Survey of Web Design Employment in My Area

A great deal of people prefers web developers (basically web designers) to have a strong knowledge of basic HTML and CSS (at least four years worth). There’s also a good pool of opportunities in Evansville, as well as places in Kentucky and other areas of Indiana that are only a few hours away. I noticed one ad from simplyhired.com mentioned being bilingual (English and Spanish), which means knowing more than one language or being willing to learn more than one language could be a good choice in the long run.

As for what the bls.gov website says, Information Security Analysts, Web Developers, and Computer Network Architects are all lumped together in one group. This does not necessarily mean that a person has to be all three at once though, since they provided separate descriptions on each job.

Basically, according them, “Web developers create websites to help firms have a public face” and require (in 2010) at least a Bachelor’s Degree as well as 1-5 years experience in a related occupation. In May of 2010, the medium annual wage was $75,660. And the Job Outlook is projected to grow 22 percent from 2010 to 2020, which is faster than the average for all occupations.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization", sometimes known as "Search Engine Optimizer".  If I were to compare it to something, it may be to car production and how some smaller companies produce the parts shipped to a main company for assembling. The same theory can be applied here. SEO provides ways for a website to be more findable, and gets paid for their part in the larger picture.

Though, I suppose a SEO isn't always needed. In fact, it seems to me that the SEO's job can be broken into sections and distributed to the web design team in a way that causes only an ounce more of effort rather than a wadful of cash. You see, the SEO's job is to create findability in a website. And to create findability the team already has to place a hand into the production.

That's why one does not necessarily need to pay a SEO. Instead, just a few extra steps from the team can eliminate the use of a SEO altogether and still make the website more findable.

Design, Usability, and Accessibility

Design is how the web page looks, how the person interacts with it, and just the overall presentation of the web page in question. Having the viewer be actively engaged, subtly, with the web page is good. And not having the website boggled with overly complex design choices (such as, say, 21 unneeded text colors or an extra image that serves no real purpose) to instead go for a simple, clean look is more appealing. Consistency is also important and gives the impression of sophistication, so it is important to have noted somewhere how the website is designed (like, say, how many pixels of padding is used and where).

Usability is the practical side of the website. This is what makes good links good, and makes content clear and concise. If a website were to be compared to a business, the logo and interior decoration would be the design of the business. The usability of the business would be the employees, the contracts, and the mannerisms of the place. Usability can determine about how trustworthy a website is, and so being clear with things such as a link navigation is important.

Accessibility is the distributing part of a website. For a business, this would be the ramps and braille system that would be found throughout the building for the handicapped people. A website isn't used just by the perfectly healthy, in fact those who are blind or have paralysis can use this technology too, if the website is coordinated just right for their use. That is why some extra time should be used in making sure a website is easy for all people to use.

Photoshop Web Design Layout Tutorials Critique

Photoshop Tutorial 1 - Webstudio Layout Design:  Basically, I enjoy how step-by-step this one is. I can also see myself tweaking it for my own personal use just by changing colors or typefaces or even changing the stars into a different stamp upon my own preference. It's a bit lengthy, though... But well worth it for someone who needs such instructions.

Photoshop Tutorial 2 - Design a Cartoon Grundge Web Site Layout:  Okay, I'm not being biased despite the fact I completely love Anime/Manga (which is the Japanese version of Cartoons/Comics)! I like the torn paper look, and hey... Instead of the 3 images of the bottom being of random pictures... I can see three of my best work projects there. And the paper curling with tape on it that shows a website? Logo could always fit there. A few of those steps look to be a daunting doozy, though.

Photoshop Tutorial 3 - Create a Dark Themed Web Design from Scratch:  This one was choosen because it was dark and girly-cute. Kind of how I like it. I also like how this person points out the main points of interest, and notes keeping a color scheme consistant. This sort of website may be more of a personal blog or something similar to how Swiss Miss keeps a blog over designs and quotes and videos and such that tickle her fancy.

As a side note: A good amount of these tutorials did not work, which served to agitate me as some of them I was looking forward to learning about.