written from scratch and you can't get by with ready-made templates.

Where to go to study

Where to study the profession of a web designer? If you are willing to devote sufficient time to this, you can go to a university that offers an appropriate training program. But the fact of obtaining a magic crust will not make a person a sought-after specialist. In addition, basic things are usually taught during training. The training program does not have time to adapt following changes in technology, so you will have to study on your own both in parallel and even after graduation. For this there is the Internet with a huge amount of training materials for both a beginner and a professional striving for self-improvement.

Tool ownership

Specialized software products exist to help people do their jobs. To create a quality product that meets modern requirements, you need to get acquainted and understand how various programs work.

A novice web designer should definitely master basic graphic programs: Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. To create code, there are products like: Sketch App, GitHub, Pattern Lab.

Anyone who does not work with website builders like WordPress but deals with raw code should try one of the programs: Textmate, Sublime, Brackets.

What a web designer does is already clear. And the programs will help him with this. Ability to work with tools also shows the level of professionalism. The higher it is, the greater the demand for services, which is reflected in the cost of his work.

Expanding the area of knowledge

The more a person knows and can do, the fewer problems he has with the demand for the services offered to him. Site customers are not very familiar with this area, so they have to spend time looking for people who can provide various services. If one person can offer a complex, it is beneficial to both parties. A web designer is what it is if not a profession that motivates to learn all the areas related to sites, their programming, the development of an external beautiful and convenient shell, as well as promotion on the Internet.

A professional web designer must understand marketing and be able to prepare high-quality and catchy copy. A website is primarily an advertising product that allows a company to attract buyers. For this to happen, the site must be "tasty" and "catchy", since most of them are boring and monotonous.

In order for potential customers to find a specific site on the Web with a million of similar ones, it is necessary to promote it. To do this, you need to understand SEO.

This knowledge will help you create a truly high-quality product with a modern laconic design, high page loading speed, as well as prepare and place well-structured interesting text.

Working in the company: advantages

In Moscow, web designers are looking for a suitable agency to work with. There are many companies here that open relevant vacancies. The advantage of working as a hired employee is that there is no need to look for clients. Upon receipt of the order, you will need to perform some part of the work or manage the entire project, distributing responsibilities. When working in a good company that is in demand, you don't have to worry about your salary.

Working in a company: disadvantages

But there are also disadvantages. The level of earnings usually has its limits. It is not always convenient to commute to work every day, especially when it is located far from home. Being creative often forces you to stay in the workplace longer.

But working among professionals is suitable for a web designer from scratch who does not have sufficient knowledge and experience. There is a lot to learn here.

Self-employment: the pros

Freelancing is in great demand among specialists in this profession. There are many benefits:

no matter the place of work, maybe even another country;
the ability to independently determine the work schedule;
the ability to independently set prices, which are often lower than those of the agency;
the ability to choose projects;
if you independently perform the entire complex of work, you will not have to share payment with anyone.

A web designer is what it is if not a profession that allows you to independently manage your career.

Self-employment: cons

Among the absolute disadvantages is the need to “sell” yourself, which is not easy at the very beginning. To do this, you need to create your own website and post information about yourself on different resources.

Often a person starts out as a hired web designer. Studying with professionals allows you to become a good specialist. Communication with clients and colleagues helps to acquire different contacts. Therefore, many subsequently open their own businesses.

On the pages of the blog, you could more than once see an expression from me personally, or from team members, that on the Internet or in everyday life you can earn with a certain qualification, this is a simple axiom when, having mastered certain skills, you can receive reward for the results of your qualified work and Today we will talk about a fairly popular profession in the world, about web designers (web-designers) and how much people can earn in it working in companies or independently on freelance.

It should be noted that the profession of a web designer itself is not only in demand from employers, but also popular among people who want or are already mastering it, since this is one of the lifestyle (lifestyle) occupations when a web designer can work from home and is not tied to everyday life. going to the office. Many take advantage of this to go abroad and perform work via the Internet, living all year round, for example, in Bali.

Web design (from the English. Web design) - a branch of web development and a type of design, whose tasks include designing user web interfaces for sites or web applications. Web designers design the logical structure of web pages, think over the most convenient solutions for presenting information and are engaged in the decoration of a web project.

