Then the other day I was asked by a young designer what it takes to be successful and when I was thinking about my reply, I realized how much the requirements for success have grown over the years. So I told him to visit 418QE in a couple of days and this is my reply.

I have performed some due diligence and researched the qualifications for a ‘graphic designer’ on several employment boards and I have come up with the following list of descriptors, tasks and technologies that must be part of one’s abilities to be considered qualified.

• Descriptors: have initiative, be imaginative, be cooperative, be creative, be diplomatic, be a leader, be a good communicator, have good time management skills
• Tasks: be able to create groundbreaking designs; be able to understand and produce in the following formats which include magazine and newspaper layouts, brochures, print ads, banner ads, websites, e-newsletters, interactive and promotional collateral; understand digital and print production preparation; understand usability, information design, and GUI guidelines; have a thorough understanding of typography
• Technology: PC and MAC competent, proficient in QuarkXPress, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Flash, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, Word, be fluent in HTML, CSS, XML and Javascript

To be assured the abovementioned skill base is important but not the end of it. The designer must also network. In order to network, it is best if they have a mobile number, an email account, and also communicate on LinkedIn and Twitter. There is an advantage to those who join their local provincial/state graphic design guild as these organizations arrange conferences and networking events. And last but not least, the designer may also want to have a regularly updated blog with their latest case studies and articles that best showcase their various ideas about the world of design.

Have I left out anything? Of course, but it suffices to say that the list of abilities that a great designer needs is going to be fairly long if they want to succeed. Thankfully time and experience takes care of most of these issues. Just ask anyone in the field with greying or no hair.

Remember that it is best to use the following symbols both within the text that you are editing and in the column of white space at the right hand side of the page. For the purposes of this article I will present the actual symbol, what it means and how to use it. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list but it does showcase the most commonly used.

Although there are several symbols, they are easy to remember and save everyone the hassle of guessing. This helps reduce miscommunication. Share this list with your coworkers and use it in your everyday communication.

Editorial Markup

The organization of content

Content is one of the most important resources a company has. When shared online, this content helps define a company’s message. Web sites are fundamentally about sharing information; their goal is to deliver the right message to the right person in the right way. This is of premiere importance. Without careful organization or attention to usability, content becomes irrelevant and without a solid media plan, companies lose their ability to be discovered by a potential client. It would be nice to believe that every company has a carefully thought out plan but a quick tour of internet will reveal otherwise.

Before you begin

The following are important issues that should be defined before venturing online:

1. The company’s business: e.g. current business model, core competencies, strengths, weaknesses, points of differentiation, unmet needs, etc.
2. Reason for going online: e.g. how will it better your business, improve your customer’s experience, integrate with your overall strategy, etc.
3. Your competition: e.g. who are the existing and potential competitors, does a competitor currently provide the internet experience you seek, what are they doing to provide increased awareness and loyalty, etc.
4. Business goals: e.g. short, mid and long term, barriers to reaching these goals, growth and exit strategies, etc.
5. Marketing goals: e.g. what market do you need to fulfill, existing and potential partners, previous brand awareness efforts such as advertising, direct marketing, banner advertising, internal and external marketing plan for the site, etc.
6. Your audience: e.g. who is your core audience broken into demographics, psychographics (opinions and attitudes, etc.), geographics and behaviors, key messages to be delivered to each segment, what information would you like from them, etc.
7. Site content: e.g. does it already exist, what is the tone, what are the colours, sounds and typography of the brand, is there collateral material, an internal style guide, etc.
8. People resources: e.g. who will be responsible for the production and maintenance of the site, will there be a need for outsourcing, etc.
9. Engineering and technology: e.g. is this requirement internal or external, what are the foreseeable security issues, are there statistics that need to be collected, hardware and software purchases, amount of bandwidth, etc.

Of course this is a basic list and there are a number of questions under each point. Nevertheless, this is a good start for most companies to consider and at the very least, should help a company deliver a consistent message to its employees and vendors, from planning stage to launch.

Naming Structure

There are only two main parts to this structure to remember. First, the number of two character digits ‘00’ is based on the number of ‘Editorial’ levels of navigation in a site. And by editorial I mean that there are a number of levels or sections in a site that define its basic structure. Second, the number of digits, i.e. ‘00′ (a two digit number) is determined by the maximum number of sections or pages (at the content level) that the site has. As a note it is probably best to keep the number of digits as a constant, at least until the content pages level, to maintain simplicity.

The first two digits of the number represent the initial portal or URL index page. (e.g. 01 for Portal/Home) The secondary two digits represent the primary sections or navigation of a site. (e.g. 01 for Entertainment, 02 for Finance, etc). The third two digits represent the secondary navigation. (e.g. under Finance the results might be: 01 for Banking, 02 for Real Estate, etc). The fourth two digits represent tertiary navigation. (e.g. under Banking in Finance the results might be: 01 for Locations, 02 for Bill Payments, etc) So based on a preliminary site map we could then provide the naming of all the pages within a site right down to the individual content pages.

The complete editorial level scheme looks like this:

Now wasn’t that simple? Using this methodology as a springboard, one could alter it for just about any conceivable information structure that needs organizing. The end result will be a neatly ordered editorial sitemap or, if one used only the basics, a complete web site template structure.