A common question that is put to me by aspiring web designers is:

What are the job prospect looking forward, for web designers and web programmers?

Oftentimes, they will mention web templates and other tools/technology that speed up the process of web design, seeing them as potential roadblocks for the profession:

… if these tools keep getting better and making web design easier, who’s going to need web designers?

Let me first start by saying that web designers, programmers, market specialist and all other web professionals are going to become even MORE SOUGHT AFTER, over the next many years.

Why? Simple young nerdlings, everything is jumping onto the Web. Radio stations and newspapers are going bust, magazines and books are going digital … even TV is fragmenting, where video sites like Youtube have huge audiences that rival many traditional TV networks.

But wait, there’s more!

Besides traditional media business having to go online, just about every business (large and small) NEED to have a Web presence. Today, a business without a website is like a home without electricity.

So it’s pretty clear that business needs to be on the Web and so the Web is growing like crazy. But how about them pesky templates and blogs that make putting up a website easy? Well, let me ask you, do you know how to install a blog, set up a database? Do you know how to choose a good domain name, structure a website so that it is search engine friendly? Do you know how to add sound, video, contact forms, forums …. e-commerce systems to a site? Do you know how the design a custom theme for Wordpress or Drupal?

… Now, as a web professional you may know how to do some of these things, but what I can tell you with great certainty, is just about all non-web designers no nothing about how to do these things. That’s where a web professional comes in:

- installing that blog.
- customizing the theme.
- adding the forum.

… etc.

Anyway, don’t just take my opinion on this, the LA Times just wrote an article talking about how IT professionals are finding jobs easily.

Now the article doesn’t mention web designers or programmers specifically, but you can be sure they are a serious part of the mix. One thing the article does mention though, is that the more skills you have, the greater chance you will get a job and the more money you will make – something I’ve been pushing for years: web designers need to evolve into 21st century web designers and learn:

HTML, CSS
PHP
Javascript

.. Just knowing how to design won’t cut it anymore.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

Hi,

These days Firefox is a key tool for web designers and web developers because of all the great plug-ins that you can install (for free!) that add all kinds of useful functionality.

In the following video I introduce you to three of my favorites:

1. Colorzilla
2. Firebug
3. Measure it

Check out the video:

Yet another Dreamweaver CS4 video … this time on inserting links into web pages. Along the way, we also learn a few other things.

The video:

I have several other Dreamweaver CS4 videos coming out soon. Watch in HD and fullscreen to get the best video and sound quality.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

Hi,

In our continuing pursuit to make web design easy for you, we have yet another great little tutorial on using CSS to insert background images into your web pages.

A little bit from the article:

CSS also gives us the tools to direct our background image how we want it. The default, as you can see, is that it repeats itself horizontally AND vertically to fill the entire background, regardless of size. Sometimes we might want the image appear only horizontally or vertically – and maybe not directly on the edge of the viewing area.

… Anyway, you get the idea. Just in case you missed the link, here it is again: background images with css.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

One of the great things about web design is that you can jump into it with cheap hardware and free and next to free software. In a nutshell, web design is an affordable thing to learn and do.

Image editing on the cheap

There are cheap and free image editors that you can install on your computer. And now, there are image editors that you can simply run in a web browser!

Sure, they are not as powerful (today) as say Photoshop or The Gimp … OK, not nearly as powerful, but nonetheless, for simple image editing, they seem to do a good job.

Here are two options I know of:

1. Aviary
2. Picnic

I’ve even created a little video where I do a simple image crop with Picnic:

I haven’t had time to explore these web based image editors much, but it seems to me that they could become a tool for the truly mobile web designer.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

David has had a knack for pointing the way, when it comes to the Web. In David’s new book ‘Pull’, he’s now pointing the way when it comes to the Web, business and perhaps even more. In the following interview, I try to get to heart of what Pull is all about.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook

An interview with David Siegel about Pull

1. What is ‘pull’ in a nutshell?

It’s the first book of its kind, describing the next 10 years of innovation online, where all industries will transition from a push model to a pull model. In the next few years, your customers will pull information, products, and sevices from you, and you’ll have to set up to be pulled, rather than pushing.

2. Can you give an example of pull from a users perspective?

Look at television. TV shows used to be broadcast at a set time. Now, with DVRs and the web, we can get more of the programming we want, when we want it, on the screen we choose. We’re not there yet, but soon we’ll have instant access to every video just by asking for it. The same is happening with music. What’s fascinating is that the same is happening with financial reporting data, architect’s files, medical data, government data, and every other piece of data you can think of.

3. Can you give an example of pull from a web designers and web developers perspective .. for example, is an RSS feed reader a good example?

What makes this all happen is that the data is pullable. RSS is sort of halfway there. For example, I may know something about real estate that you’ll want to know some day. If I tweet it or blog about it, it’s online but it’s not relevant to you at the moment. When you need it, you’ll want a way to get it, and we don’t really have that yet. Certainly it’s not Google and keyword search.

4. How can web professionals incorporate pull into what they offer?

There is a lot to do. We’re building the open web, as opposed to the silo (database) web, so much of our information will surface onto the web search engines can see. Google has changed a lot in the past 6 months – they have already incorporated some ability to see the semantic web into their pagerank software, their Buzz content will be online, and now Google profiles will be in a format many other software systems can see, called XDI. Microformats are already making big progress – now all LinkedIn profiles are in hResume format, which is royalty free and public domain. It’s a huge move away from the silo approach of Facebook.

