6 "Trades" of Web Designing

If you are a beginning web designer, or a solo one, you probably do all of the six trades: graphic design; information design; interface design; document production; scripting and programming; and multimedia. That's okay. But some people are specialists, and these are what they specialize in.

Graphic Design

Graphic design is how the web page looks: the pictures/graphics, the colors, fonts, sizes, layout in terms of the looks...

Information design

This focuses on how the information is connected: how you get to the information, how one content links to another. They make plans and diagrams and charts about how the information is organized.

Interface design

People how work on interface design work on how the page works for the users/visitors: the buttons, links, organization, etc. Normally, the information, interface, and graphic designs are very interrelated.

Document production

This is the creations and troubleshooting of the HTML, styles sheets, scripting (like Javascript), and images that are part of the website.

Scripting and programming

To make a website have more user interaction, and make the website more than just an "unmoving" page showing information. This is handled by people called "web programmers," or "developers."

Multimedia

People who work with multimedia know how to make audio and video files that work well on the web. That's one of the special things about the Web, versus other ways of sharing over the Internet (see The Internet versus The Web): the Web allows sharing things other than boring text (pictures, videos, audios, interactivity, etc.)

You can learn about all of these subjects, or you can specialize in one as a part of the web designing world.