In today’s world, knowing how to do web design is becoming more and more important and is now an indispensable skill for designers.
Web design can be quite complex and daunting, but with the development of the Internet and technology, web design can be easier than ever before nowadays. There are many resources on the Internet, and everyone can learn to be a great web designer on their own.
Web Design
Many young or new designers often misunderstand the concept of web design. Web design refers to the design of websites that are displayed on the internet. It usually refers to the user experience aspects of website development rather than software development.
Therefore, even someone without any technical knowledge can become a great web designer using platforms like Mockplus, Figma or Sketch. Of course, it would be great if you know some coding language (HTML, CSS, Java), but you can’t get yourself deep into front-end development, that’s not the core of web design.
The core of web design is visual and interaction. It aims to solve the communication problems between users and web page information.
Web Designer Skills and Attributes
Creativity
Web design as a field is defined by creativity. Web designers need to understand the brands they work with and use their creative skills to design dynamic websites to help meet brand objectives. If understanding brands is one end of the role, understanding users is the other.
After all, the sole reason that a brand creates a website is to appeal to consumers. Web designers need an understanding of end-user psychology in order to connect with consumer behavior.
This helps them to create layouts and content that users can relate to in meaningful ways.
Communication Skills
Web design is a user-centric role. Web designers bring together color, design, and content to convey a story to a brand’s audience. In order to reach this goal, a lot of communication needs to take place to ensure the web designer is meeting the brief.
They need to build an understanding of the brand and its unique selling proposition (USP) through consultation with the client and review of any previous design work they’ve used.
A web designer should also take advice from research teams to understand the brand’s users. This will help to inform the design strategy.
To make sure all of the above happens, a web designer should be able to communicate well. Ideas have to be pitched to the stakeholders, which requires persuasive presentation skills.
Written communication is just as important, with email being the most common mode of business communication in the corporate setting. So a web designer has to have excellent communication skills—both verbal and written.
Authenticity
If your website design is unique and attractive, users will spend more time on your site. Word of mouth can even help to popularize a site. But what happens when you come across two websites with similar layout and design?
It’s likely that you’ll start questioning the credibility of a brand that appears to have a plagiarized design. Duplication tarnishes a brand. And your online reputation is crucial to building your customer base.
That’s why it’s considered a cardinal sin of web design to copy someone else’s work. That said, there’s no harm in drawing inspiration from existing designs and layouts.
If you can weave an entirely different visual story onto a design that draws inspiration from elsewhere—that’s entirely acceptable.
An eye for detail
What makes your design stand out from the rest? It’s in the details of your brand interpretation and portfolio. Your ability to empathize with consumers’ emotions will come through in the details of your design.
This in turn generates visual appeal. By the same token, a lack of attention to detail will be evident to the brand’s customers, even those with a passing interest in their product.
This has the potential to seriously damage the brand’s power in the marketplace and turn customers away. So a web designer plays a significant role in preserving the brand’s influence. Maintain an eye for detail and you’ll ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
Patience
Most designers will encounter a creative block at some point. You’re busy with different projects and need to come up with original ideas—but for whatever reason, the ideas aren’t flowing.
Don’t panic. Take a break, step away from the work, and give yourself time. It can take immense patience but it’s important to persist with each project.
Otherwise, you’ll damage your reputation and generate negative reviews. Hang in there, keep believing in yourself, and you’ll get it right.
Common Web Design Terms
Before getting to know more about web design, let’s first take a look at some of the common terms you’re likely to come across as you navigate the field.
After all, it’s impossible to build your technical knowledge without understanding the key terms being used. Even if you have a great mentor, it’ll save you both time if you understand the basics first.
CMS
CMS stands for Content Management System. This is a system used in creating digital content.
Its ease of use lies in its pre-programmed structure. Web designers don’t need to learn code if they’re working using a CMS. It has templates and plugins to help web designers create the website.
WordPress and Drupal are two most commonly used CMS’s in the market. The only problem with using a CMS is that it doesn’t allow you to create original designs.
You’re essentially retrofitting existing designs. But a CMS comes in handy if the project is relatively small. You can create a fully functioning website much quicker than building one from scratch.
Color Theory
A web designer should understand color theory and how to utilize color effectively. If used properly, colors can manipulate and evoke emotions. Different combinations of color can be visually appealing, while others will clash and create a negative impression.
It’s an important topic in the web design space, because icons, layouts, images, and backgrounds all draw from the principles of color theory. These principles are one of the first areas any web designer should master.
UI/UX design
Successful websites aren’t just about aesthetics—overall usability also plays a huge role in contributing to a website’s popularity.
User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are defined by how we relate to and interact with a site’s functions and features. It’s part of what makes platforms like social media so addictive.
UX and UI design focus on the usability of websites. They impact everything we see on the screen and interact with. If a user accesses a particular menu, for example, this is an opportunity for a compelling human-machine interaction to take place.
