subject: The Rise of the Website Designer [print this page] The Rise of the Website Designer The Rise of the Website Designer
Twenty years ago if you said to your parents, "website designer" when asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, your proclamation would have been greeted with a blank stare. Fast forward two decades, ask the same question, and the parents eyes brim with tears of pride. Why? To be a website designer is to be on the forefront of a new type of industry.
A website designer in this new millennium is a forefather of an entirely new industry. Although it is impossible to image the world without the Internet, the World Wide Web has only been around (in its commercial, accessible form) since the mid 1990s. In a very short space of time, the Internet has changed how we think, how we interact, how we do business, how we access information and even how we date. The responsibility of a website designer is to present information on this massive superhighway of knowledge in accessible, pleasing forms.
The role of website designer has risen faster in the world of commerce than any other position in recent times and yet the website designer can literally make history while living in relative obscurity. How many of us can call to mind the name of the young man that created Facebook? Not many, but ask ten people on the street if they have heard about Facebook and you will probably get a yes ten times. Of course, not all sites reach the popularity of Facebook, Wikipedia, MSN or even Stardoll, but designers that have the ability to reachout to a target audience, draw them in, and keep them coming back to a particular site are in very high demand.
Merely years ago the most prudent form of advertising was to buy ad space in the Yellow Pages. Now if your company does not have its own webpage, you are far behind the competition. A good web designer can promote a multi-million dollar company or a run-from-the-house-basement side business. They can carve a space amongst millions of competing sites to promote a world-changing product or idea, or they can ensure the all-natural soaps you make can be purchased online in your hometown. A website designer is so much more than someone who puts pretty things on the web. They are the new breed of business superheroes, and as the first wave of this new job category, they get to lay down the foundation for next generation of designers.
So the next time you are enjoying a website that is easy to navigate, interesting, relevant and helpful, give a silent shout out to the new type of pioneer: the website designer.
