What does a web designer need to know and be able to do in the modern world?

Question

Design

I recently read an article on Habré habrahabr.ru/post/192744 in which very beautiful and well-made sites were shown as examples. I have been dreaming for a long time to learn how to create or at least design websites in such styles. The most important thing, and what is my motivation, is the fact that I have a bunch of good (as it seems to me) ideas, and they constantly appear (yeah, I would still draw them so as not to forget ...).
But, knowing full well that behind the source code of such sites is the work of competent specialists with many years of experience, I still don’t even stutter about how to be able to create such sites from scratch.
Programming does not excite me so much, but I understand that no one needs the simple ability to draw beautiful pictures in Photoshop, you need to be able to “implant” the website design that was invented and drawn on the source code of this site. In addition, you need to be able to set tasks correctly, in fact, to the coder who will write this source code.
So, the question is:
What systems or their sections (programming language, frameworks, CMS, etc.) do you need to know thoroughly, and what knowledge can you have superficially in order to be able to (and, most importantly, that this skill be in demand now! ) design sites such as:
dangelicoguitars.com
https://snipcart.com/
www.eastworksleather.com
https://mylapka.com/
laviealafresh.com
www.dnabox.com
www.rodolphecelestin.com
www.blocklevel.nl
etchapps.com
www.vondutch.com/com
thegeekdesigner.com/print
www.kinderfotografie-evihermans.be
www.iutopi.com
areuswade.com/precomposed-touch-gestures
kultstudio.com
and etc. In general, everything is according to the article from Habr.
The most important thing for me, and why, in fact, I ask this question here (otherwise I could gradually figure it out myself) is not to spend a huge amount of time resources on absorbing information that is already (or still) irrelevant for the task. That is, there is probably no point in wasting time on html 2.0 now, if the future and the present are for html5. It makes no sense to study flash if the animation is now created by completely different methods and means, like css3 and the same html5. I'm right?
Thanks in advance for your replies. It would be great if you at the same time indicated where and how you can study the systems you write about.

Answer 1

Hey!
Did I understand correctly that you have a desire to develop and you are just looking for ways?
My advice to you is to go into analytics, not into development.
Design is not about beautiful pictures and well-designed psd.
Design primarily solves business problems, it is a communication tool. Stop talking about cool icons - they don't solve problems, they help in solving them (and even then a little).
I would like to see designers who can describe business processes, who understand what-how-where needs to be changed in business, who will make a decision, and not “check out which icon you screwed up”.
Without extremes, of course, the designer must know what CSS / HTML is, understand the technologies, because he needs to control the front-end and consult with the back-end (I'm talking about large projects). Leave the layout to the specialists - I had an experience when a layout designer made up my design with almost no pictures, which I would never have done myself.
Such are the things.
Design is not about pictures. Design is about a tool for communication and problem solving.

Answer 2

If you set a goal to do similar projects yourself, then knowledge of PHP, HTML5, CSS3, jQuery and Photoshop is enough. To understand how to "pull" your non-standard vision onto standard templates, you will have to write at least one project yourself from scratch without using those same CMS templates. Otherwise, it will turn into an ugly nightmare and you will throw this case into the trash from a huge dissatisfaction with the result. Well, a priori, there should be a head on his shoulders.

Answer 3

They say that Fireworks is great for interfaces. Drawing beautifully and correctly layouts is also a relevant skill for all time (IMHO). Try to figure it out with wordpress, draw a layout, make it up. Then you can go to odesk as either a designer or a layout designer for wordpress (a very, very popular thing there). What more soul lies.
And, of course, a lot of watching and reading various foreign materials. Although in Runet there is also goodness.
Regarding the study --- on the rutreker there are a mountain of different courses. I recommend Pluralsight, for example.

Answer 4

Not quite right. Here, in our small team, a designer makes a PSD layout, and cuts raster elements into png / jpg, but does not do any layout at all.
But it happens that one person does everything: design, layout, and programming) It depends on the size of the project and resources (time, money, specialists).

Answer 5

To make up such pages, you need to have extensive experience and knowledge in css, html, js (jQuery). There are many CMS and frameworks, each has its own characteristics, so you need to try to choose something for yourself. Flash will be relevant for banners for a long time, because it does not load the system as much as CSS animations.