Website design and development has been a growth industry in the previous decade due to the latter day phenomena for companies to have an online presence. But as a lot of web design beginners soon learn, there’s actually a lot of disciplines to learn when building a site. If you’re labelling yourself as a skilled web designer you should be considering these areas: how easy a website is to use (usability), how accessible a site is to users (accessibility), SEO, hosting (for example maximising uptime), database skills, CMS (allowing site owners to easily update their site), security matters, and how painless it is to patch (update) the codebase of the website. One is either prepared to learn numerous disciplines, or happy to be part of a website development group.
If you’re a novice, it’s wise to begin with basic goals. Think about your strong points and what it is you enjoy. If for example it’s image manipulation, then commit your time to bettering yourself in that area. Be a guru in that niche and don’t extend yourself too far over all the other website development disciplines. If you have computer programing experience, experiment with the available server-side languages such as ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, Perl - and find out what works for you.
If you’re looking for a web design job, it’s effortless to get listings of web development companies using Google - for example type in web design Nottingham to get a listing of web development firms in Nottinghamshire.
Whatever you decide to do, follow your instincts and allow your interest to drive you - the most accomplished website developers are passionate about what they do.