5. How can a small business on the Web utilize pull to help their business?

You MUST make your information, products, and services pullable. You really should have an understanding of the semantic web and its impact on your industry. That’s why I wrote my book. I wrote “Creating Killer Web Sites” at a time when people needed to know how to get some HTML up and be found by search engines and give users a good experience. Now I’ve written “Pull” to give businesses a clear view to the future of information. I think it’s an even more important change than putting up web sites.

6. How do you see the pull trend developing? What is the time frame you envision?

I think we’re about 1% of the way to building the semantic web. I think in 10 years, we’ll be 50% of the way there, and much of the useful stuff will be complete. The next ten years (or longer) will be spent getting the late majority to create their data in semantic formats, and that will happen as the tools get better and better. But by then we won’t have Macs or PCs or even iPads and iPhones. We’ll have dumb screens and dumb phones that can see the internet and nothing else. The Internet is the ultimate platform and will eventually take out all the other computing platforms in our lives today.

7. What websites would you recommend for those interested in pull?

You only need one! It’s called ThePowerOfPull.com – from there, you can read the blog posts, get the latest news, and read all about the basic concepts of the semantic web and pull.

8. The reviews of the book so far have been excellent. Previously, your books were all bestsellers. So is the new book off to a big start?

Unfortunately, it’s been very slow. It got a great review in the Harvard Business Review and elsewhere, but with all the noise about Facebook, Twitter, Google, and the real-time Web, it’s difficult to get people’s attention. Technology people are loving it, and forward-looking business people say it’s a real eye opener. We need all the word of mouth and publicity we can get, so if your readers can tweet, blog, and tell journalists about Pull, I would be very grateful. If anyone has read the book and can give a review at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, I would love that. I hardly have any reviews, even though they are all 5 star.

9. Back in the 90s, you really had an impact on design and people’s careers. Then you gave this domain to me to help continue to educate people about web design while you pursued other projects. What do you want people to know about what you’re doing now and how you plan to change things?

You’ve done a great job with killersites, Stefan. I’m very proud of what you’ve achieved and the people you’ve helped. Now I’m trying to bridge the gap between technology and business, which I think is critical for the semantic web to really get going. If any of your readers is interested in helping, I have a team of four great volunteers and we could use many more. We’re running a news desk and twitter feed I think are very helpful, and we plan to do much more. I believe this is going to fundamentally change the way we work and play, so if you want to get in on the ground floor, come to thepowerofpull.com and help get involved.

Thanks!!

David

If you are looking to get a leg up on the competition, you may want to pick up a copy of Pull.

Stefan
www.killersites.com

Hi,

Sometimes change makes people nervous. I got an email from someone recently, who’s been noticing some changes in the web design world and had some fears. Check it out:

I been noticing more ads on the TV and the internet about web site building kits and companies set up to build web sites through the use of templates and prearranged page layout formats to choose from. Since this is on the rise I was wondering in me learning to become a web developer, will this occupation be a dieing breed given all the self help web template sites that are popping up. What are some of the pros and cons of going with a web template based company or a guy who can do it all from scratch like yourself. Any thoughts appreciated.

Best Regards,
Rich

So let’s hit the major points:

… will this occupation be a dieing breed given all the self help web template sites that are popping up

Good question. Short answer: no. Couple of quick points:

1. Many of those website building kits are very, very limited. Though they will satisfy some segment of the population, they only have a small place in the grand scheme of web design things.
2. Web Templates should not be looked at as competition, instead you should look at them as tools … a way to rapidly produce websites. That said, you will find that many clients will not want to use templates for fear that their website will look like it was built with a template.

I would say that you should be open to using templates and designing from scratch. Some budgets will require templates where other clients will want to spend the extra money on original design work.

In the end, if you want to be competitive, you ought to expand you skills into things like PHP, Javascript and blogs.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

Hi,

After weeks of being good and not eating much junk food, I decided to treat myself to a steak submarine – 14 inchs no less! Anyway, within a few hours, I started to get those creepy-crawly’s in my legs and this morning, after having a tea, I started to feel like gagging.

!!

Lesson learned: no more subs and junk food. OK, back to web design business …

In the following video, I go over why you should keep you website looking active and I provide five tips on how to do this. But, just in case you don’t have time to watch a video, here are the bullet points:

• Keep the copyright notice up-to-date.
• Add a last ‘updated note’ – for example: Last update February 21st 2010
• Add a blog and post on a regular basis.
• Redesign/update the website once and a while.

The video:

Thanks for watching!

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

Hi,

In the following video on Web usability, I talk about how fancy images can actually hurt your web pages in terms of ease of use. Watch the video for details:

About Web Usability

Making a website more user friendly is a tricky thing, because often times what looks good (in terms of design) actually gets in the way of the user – beautiful graphic often times makes the page more confusing. So, the tricky part is to make it look good while keeping it simple.

My Web usability tips:

• Pictures should NOT be links to click on.
• Use text links that stand out.
• Use icons and images that provide information about the links around it.

There is much more to be said about this.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

Hi,

A really interesting question was emailed to me recently by someone that I will call ‘Rick’. Her real name was Jenny, but she wanted to keep that private:

I’ve been trying to make a decision about my career path and I wondered if you could offer me any words of advice?

I have a disability that prevents me from working on-site and I will need to work from home as a freelancer. I’m trying to find out which of these server side technologies will make me more marketable from home as a freelancer …

… Rick goes on to mention a few of the popular web programming languages that he is considering:

• PHP
• Ruby
• Java

The answer and the key points

If you want to work from home, by far and away PHP is your best choice because it is the most widely used language and it is the language that you see small business use more often than not. After PHP, I would give Ruby a go.

… Actually, why not learn both!

Java and .NET are not great choices for stay-at-home freelancers because those technologies are more or less used by larger corporations that more likely than not, will want you to work on site.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com