The web development jobs

There's more to a website than a "pretty face"! And there are a lot of different skills needed to make a good website.

On a small website, one person may do all of these things. On a large one, different people will do the different jobs.

The buzzwords: maintainability, search engine optimisation, usability,

Front end - The site we see

The "face" of the site — this is the part we think of when we say "nice website!"

Designer: The design of the web page. The graphics and logos.
- Applications: PhotoShop, Gimp, other graphics programs.
- Knowledge: colors, design, and how they help people use a website.
  How design for the web is different than for print.
  How graphics files for the web are different than for print.
  What things are possible/not possible with web code.
- Jobs: Create the design for the web page.
  Create web-ready graphics of the design elements, to be used in the coding.
  Modify graphics when needed.
Writer: the content!
- Applications: Editor
- Knowledge: Writing.
  How writing for the web is different than for books, for articles, etc.
- Jobs: Write!

Two important roles we might not think of for this list, but without which there would be no site:

Owner: the vision!
- Knowledge: What a website is.
  How presenting things on the web is different than real life, books, TV, etc.
  An understanding of how the web and coding works, to know what is and is not possible, and to help communicate that vision.
- People skills, to communicate the vision of the site, and help the people make it happen.
- Jobs: Communication.
Manager: Enable it to happen
- Knowledge: What a website is.
- People skills, to communicate the vision of the site, and help the people make it happen.
- Jobs: Communication; clearing away bureaucratic, political, and logistical roadblocks so that the worker bees can do their jobs.

Back end – The code that makes it work

Now we are back in the engine room .... If all goes correctly, the site will *work* so smoothly that no one will ever be aware of these people, and certainly no one will ever see their code, or be aware of their hard work ...

Coder:
- Applications: Text editor, Firefox with Firebug, BrowserShots
- Knowledge: HTML, CSS, maybe some javascript.
- Jobs: Writes the code that makes the webpage happen.
  Turn the vision of the site creator and the design of the web designer, into working web pages and a website, with all content ....
  Create a system of website files that is organised, easy to maintain and update, ...
Web developer:
- Applications: All Coder applications, with deeper knowledge.
- Knowledge: All Coder knowledge, plus web usability, seo, ...
- Jobs: Coder jobs, at a more sophisticated level.
CMS author/editor:
- Applications: The cms editor, possibly the cms File manager, category manager, etc.
- Knowledge: How to efficiently use the cms to produce web pages. Doesn't have to know html/css, or other web technologies.
- Jobs: Enter content into the cms, that results in web pages.
  Possibly also, make categories, meta tags, upload images/videos, and use other functions of the cms.

Back-back end - coding, database, ...

Programmer:
- Applications: All Web developer applications, with deeper knowledge.
- Knowledge: All Web developer knowledge, plus PHP, MySQL, web server, web security.
- Jobs: Write programs that process forms, save and display data, and otherwise interact with the website user.
Administrator:
- Applications: web server, MySQL, ...
- Knowledge: HTML, CSS, javascript, PHP, MySQL, web server
- Jobs: Backup the website periodically.
  Backup the database if any, periodically.

Way-back - building website with a cms

cms easier for the content person, but now needs more knowledge to maintain ...

CMS Manager
- Applications: All programmer applications, plus the CMS application, ...
- Knowledge: All programmer knowledge, plus
  how a cms works, ...
- Jobs: Set up the cms for site categories, menus, etc.
  Port the page design into the cms system.
CMS Administrator
- Applications: The CMS application
- Knowledge: All CMS manager knowledge, plus advanced cms, advanced web server, advanced database, ... Helpful to have programmer knowledge.
- Jobs: Install the cms.
  choose and install extensions to the cms.
  configure the cms for the website, and for the back-end users.
  backup the cms files and the database.
  ...
CMS Developer
- Applications: All programmer applications, plus the CMS application, ...
- Knowledge: Advanced programmer and CMS manager/administrator knowledge
- Jobs: Write applications that make the cms do more.
  Write them in the way that works for that particular cms.
  Write them in the way that integrates with the look, feel, and usage of the particular website.
  ...

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