It needs to be captivating enough to retain the user and make them want to look further. Web designers should know the basics of UI and UX design to be competitive in the field.
Responsive design
Desktop computers and laptops were once the only way to access the internet. Then smartphones and tablets came into the picture. We began carrying the internet with us wherever we went.
Suddenly, handheld devices overtook computers for the most popular means through which people browsed websites and used applications for day-to-day activities and transactions.
Responsive design refers to the ease with which a website is viewable on screens of different sizes and resolutions. The website should essentially adapt to whatever device the user is accessing it through.
Web designers have to keep this in mind and create designs that accommodate the different platforms for viewing the site. Responsive design is an important aspect of web design as it helps increase the reach of a website and ensure brand visibility.
The Basic Elements of Web Design
Overall layout
The overall look of your website is a crucial component of web design. Studies find that
users take only 50 milliseconds to form an opinion of your website or business, and that will determine whether they’ll stay or leave.
Therefore, you need to keep your design simple, clean and accessible, and at the same time, use grid-based designs to keep design items organized and orderly, thus creating a great overall layout.
Color scheme
The color palette and fonts on your site will directly inform your visitors’ opinions of your site and are what most novice designers start with. Wondering what color scheme to choose?
Just turn to your brand or industry perspectives — along with your target audience demographics — will help to save your workload and make this a somewhat painless process.
Typography
Speaking of typography or font design, you need to make your text easily readable, which generally means the body copy should be at least 16 pixels.
It is ideal to use a complementary font for headings or accents, but do not go beyond three typefaces or unnecessary sizing adjustments.
Navigation
Navigation plays an integral role in how users interact with and use your site or products. Navigation design is the discipline of creating, analyzing and implementing ways for users to navigate through a website or app.
Just take some time to place your navigational elements at the right place on your site, you can make it exist in a site’s header, body, and footer, but simply serve to direct your visitors to the information they desire as quickly as possible.
Content
After you got the layout, color scheme, typefaces, and navigation design, now you need to add content to your site to make it trustworthy and capable of delivering top-notch products and services.
Efficiency is key, as extra words can stand in the way and dull your brand’s primary selling points. So just think short and sweet to make your content organized and informative.
Best Resources to Learn Web Design at Home
As the novel coronavirus spread around the globe, we do not have many chances to study at school or work with others, but learning is a life thing, we can also learn from some professionals at home. In this part, we will share with you some of the best resources to learn web design.
Web design learning books
HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
This book is a full-color introduction to the basics of HTML and CSS from the publishers of Wrox.
This educational book is one that you will enjoy picking up, reading, then referring back to. It will make designers wish other technical topics were presented in such a simple, attractive and engaging way.
Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide
This book has been recently revised and it is ideal for students and professionals of all backgrounds and skill levels. It is simple and clear enough for beginners, yet thorough enough to be a useful reference for experienced developers keeping their skills up to date.
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
In this second edition, Steve Krug adds essential ammunition for those whose bosses, clients, stakeholders, and marketing managers insist on doing the wrong thing.
If you design, write, program, own, or manage Web sites, you must read this book. — Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards
Design for Hackers
This book helps beginning designers understand good design: where it comes from, how it can be produced (and reproduced) and what you can do to turn yourself into a great web designer.
Designing with Web Standards
This book was refreshed recently with the involvement of Ethan Marcotte. Designers will learn the how’s and the why’s of writing standards-compliant HTML and CSS through this book, Designing with Web Standards, as well as techniques for dealing with common web design issues.
Coding resources for web designers
W3Schools
W3Schools is a freemium educational website for learning coding online. It offers courses covering all aspects of web development. It is run by Refsnes Data in Norway.
It is a web developer information website, with tutorials and references relating to web development topics such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, PHP and ASP.NET.
Codecademy
Codecademy is an entirely free educational website where many beginners get their start. The company is committed to empowering all people, regardless of where they are in their coding journeys, to continue to learn, grow, and make an impact on the world around them.
Udemy
Udemy is an online learning platform where you can find coding resources for beginners or more advanced programmers there. It also provides programming courses on almost any language and framework imaginable.
freeCodeCamp
This is a completely free tool for coding and only requires an email address to get started.
On this website, you can learn powerful skills such as JavaScript, HML5, CSS3, and more. You can also further develop your skills by working in a small team to build solutions for nonprofits while gaining real-life experience.
edX
This website offers university-level courses in various computer science disciplines, including Python, front-end and full-stack development, and blockchain. The courses on this site is free but if you want to a verified certificate, you need to pay $50–$300.
Side notes
Whether you are a beginning designer or a professional designer, you need to bear in mind that learning is the only way to achieve your goal. If you want to know about how to learn web design at home to hone your skills, above is all you have to know.
You can build your design circle in there, but you can’t be a web designer by tooling around. Just take your time to learn and be a professional designer as you want.
