11-28-2008, 10:43 PM

Hello,
When you guys (freelance web designers specifically) get web design jobs, what are you most asked to use. Are you asked for a website in a specific progrma (dreamweaver,iweb) or are you just asked to make the website and usually use html,javascript,php. basically i have done two web design jobs and want to do more and am trying to figure out what base stuff i need to learn program/language wise, to be efficent and good to my customers.

11-28-2008, 11:22 PM

Most client are clueless about webdesign in the first place. They could careless what you use as long as you get the job done.

Most of the web design programs already do the html and java coding for you already. However if you really want you could teach yourself or take some html and java classes. I did that in the beginning and it helps because sometimes there is a bunch of crappy coding that can be cut down and you can spot an error quickly.

11-29-2008, 01:03 AM

Depends what you want to do. You need to understand what type of work your going to do and build your skills up to cater for that type of work. Most customers have a few things that are important to them like, visually appealing, updating content, getting traffic so they can get more sales and more customers.

I'd recommend the following if you want to cater for the majority of customers.

- Learn XHTML for general website coding and use whatever software you like to code in like Dreamweaver or just a text editor, they both do the same job.
- CSS for design layout and steer away from table based design.
- PHP for dynamic websites and if you need to communicate with a database
- Learn how to use a content management system to make building dynamic sites much easier with less programming knowledge.
- Keep your clients hosted on linux based servers not Microsoft Windows. Better for PHP.

if you want learn some basic flash and javascript which will give you some extra excitement to add to your pages but try to stay away from building full flash sites because they don't work well with search engines. Just add bits of flash to your overall design to jazz it up.

Your going to find yourself hearing about lots of new technology but you won't be able to learn them all yourself so stick to a few core ones like I've mentioned. Once you get more experience then you'll know understand more where to go from there and what you need to learn.

Also don't bother clients with technical information, when selling your service focus on what they want because that's what they want to hear and they won't understand it anyway.

Good luck.

11-29-2008, 01:56 PM

Alright, Thanks for the information. I've made a few sites (html,css,php) but i wasn't srue where to go from there (besides polishing my css and relearning php to a great extent). i have heard of coldfushion and flash etc. etc. and other languages that i can't think of atm (heh) so i was not sure what the "majority populous" needs in their web design, bussiness or personal.

01-05-2009, 08:45 AM

Something that is not mentioned here is the distinction between design and development.

Sure for development, learn a range of technologies (don't discount microsoft technologies. Visual studio is great for quickly creating dynamic, database driven websites without having to do too much coding) but for actual design you should try and understand graphic design techniques as well as trends (both current and future) in visual design for the web.

I would recommend understanding typography, grid and layout design as well as having a good working knowledge of photoshop & illustrator.

01-07-2009, 05:00 PM

Thanks for your information everybody, it means a lot

01-15-2009, 10:15 PM

I'd like to point out that the divide between developer and designer... and even the divide between designer and front end programmer... really puts most people in one focused category.

I've been doing web application development for over a decade now in a variety of languages, and I've only recently started a job where I'm expected to cover all the bases myself. This was pretty common when I first started in the dark age of the webmaster, but now you find frontend ninjas who are well versed in various javascript frameworks, XHTML/CSS, et cetera, backend ninjas who use a variety of rapid application development frameworks, and designers who bang their head against Illustrator and Photoshop all day.

If you're just intent on doing freelance work, you definitely take more home if you're capable of doing it all yourself, but you can take on more jobs if you focus your skills on what you're best at. Even though I've been using Photoshop since before I knew HTML, I tend to contract out one of several designer friends I've made along the way. They get that work done as quickly as I get the coding done, and we're off to the next project without any brain strain.

Either way, good luck. Clients can be a pain in the neck, but developing a great application that people actually use is incredibly rewarding.