Web designers are responsible for the layout, visual appearance and usability of a website. This role may overlap with that of a Multimedia programmer and web architect. Using a combination of graphic design skills and technical knowledge of how web pages are created, the work involves:

• liaising closely with a customer or client at the design stage to answer questions such as: why is the site needed? who are the target audience? who are the leading competitors? etc;
• producing a design that will be attractive to the target user, has a logical navigation system and has all the features required;
• writing web pages in a combination of codes, such as hypertext mark-up language (HTML), Javascript, Actionscript, ColdFusion, Java, Perl and Flash, or using code-generating programs, such as Dreamweaver;
• deciding on how images and other material will be digitally optimised and presented for the web;
• ensuring that material on the web site is accessible to all groups including those with disabilities;
• testing the site for functionality in different browsers and at different resolutions;
• fixing errors.

Web Design training courses have many objectives. These are the most important:

• To produce web site designers whose work far exceeds the industry standard
• To develop companies' in-house capability in business critical web technologies
• To enhance companies' strategic independence and profitability by adhering to official website design standards

Any moderately talented clerical worker should be capable of commercial quality web pages after attending a basic website design training course. Which is why we are surprised that so many companies still outsource web site design to excruciatingly expensive PR agencies who often know less about the technology than averagely web savvy clerical workers.

Contrary to popular opinion, the "secrets" of good web site design aren't difficult to learn, are easy to apply, and are not remotely secret. The principles are all well documented in publicly available international standards. Our website design training courses teach students those standards and how to use them.

In most cases, expensive website design software and "application servers" are quite unnecessary. All of the tools required, and especially the most productive tools, are freely available as open source software packages.