Laura's Blog

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A survey of web design employment opportunities in my area

When searching to see how many web design jobs are available around Evansville, Indiana I didn’t have a whole lot of luck. I only found a few. Most of them are a couple or several hours away from Evansville. Some of the websites I searched include careerbuilder.com, monster.com, and webdesigners-directory.com. I did find a couple. One of the ones I did find are listed below along with their requirements. Personally, I’m not too interested in web design as a career, although it is useful to have a basic understanding of it. I am more interested in graphic design. But, the following gives you an idea of the requirements and salaries of a career for designing for the web.

Full-time Web Development Senior Analyst in Evansville, Indiana

Required Qualifications:

4+ yrs of application development experience
4+ yrs SQL Server programming using version 2005 or 2008
4+ yrs SSIS development experience
4+ yrs .Net framework using Visual Studio.NET
1+yrs experience with any of the following: SSRS, DotNetNuke, ASP.NET, JavaScript, VB Script, XML, Visual Source Safe, Active Directory, IIS (these are desirable, but not mandatory)
Ability to fulfill the requirements of On Call rotations

Job Title Average Salary:

Web Designer Level 1 $47,766

Web Designer Level 2 $59,808

Web Designer Level 3 $74,954

Senior Web Designer $82,207

Interface Designer $83,157

Interface Design Director $143,667

What is SEO?

When you hear the term, SEO, it refers to search engine optimization. What this refers to is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results. In general, the higher ranked on the search results page, and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. SEO is important because it ensures that the people you’re trying to reach get your message since there are other websites looking for the same attention. The more findable your content is, the more likely it will be the commercial success you’d hoped. Findable content equals increased profits for your business and helps the audience find the content they seek within a website. By optimizing you can create more successful websites that will better serve clients’ and their users’ needs. One myth about SEO is that the best websites or most accurate information is at the top of the search engine because websites are supposed to appear in the order of their substance or which one is the most helpful. This is not true because agencies sometimes pay big bucks to move their website to the top of the list even if it isn’t the best website that would suit the audience’s need. This in short is the meaning of SEO, the importance of it, and why you shouldn’t believe that the best websites are always at the top of search engines.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/findabilityorphan/

Defining design, usability, and accessibility on the web

When it comes to using the web there are three important terms that stand out. Those terms include design, usability, and accessibility. When referring to the web, design can be defined as the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity. The design of a website creates an environment for someone else’s expression and creates planes and grids that aid the dynamic behavior of people. It relinquishes control, and the people who use the design bring out and add to the meaning of the website’s design. When talking about usability on the web, one of the main things this term is pointing to is the navigation of a website. If your website is about selling things or convincing a user to come back, navigation is a key factor visitors use to decide if you’re trustworthy or not. And trustworthiness is critical. If you want the viewer to have a good time, make sure they can get where they want to go and know where they are when they’re there. If you show them a good time, they just might come to visit again. But if you leave them lost and confused they’re likely not to come back. The last term, accessibility, refers to how well people are able to get on the web, especially if they are disabled. Most of us can easily access the internet. That is, if we don’t have disabilities. But what about the people who do have disabilities such as being blind or being paralyzed? With today’s technology advancing every day there are certain materials that enhance the accessibility of the web for people with disabilities. These include voice recognition software, eye-gaze software, headsets, and voice activation when items are scrolled over. Over all, the three terms previously mentioned are all things to consider when using the web, and a good web designer will incorporate all three when creating a website.

Sources:

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Site Development Process and What My Role Is In It

When making a website, there is always a website development process that comes along with it. The process consists of seven basic steps that depending on the nature and scale of the site can vary in order. Usually they are followed in order though. The steps in order consist of conceptualizing and researching the core idea, creating and organizing content, developing the “look and feel,” producing a working prototype, testing the website, launching the website, and maintaining the website once it is finished.

Just as there are several steps in producing a website, there can be several team members who help produce it, especially if it is a large website. Some of these members include people such as project stakeholders or sponsors, web project managers (account executives and quality assurance testers), usability leads, information architects, art directors (web graphic designers, interactive designers, media specialists), web technology leads (web application programmers, web page engineers, database administrators, web systems experts or webmasters), site production leads (html page coders), and site editors (site copywriters, content domain experts).

Among all the web design positions I think I would most likely enjoy being an art director or web graphic designer. According to the Web Style Guide, 3^rd edition, the art director’s primary responsibility is the overall look and feel for the web site, establishing the site typography, visual interface design, color palette standards, page layout details, and the particulars of how the graphics, photography, illustration, and audiovisual media elements of the site come together to form an integrated whole. I believe I would find this position most interesting for myself because I already have experience in graphic design. I would only have to learn how to incorporate it into web design.