Economic Context

• The “technology” sector of the economy consists of many separate industries that concern the development and utilization of advanced technology, particularly electronics and telecommunications networks. This includes the Web development industry. Web developers provide the design, assembly and maintenance of websites.
  
  

Web Design Segment

• The Web design segment refers to the segment of the Web development industry that focuses on Web design in particular. Web design overlaps somewhat with the graphic design industry — and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics groups Web design together with all graphic design occupations — but Web design stands out because of its focus on the technological details of working with websites.
  
  

Web Design Description

• Web design entails the layout, formatting and creative organization of a website. It distinguishes itself from Web development in general by its focus on the presentation of a website rather than functionality. Web designers only need to concern themselves with enough of the technological side as needed to implement their designs in an Internet environment. Many Web development companies keep a department of designers on staff to handle this part of the overall development process.
  
  

Web Design Skills

• Web designers must possess the usual skill suite of graphic design, including familiarity with graphics editing software and a solid knowledge of layout skills, particularly with regard to the formatting of text. They need to have a working knowledge of the elements and principles of art so that they can understand how the human mind reacts to visual information, for the purpose of optimizing their designs to better meet their employers’ business goals. They must also know markup languages like HTML and CSS, and usually know scripting languages like PHP or Python, in order to knowledgeably design interactive and graphically rich websites in an Internet environment.