Web Developer/Designer/pragrammer/etc.

[yairhol]

Hello gang,

This is intended to those who are working in the internet field as web designers/programmers/developers and so on.

Intro: My wife has a degree in textile design but works as a graphical designer in a clothes company and has good knowledge in the following softwares: Photoshop, Freehand and Illustrator.
She is thinking of making a shift towards the internet world. I may add that she has zero knowledge in programming.

My questions are regarding this shift and the need for software knowledge such as hers in the internet.

I have heard of professions with the labels of web developer, web programmer, web designer. Are these all the same profession?
Is there a profession that focuses more on the design of the web site (artistic side) rather than the actual programming? How well do these jobs pay (below average, average, above average?)?
Will she have to learn 'heavy' programming in order to fit in these professions or will 'light' programming skills be sufficient?
All the info that you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Yair

 

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

Hello gang,

This is intended to those who are working in the internet field as web designers/programmers/developers and so on.

Intro: My wife has a degree in textile design but works as a graphical designer in a clothes company and has good knowledge in the following softwares: Photoshop, Freehand and Illustrator.
She is thinking of making a shift towards the internet world. I may add that she has zero knowledge in programming.

My questions are regarding this shift and the need for software knowledge such as hers in the internet.

I have heard of professions with the labels of web developer, web programmer, web designer. Are these all the same profession?
Is there a profession that focuses more on the design of the web site (artistic side) rather than the actual programming? How well do these jobs pay (below average, average, above average?)?
Will she have to learn 'heavy' programming in order to fit in these professions or will 'light' programming skills be sufficient?
All the info that you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Yair

My wife has the titles of 'graphic designer' and 'web designer'. She has the same skills as your wife, and she is not a programmer. The only 'programming' knowledge required is HTML. There are many applications out there which let you design webpages graphically instead of getting down into the HTML, but any good designer in my opinion knows how to fix HTML manually if need be. HTML is an easy language to learn, and all Internet browsers are based on it.

I am a 'web programmer' or 'web developer', which means that I don't design the site, but I do all of the back end programming.. This includes PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, database connectivity, etc, etc. It's a completely different role than a web designer.

Pay for a web designer is typically below average to start, but typically gets in the mid ranges with experience.

Hope that helps.

 

[yairhol]

so basically what you're saying is that a 'web designer' and 'web developer' complement each other? As I understand, one is responsible for the looks of the site and the other for all the applications that run in the background.

 

[tkingdoll]

I employ web designers and web developers. The designer will design a site in Photoshop, the developer will carve it up and make the HTML in Dreamweaver and do any other techie stuff like databases and so on.

However, my designers are more than capable of creating the HTML/building the front end of the site themselves, I'd say it's an essential skill for the job because apart from anything you have to be able to design a site that is actually buildable! Plus a lot of employers want more and more coding skills, the trend is going that way by the looks of things.

A lot of graphic designers struggle when they first make the transition, because they are used to designing for print, and it's a totally different universe. New rules of design apply!

I would recommend that your wife learns enough HTML to be able to build the site she's designed, even if the job she eventually gets doesn't need the skill. I also recommend that she either takes a course, or buys a book on designing web layouts, because it's extremely important to know what (and why) the rules are. Web design is actually much less design than you might think. It's certainly not comparable with graphic design, it's much more techy.

As for how it pays...I have no idea about the USA, but in the UK a junior designer will earn anywhere from £14k to £20k, and an experienced designer will earn anywhere from £17k to £30k. I'd say the average is about £24k which is $48k but the USA market might be totally different. Or you might not be in the USA!

Be warned, though, that regardless of her experience as a graphic designer, your wife will very probably have to start at the bottom rung of the web design ladder, which means she'll be competing with graduates and so on. How old is she?

 

[yairhol]

How old is she?

she's 31 and we live in Israel.
Thanks for your reply. Thank you R-T-N for your reply as well.

I would recommend that your wife learns enough HTML to be able to build the site she's designed

So she would need to learn CSS also since that gives the site its graphical presentation whereas html is responsible for the text content.
No?

 

[CFLarsen]

The designer will design a site in Photoshop

You and I shall have a talk at TAM.

 

[tkingdoll]

she's 31 and we live in Israel.
Thanks for your reply. Thank you R-T-N for your reply as well.


So she would need to learn CSS also since that gives the site its graphical presentation whereas html is responsible for the text content.
No?

Yes to CSS! She should learn tables too as some (weirdos) still ask for it, but CSS is da future. And all the other stuff that goes with standards and accessibility.

I do know someone who made the jump from graphic design to web design at aged 31. She had to make a bit of a pay sacrifice and it is tough to compete with people with ten years experience but she's doing fine.

Claus: I meant the graphical design is done in Photoshop, which the developer (or sometimes the designer) then carves up to use in Dreamweaver. That's standard practice, particularly if you want a graphical menu and not a CSS menu, etc. What do you create your GIFs and JPEGs in?

 

[Nick Bogaerts]

We work basically like Teek, except with three tiers, designers (who make pretty websites in photoshop), templaters who take Design and turn it into a pixel-perfect HTML and CSS, and back-end programmers (like me) who write PHP (or Pyhton, or RoR, or whatever the client fancies) to tie things together, and is usually also responsible for the Javascript.

While I can do a templater's job, and often do when the back-end workload is light, I couldn't do design. So yes, it may be more technical than for print, but it still remains more of an art form.

 

[CFLarsen]

Claus: I meant the graphical design is done in Photoshop, which the developer (or sometimes the designer) then carves up to use in Dreamweaver. That's standard practice, particularly if you want a graphical menu and not a CSS menu, etc. What do you create your GIFs and JPEGs in?

I code each bit. From memory. So, there!

No, what I meant was: When your designer start with Photoshop, is that because he makes the various designs in PS, or does he work from sketches?

Also, does he have an information architecture to work from, or does he create generic placeholders?

 

[tkingdoll]

We work basically like Teek, except with three tiers, designers (who make pretty websites in photoshop), templaters who take Design and turn it into a pixel-perfect HTML and CSS, and back-end programmers (like me) who write PHP (or Pyhton, or RoR, or whatever the client fancies) to tie things together, and is usually also responsible for the Javascript.

While I can do a templater's job, and often do when the back-end workload is light, I couldn't do design. So yes, it may be more technical than for print, but it still remains more of an art form.

I can't afford three tiers yet

When your designer start with Photoshop, is that because he makes the various designs in PS, or does he work from sketches?

Claus, not another 'sketching it with a pencil first is better' debate, pleeeease

The answer it, it entirely depends on the job. Our bigger clients get concept sketches before anything. We might go through a couple of versions of these before they're happy to sign it off, at which point the PS stage begins. But for little clients with teeny tiny budgets, I brief the designer to create a first draft in PS, and send a JPEG draft to the client for feedback. But my designer generally doodles a layout on paper before turning to the computer. Or I'll have doodled one with the client at the briefing.

I ain't the designer so I don't care how the job gets done, as long as it gets done (on time and to budget).

 

[Morrigan]

I employ web designers and web developers. The designer will design a site in Photoshop, the developer will carve it up and make the HTML in Dreamweaver

Noooo, those are integrators! We developers hate doing that stuff.

Well, I know I do. Thankfully my current employer knows that and makes me do strictly back-end stuff.

and do any other techie stuff like databases and so on.

Yes, that's more like it.