Hi, I'm contemplating starting a second career as a web designer and recently met with a career counsellor who brought up the topic of something called "Classification Ability," which appears to be a synonym for Problem Solving Ability. Specifically, she said that it is "the ability to see relationships between seemingly unrelated events, situations, or information." Supposedly if you score high in this ability it means "you have a need for figuring things out, for solving problems...and you will likely find yourself bored when your high classification ability is no longer being used." Conversely, "People who score low on classification ability settle down and start to enjoy the job when they have learned and mastered the new routine...this, in fact, is what most jobs require."
Sorry, that's a mouthful but could any current (especially long-time) web designers comment as to the level of problem solving that web design entails...ie, who would be more succesful and more content in web design, someone who has high or low "classification ability?"

I think any creative field, like web design or development, is something that requires a great deal of problem solving ability. Therefore, I believe a person with a high classification ability would do better in the field.

I'd have to agree with Nick. There are challenges to designing then building the web site from the graphics. When you throw cross-browser compatibility in there, you have to REALLY know how to solve problems. Not all designs will be simple to turn into a live web site - there are LOTS of decisions you have to make, often compromises must be made to make a design work. If it weren't for these every day challenges, I'd be bored out of my mind !

It really depends on what you mean by "Web Design" as well. Are you designing graphics and layout in Photoshop? Are you translating those designs into HTML and CSS? Are you testing those designs in order to achieve optimal performance for the site's core purposes? Are you trying to make money with ads? Does the site have ecommerce elements? Is the site dynamic in any way? Does it require user registration and interaction? Does it interact with other websites?

Web design isn't really a single job anymore; it's now an industry containing multiple niche jobs. Even what I posted above is only a sampling of the specializations available. The deeper you go, the more problems and challenges you'll have to solve. And it seems, to me at least, that you can always go deeper. That's an aspect of it that really appeals to me, coupled with the fact that it provides enough variety that I don't get bored with it very easily because I can exercise different parts of my brain on different tasks.

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

Web design isn't really a single job anymore; it's now an industry containing multiple niche jobs.

Lol... doesn't every freelancer know about that one!

@BGabes - they do say "every web site is a problem waiting to be solved", in fact that's probably true of every project that involves any sort of design. Certainly as a freelancer I have to deal with everything customers throw at me, that could be graphics, coding, UI, scripting, SEO - and add to that customer skills, negotiation skills, project management... the list gets endless! So yes, problem solving skills are a key asset!

I agree with everyone above. Web Design definitely makes use of problem solving skills.

However, I'll add not to put too much faith in any test that tries to predict the best career path for you. I took some when I was younger and know plenty of people who've taken them. I've never seen one accurately predict anything.

Those tests have their uses and aren't really as bad as I just made them seem, but still I wouldn't choose a career path based on the results of a single test. If you're thinking of becoming a web designer then try your hand at designing a site or two and see if you enjoy it.

Life in general requires the ability to solve problems. You'll be able to scratch that itch no matter what you do.

Thanks a ton for all the feedback. Yes, ironically after testing "web design" was not an "ideal career" for myself, but I've worked with friends who are web designers and it seems interesting. Despite this, one of the career counsellor's more accurate insights was that I should choose a career with variety and problem-solving, as I'd burn out without these elements (I can verify this as I've had jobs with little variety and problem solving in the past and found them unbearable) I think i'm going to start out slow with some courses this fall at local community college and see how that goes. Again, thanks alot for your comments, they were helpful and reassuring and I'll keep in touch as to how my classes are going.

Thanks again,

Brian

Glad we could help Brian. I want to reinforce again that you won't run out of variety and problem solving challenges as a web designer. The definition of a web designer can vary some. Your career counselor might be defining it as specifically about the graphic design, which still involves plenty of problem solving, though not the way we usually thinking of problem solving.

However many web designers code the pages to hold those graphics and even do some light and heavy programming, which are more traditional problem solving challenges.

There's some flexibility in the skills you acquire as a web designer. You could lean more toward the graphic side or you could lean more toward the coding and programming side.

I spend a significant amount of time every week solving one problem or another to work on a site. The technology changes, some browsers don't want to play nice, you want to find some way to turn your creative vision into reality. The learning and problem solving never ends. I think your career counselor might be seeing at a narrow view of what web designers do.

Do keep us updated about your classes. They'll be a good way to gage your interest.