Web Design 101: Essential Skills for a Successful Career as a Web Designer
Modern web design is crucial for several reasons. Your website is often the first point of contact people have with your brand. It’s important to make a good first impression as it can impact how people perceive your company. A well-designed website can encourage visitors to stay and explore while a poorly designed one can result in visitors leaving and going to a competitor’s site.
Guidelines for Becoming a Successful Web Designer
Whether you’re working for a company or on your own, becoming a well-rounded, professional web designer requires honing a few essential skills.
- Aesthetics of Form
The first set of skills necessary to succeed in web design is an understanding of visual design principles. The visual style is an amalgamation of graphic design and UI (User Interface) design. Expert visual designers can help businesses with problem-solving by generating aesthetically pleasing and functional designs. You should have solid foundational knowledge of colour theory, layout theory, and type design. UX What we call “user experience” (UX) is a skill set that focuses on the interactions between a product and its end users. There is an element of investigation and planning as well. With an understanding of UX principles, web designers can craft engaging and straightforward interactions with their site’s visitors. Building problem-solving websites requires a strong focus on user experience design.
- Front-End Programming
All websites are constructed from HTML and CSS. These two front-end languages form the backbone of the World Wide Web. Even if they don’t do much coding, web designers should still be well-versed in HTML and CSS. Creating a website from scratch is no longer necessary with the advent of drag-and-drop website builders like Webflow and Squarespace. However, new website customisation levels become available with knowledge of markup languages such as HTML, CSS, and even JavaScript.
- Applications in Design
There are a number of programmes and resources that web designers should be familiar with in order to create and develop websites. To start, designers need to utilise design tools to create the final designs. If you’re familiar with Adobe’s other offerings, XD is an excellent wireframing and prototyping tool. Knowing how to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator is also helpful. Popular XD is a replacement for Figma, Sketch, and InVision. Any of these programmes would work well, but many designers have strong preferences for one over another.
In conclusion, if you’re interested in web design fundamentals, it’s important to understand its underlying principles, elements, and best practices. By honing your visual design, UX design, front-end programming, and design tool skills, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful web designer.