Should Web Designers Need Required Certification

Something had been whizzing around in the back of my mind all weekend and on Monday morning I posted it on Twitter – Should web designers sit a fit to practice examination like other professions such as Law and Architecture?

Before we get started I think I need to clarify two points:

The reason that I stated a bar exam is because I believe that these exams should be for beginners covering basics like HTML and CSS. Whether you have further examinations for different levels is for another discussion.

Why Do I Think We Need This?

We’ve been pushing standards based web design for a while now and that’s great but the truth of the matter is that the majority of clients don’t particularly care whether you’ve lovingly built their site with carefully constructed code or if you’ve built their site with tables and font tags. The only thing they care about is that it functions like the brief and that it looks nice.

The above paragraph will no doubt be met with the usual response of "it’s our job to educate them" but I don’t know whether I believe in this. Do you want to know how the bridge you travel across everyday was built or how Subway sourced all the produce for your lunch?

I believe that the best approach would therefore be to make an opt-in examination, this way there is no pressue put upon the community but what trading web designer wouldn’t want to take an exam to prove that they know how to create a proper functioning website? Obviously some customers will still go for the person who offers a "full website" for £500 but then the client will have no excuse for what they end up with.

Opinions Please

I’ve outlined some of the thoughts that have been floating around my head but I wanted to keep it quite open as I didn’t want to alter anyones thinking. I’d love to read your suggestions or improvements on all of this and whether it is something you believe to be realistic or something that will sadly remain a pipe dream.