Job Opportunities in Technology - Web Designing

In our previous articles, we discussed the different job opportunities available in the field of technology. I hope you learnt one or two things from the articles.
Today, I want to go into the world of website designing. This may as well be referred to as the twin brother of programming because both of them go hand in hand sometimes.
Before we discuss the job opportunities in web designing, I will like to explain what a website is and what are the requirements and the tools needed to build a website. I will also explain the difference between a website and a blog.

What is a website?

Simply put, a website or web site is a collection of different web pages that are related. This includes multimedia contents like audio and video. It must be identified with a domain name and must be hosted on a server.

Since a website is a collection of web pages, what then is a web page?

A web page is a plain text written with Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML for short. These pages are connected together with the help of hyperlinks for easy accessibility. 

Though you may not understand all what I wrote above, with time you will be familiar with them. I had similar experience when I started learning web designing a couple of years ago.

Areas of Application

Web designing has one of the largest areas of application when it comes to modern computer and technology. Virtually all areas of human endeavor can this IT skill be put to use. If you are a student and want to register for an examination like JAMB, WAEC etc, you need to do this online. This is called online registration and is done where? On a website. 

Are you a businessman and you want to book a flight to meet with a client? Where do you go for the booking? You do that in the comfort of your house or office through the website of the airline of your choice. As easy as eating a plate of rice and chicken in Mr Biggs.

Today, a website can be designed for practically everything. There are wedding websites where the couple will post the invitation instead of manually sending IVs from one person to another. This makes the invitation to be able to reach wider audience within a little time frame.

People equally build websites to promote their services. Whatever you are good at, create a website to promote it. The result will be worth it.

Are you into buying and selling? How much do you make on a monthly basis? Thousands of Naira? Fine. But do you know that having a website will make your goods available to others in places where you physically can't afford to have a shop due to one reason or the other? Are you equally aware of the fact that you can turn the thousands of Naira you make monthly to millions? If you don't think so, ask Jumia.com or Konga.com

It was reported  that Lagos State Government built a website for #78m. Imagine if you were the designer. Rolling in money you would say. Imagine what you can do with that amount of money.

In a nutshell, web designing has so much areas of application that being a professional website designer will always make you relevant and financially ok

Tools Needed for Web Designing

There are many tools needed to learn web designing. These are:

1. A computer system: For obvious reasons, this is the first tool you need as a web designer. Imagine somebody who wants to go into farming but has no farming implements. What will he use? So, get a computer system at all costs.
2. Electricity. No comment.
3. HTML
4. CSS
5. Javascript.
6. PHP
7. MySQL

While the first two are the supportive elements, numbers 3 to 5 are the main things you need to build a website. Numbers 6 and 7 will help you to connect your website to a database if there is a need for that.
Now, I want to give you an overview of items 3 to 7.

HTML

What is HTML? This is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. Speaking Chinese? Don't worry, you will understand that with time. Simply put, HTML is the tool you will use to design web pages. All the web pages you see around are mostly built with HTML. So, taking the first step to become a web designer, learn HTML.

CSS

CSS means Cascading Style Sheet. As the name implies, CSS is used to "style" web pages. Simply put, CSS is used to apply make up for a web page. It makes web pages to be more attractive and appealing. In fact, using HTML to build a web page without applying some touches of CSS will make the web page dull and unattractive. Learn CSS and master it. You will definitely need the knowledge.

JavaScript 

This is Mr Animation. Have you seen pictures floating on a web page? What about sliding images? Perhaps you have seen items of news scrolling at the bottom of a web page. Marquees? Perhaps. Javascript? Definitely. Animate you pages with javascript and you will see the effect. As a note of warning, don't add too many pictures to your website.It may make it to be slow when loading. I bet, visitors to your site will not like wasting their time waiting for a page loading slowly.

PHP/MySQL

Both of these work together. You can use one without the other. Romeo and Juliet you will say. Apart from their bonding which is puzzling, they are a powerful database applications. If you want to build a website where a lot of information will be saved and retrieved, eg JAMB, WAEC etc, PHP/MySQL is majorly used. Other database applications that you may learn are Microsoft Access, Oracle etc.

If you have a good knowledge of all of the above, the sky will not be your limit but your spring board, lifting you to a higher IT level. Wait, higher financial level.

So, if you want to be the next website guru, pick up your system and start learning now