If you look at job search resources, such as HeadHunter, then we can say with confidence that there is no shortage of offers on the territory of our country and the post-Soviet space, and you are unlikely to find a web designer who cannot find a job.

On average in Russia, at the time of this writing, 552 vacancies were found and as you can see in the screenshot they are present not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in other regions, and the offered salaries vary depending on the requirements and work experience and there are 245 vacancies with offers from 45,000 rubles, 108 vacancies from 75,000 rubles, 33 vacancies from 135,000 rubles and 11 vacancies from 165,000 rubles, with the largest number of offers for applicants both without work experience and work experience from one to three years, which suggests that many employers are ready to grow their employees from scratch, and this is the best entry point for applicants for the web design profession.

Of course, you need to understand that a very young specialist, such as a graduate of a university or college, applying for the position of a web designer for the first time, will not immediately pay the full salary and his initial income in Moscow will be about 25,000 to 30,000 rubles, in St. -Petersburg from 20,000 to 23,000 rubles, in Yekaterinburg from 17,000 to 20,000 rubles, in Kazan from 13,000 to 15,000 rubles, while applicants must have good theoretical training: know HTML and CSS, graphic editors, layout rules and building sites.

As for Ukraine, there search offers 90 vacancies with salary offers from 40,000 rubles to 165,000 rubles and Kazakhstan with 55 vacancies, pay from 30,000 to 80,000 rubles. Perhaps the residents of Kazakhstan can say that this is not so much, and if you count from all applicants, then this amount is not enough, and they will be right, but who is stopping you from doing work on freelance?

Considering that the freelancing market is simply huge, where both beginners and experienced web designers can find orders for themselves, we can say that no one interferes, except for self-discipline and a little desire. Despite the fact that for a freelancer with little experience, 5,000-10,000 rubles for one design layout is quite an adequate price, and if you know how to make turnkey websites, layout, then the price will be an order of magnitude higher and three, four projects per month with a minimum salary they can bring you from 15,000 to 20,000 rubles, for the more experienced this figure starts from 40,000 and above and it doesn't matter to anyone whether you studied this profession in a vocational school or did self-study, they don't ask for a diploma here.

Therefore, the profession of a web designer itself is also notable for the fact that you can independently or on the basis of training courses learn the basics of working in special programs Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, master the rules of usability and develop in the field of designing layouts of sites, web applications, master the technology Flash, acquire a good portfolio of completed projects, learn to draw by hand, if necessary, learn English, the basics of JavaScript, PHP, SQL, which over time will make you a first-class specialist with the opportunity to earn 150,000 rubles and more, without a diploma from a prestigious university.

And if you decide who to become or want to change a profession you hate and feel that you can well become a web designer, then she can give you both a stable income with the possibility of simple employment based on the great demand in the labor market, and the opportunity for self-realization and remote work with anywhere in the world where there is Internet.

Beginning: 25000 ⃏ per month

Experienced: 50,000 ⃏ per month

Professional: 100000 ⃏ per month

The demand for the profession

The profession is growing along with the growth of the Internet. However, the low entry threshold makes the market overflowing with designers. The best will survive.

Where to study for the profession of Web designer in Moscow

Who is the profession for?

For creative people and people who own computer graphics programs. It is also important for a web designer to understand the structure of sites, it is desirable to be familiar with the development process.

Average requirements for a web designer

Profile education.
Knowledge and understanding of information technology in design ‚web standards‚ features of design creation and preparation of images for web ‚applications and social networks.
Knowledge of Microsoft Office ‚professional tools of the Adobe package (Photoshop‚ Illustrator ‚Dreamweaver‚ Flash) ‚CorelDRAW‚ 3D Max.
Proficiency in HTML / CSS, etc.
Ability to work with a modular grid, knowledge of the basic principles of web typography.
Skills in photo and graphic processing for posting on web resources ‚in mobile applications‚ social networks.
Experience in the development and creation of graphical interface elements (icons, logos, buttons, templates).
Literacy ‚healthy perfectionism‚ stress resistance ‚sociability.

Career

It starts with small jobs, as you level up your skills, more and more complex and interesting projects and a lot of money.

Responsibilities

Web designers design the logical structure of web pages, think over the most convenient solutions for presenting information and are engaged in the decoration of a web project. As a result of the fact that a web designer works at the intersection of two branches of human activity, he must be familiar with the latest web technologies and have the corresponding artistic qualities.

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