The skills of a professional web designer are constantly changing because the Web is constantly changing. <\/p>\n

This fast-paced nature of the Web is considered good by some (because it opens up opportunity) while others hate it because you have to be ready to learn new web design skills regularly.<\/p>\n

… Personally, I see it as an opportunity with a headache! <\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The following list details what you CURRENTLY need to know to be become a professional web designer.<\/p>\n

Basic elements of the Web:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
• Domain names<\/li>\n
• Hosting<\/li>\n
• FTP\u00a0and HTTP<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Web design skills<\/strong><\/p>\n

  HTML <\/p>\n

  \n
  • The core tags<\/li>\n
  • Basic HTML concepts \u2013 properly formatted tags, doctypes etc. <\/li>\n
  • What tags to NOT use.<\/li>\n
  • HTML tables<\/li>\n
  • HTML forms<\/li>\n
  • Proper page and web site structure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    CSS<\/p>\n

    \n
    • The core CSS properties \u2013 margins, floats, padding, z-index \u2026etc.<\/li>\n
    • Basic CSS principles<\/li>\n
      \n
      • Adding CSS to pages.<\/li>\n
      • The cascade in CSS<\/li>\n
      • CSS page layout<\/li>\n
      • Getting around CSS cross browser conflicts \u2013 IE conditional comments<\/li>\n
      • Understanding CSS limitations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n

        Misc. Skills<\/p>\n

        \n
        • Basic design principles \u2013 white space, fonts, alignment<\/li>\n
        • Image types used on the Web (JPG, GIF, PNG). The pro\u2019s and cons\u2019.<\/li>\n
        • Basic image editing\/creation for the websites \u2013 sizes and optimization. Photoshop is a good place to start.<\/li>\n
        • Web site usability \u2013 how to make websites more user friendly.<\/li>\n
        • SEO \u2013 making websites more search engine friendly.<\/li>\n
        • Basic PHP<\/li>\n
        • Basic Javascript \u2013 Jquery<\/li>\n
        • Web design software: Dreamweaver or Expression Web .<\/li>\n
        • Understand the web design work flow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Optional Skills<\/p>\n

          \n
          • Flash for Web animation and web application development.<\/li>\n
          • Get to know a blog or CMS engine. For example: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            I will be fleshing this list out with podcasts and videos over the next little while.<\/p>\n

            Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n

            Stefan Mischook
            \nwww.killersites.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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