Posted on April 25, 2008 by Ashleigh

It is often said that anyone can become a web designer but I don’t think that is true. To correct the statement I think it should be that anyone can build a website. To be a “Web Designer” on the other hand is a completely different thing.

When I was still in high school I wrote a ‘Make Your Own Website Without Knowing What You’re Doing’ tutorial for an English assignment. I then had my mother sit down and have a go at it to see if what I’d written was easy enough to follow. When you know a lot about hand-coding it’s difficult to write out the steps so someone who doesn’t know a thing can follow them. At that point I realised that I took for granted everything I had already learnt. When I built websites, I didn’t think about the technicality of what I was doing – I just did it.

I made my first website when I was eleven years old. Please note that I didn’t say ‘designed’. My first website was rubbish – and of course it was, I was 11. It was a single page website hosted using AngelFire and consisted of about 100 animated GIFs, blinking text and colors that would make people’s eyes bleed. My second website was perhaps a little better – and I ventured into the world of frames. This time I embedded sound files and had a text marquee following the mouse. Like I said, it was a little better than my first website – but not by much. Over the coming years I made a lot of websites. I’d make one for every idea that I had. Fortunately – none of them are online anymore.

When I first designed a website, I noticed there was a difference in the process. This time, I thought about what I was going to create before I went ahead and built it. I thought about the colors I was going to use, the different fonts and how I would use graphics instead of focusing on what the website was going to be about. I thought about overall style and in the end I created a blog for myself where I wrote regularly for many years. I maintained this blog until January 2007 – I had a lot happen that year (moving from Australia to England for example) so it’s understandable that I discontinued with it. This blog was the beginning of my passion for Web Design. I studied Multimedia at school and went on to complete a Diploma in Website Development.

Unlike those who ‘build’ websites, I am a Web Designer. I design websites. This is something that not everybody can do. When I look at a website, I can instantly tell what is good and what is bad. I understand balance, color usage and the need for consistency. I understand navigation and the importance of clear structure. Many people who call themselves “Web Designers” these days tend to make something in Photoshop and then cut it up and put it online. I’m sure you’d be surprised at the number of websites that are made up of images that contain the site text instead of having it written out for the search engines to pick up. If you are a web designer who does that, you should be ashamed of yourself!