Web Designer

Career Overview

A web designer produces or accumulates graphic designs, pictures and copy for online content.  The designer develops a layout for this raw material, determining size for each component, fonts for written content, background color or design and a page-by-page design that is intuitive to the site visitor.

Web designers may elicit a concept for the site's overall goal and work through the details with the site owner's wishes in mind.  Retail sites function very differently than sites designed for service businesses; a web designer must be cognizant of the various design concepts utilized on the internet and design the site with some focus on drawing interest from the search engines.

Education

Many web designers start out as graphic artists and progress into the site design business as they learn HTML and other programs such as Java that are used in website design.  A web designer may have an associates degree in internet design or a related field, but experience is important in this field as well. 

Current Employment

In 2006 there were 159,000 computer service businesses operating, according to a Department of Labor survey.  A significant portion of those businesses is small businesses that provide web design and maintenance services.

Job Outlook

The web designer job classification is going to grow much more rapidly than the overall projected growth for all job classifications.  In many business sectors, having a website is no longer an option but a necessity.  As use of the internet as a business tool intensifies, employers will be looking for a more sophisticated and informative site - which will lead them to find a professional web designer.

Salary Range

Lowest 10% $55,494

Median Salary $75,037

Highest 10% $94,236

Source: Salary.com