When do you become a web designer?

[mrbelfry]

I keep meeting people who tell me they can design websites. When questioned further it turns out that they might have a myspace account or something similar - one of those web builder things. I normally sniff to myself 'they aren't a web designer' but now I'm wondering how to qualify it. At what point does someone become a web designer (as a point of interest I never say I'm a web designer because that's not my primary role in office). Is it:

When someone can do 'hello world'
When someone can do 'hello world' and change the colour of the text using a font tag
Can produce a website using Notepad
Can adapt a template designed by some one else
Can use dreamweaver or another wysiwyg
Can use css for layout and not tables
Knows what a doctype is and isn't afraid to use it

I definately wouldn't qualify under some of these.

[flutem3]

Mr. Belfry asked:

"At what point does someone become a web designer?"

And at what point do you become a saint instead of a sinner? Hi, Mr. Belfry. I do hope that is a theoretical question!!

However, I have a couple of thoughts along the line. What makes a person a "web master?" Is there anyone who "masters" the web? And why is the term not web site master, and I have not met one of those either. I have met some people who are very doggone good though.

And why do some people who do websites, at least it in Methodist church, use the term, web servant. I have not heard such a ridiculous sounding term in a long, long time. The rationale is that there is only one Master, and they are servants. Well, not only does it sound ridiculous, in my world, it sounds hypocritical as well. It is as if the person is like the Pharisee standing on the street corner hollering, "Look at me, look at me, I am a servant of the Lord." PHOOEY!!!

I don't know when a person becomes a designer. Because of that and the above, I don't call myself any of those terms. Instead, I use the term, web site editor, because I certainly do that. It is an accurate term. I do more than that...research is one, for example. And I put it together so you could call say that I build, but web site editor suits me fine...and feels okay as well.

I placed these thoughts on UMConnect which is a forum for people who make websites for the United Methodist Churches or Methodist Men, etc.
It drew a humongous response, and many people did change what they called themselves. One of the interesting ones is "website minister". And I would say that is a rather descriptive term for what we try to do.

Take care of yourself, Mr. Belfry. And everyone else take care of yourselves as well.

Carol

[GuruGreg]

Anyone can be a web designer...there's just a limited amount that can do it well. :D

Seriously, my expectations of a web designer would be someone who has a firm grasp of CSS, XHTML, and web standards with the ability to put together professional looking websites. In my book, this (http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3010) would qualify, while this (http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/172) would not (as it just feels thrown together, IMHO).

But let's remember that a typical web designer is only responsible for the appearance of the site.

Then there's web developers, where I put myself, who need to have a firm grasp of a web application development language (ASP, ColdFusion, PHP, Ruby, etc.) to be able to put together functional sites. Typically, they also work with a database to be able to achieve this.

If you looked at job descriptions on Monster, CareerBuilder or HotJobs, you'd find two distinct groups of people and backgrounds that fall into these two categories.

[flutem3]

Hi Greg,

I don't know if you are right or wrong. But I can certainly see the difference between the two examples.

I don't know if the first example is done by a designer or not. But I know that the second one is not. :-)

Carol

[WebMuddler]

Interesting topic. Very similar to a thread on a distance running site I frequent where a topic every few months is "when does a jogger become a runner?"

I'll confess, I'm a wysiwyg guy using Homestead.com so I've never considered myself a webmaster, designer, etc. I like "web site editor" from above but I just made this up the other day and I kind of like it....WebMuddler.

from Wikipedia: A muddler is a bartender's tool, used to "muddle" -- or make a mash of -- fruits, herbs, and/or spices in the bottom of a glass to release their flavor

I muddle jpegs, gifs, text boxes, and a dash of mp3 files in hopes of releasing a bit of the flavor of our church.

But I think I'll keep hanging out here because I learn a lot about usability, good design, functionality, etc from the "masters."

[sstress]

Interesting topic. Very similar to a thread on a distance running site I frequent where a topic every few months is "when does a jogger become a runner?"

I'll confess, I'm a wysiwyg guy using Homestead.com so I've never considered myself a webmaster, designer, etc. I like "web site editor" from above but I just made this up the other day and I kind of like it....WebMuddler.

from Wikipedia: A muddler is a bartender's tool, used to "muddle" -- or make a mash of -- fruits, herbs, and/or spices in the bottom of a glass to release their flavor

I muddle jpegs, gifs, text boxes, and a dash of mp3 files in hopes of releasing a bit of the flavor of our church.

But I think I'll keep hanging out here because I learn a lot about usability, good design, functionality, etc from the "masters."

I love it.. "muddler" lol. Just over 300 website projects later and I think thats what I am too. Many folks are so much more tech capable than I am... my bgrd is in advertising & fine arts. Gimme a good wysiwyg anytime (Photoshop and Dreamweaver is all I need... and for the most part all I can do) :)

I am learning a lot from the experts on this board as well.

Michael

[flutem3]

I'll confess, I'm a wysiwyg guy using Homestead.com so I've never considered myself a webmaster, designer, etc. I like "web site editor" from above but I just made this up the other day and I kind of like it....WebMuddler.

Hi, Mark,

I use Homestead as well. I like it a lot. Some others don't, but I can do what I want to do with it. Some day maybe I will have something more advanced, but I don't now know what I would do that I cannot do right now. There is probably a lot, but I don't know what it is.

I like WebMuddler. It is a good name with just the right twist. I too muddle along. But I refuse to use the term, web servant, like some people do on church web sites. I think it sounds pretentious and hypocritical...kind of like the Pharisee stand on the corner saying, "Look at me! Look at me!! I am not a web master. I am a web servant." Sounds awful in my ears. :D

Carol