Web Designer – Sounds familiar? Does that ring a bell? If yes, then you are in the right place.
With the proliferation on the internet, there has been a rise in the need and demand for web development and here is where comes the concept of web designer. The sea of web development is huge with more than 400million active websites on the internet. Weaving the above, there exist 23 million web developers in the US alone.
This suggests that with time the competition is only expected to rise and in case you have already jumped in the spectrum of web design and development, you need to be very sure about your skills to etch success. Further, the industry is booming with advancement. Every day new and new technologies are surfacing in the domain. So, if you see yourself as one of the successful web designers, it is important that you are not only aware of the technological changes but own the capability to put them to use.
All in all, this means that in order to stand out in the competitive market, just being a web designer isn't enough, you need to one that possesses exceptional skills, with out-of-the-box thinking to be successful.
Well, if you aren't much sure about the trending skills needed to be a web designer, this article will take you down the same.
Top Five Skills For A Web Designer
- Visual Design
In case you are wondering what the skills you should possess is to be a successful designer, we start with the ability of virtual designing. Ok, if we are talking about a web designer, you have to have designing skills. But, the virtual design isn't something that every web designer does or is capable of. Unlike other designing principles, the virtual design is something that is linked to digital products. What we mean to say is that virtual designing outlines the look and feel of the website. Right from the typography to the color theory, the grid system and the varied site proportions, virtual design encompasses all. In a nutshell, the art of virtual designing is associated with the creation of type hierarchy, mood boards, choosing the color palette and web font.
- Software Design
To master the art of web designing, you need to hold expertise in using tools for the same. A craftsman is nothing without a bunch of tools, and so is the web designer. Though advancements in technology have enabled web designers to do their job using the browser, using modified tools such as Adobe Photoshop, MockPlus and Sketch adds another layer of efficiency and works well when it comes to image processing. Where the web browser for designing is more of a generic tool, the dedicated ones improve the designs and adds a unique skill in your portfolio helping you stand out among others. Where Photoshop experts excel in powerful image processing, the mockPlus ones can embed in Wireframing and prototyping effectively.
- UX
UX design one of the most important aspects of a website, User experience is all about the interaction between the user and the website. For web designers, it is important that the entire layout is user-friendly and highly intuitive. Like, if the design of the website is clumsy, it would fail to engage the users and the resultant being low traffic. Web Designers must possess a user-first perspective to build websites that rank high in the eyes of the user. Now, this is easier said than done. Not all web designers have the ability to build websites that are both attractive and interactive. For you to be able to do this, the knowledge and the ability to work on prototypes and wireframes are a must.
- HTML
Some are of the view that web designers do not require the knowledge of HTML. However, HTML is not related only to the web development process but plays a crucial role in designing the website too. Imagine you are a web designer and there suddenly popped up an error in the appearance of the page. Now, to detect the error, you would depend on the developer. Had you little knowledge about the HTML and CSS code, you could yourself detect the discrepancy and if possible, solve the same. Having significant knowledge about how do the codes interact and adjust, you could be on the plus side as a designer. Of course, a company would rank a designer with added knowledge over just a designer.
- CSS
It is not only the designing skills that a designer needs to build an engaging website. He/she would feel the need to own sound technical knowledge so as to make the most out of their job. CSS basically means Cascading Style Sheet which deals with the designs of the page. CSS is used to educate the browser on how to style the embedded HTML codes. Like, consider that your HTML code displays a form for sign up. So, without CSS the form would just be words written one below the other, without much difference in their appearance. Now, no user would find this view of the website appealing. Odds are they would get confused and leave the website. To deal with this, the web designers must own the skill to integrate the HTML layout with CSS designs and add life to the page. The integration of CSS means changing fonts, adjusting colors, sizing content and highlighting the background, improving the look and feel of the website.
Conclusion
Having said all of the above, a web designer with SEO knowledge is one step ahead of the others. When a company has a website, it would definitely need to optimize the site and improve the search engine rankings. And when a company is hiring a web designer, the added feature of marketing the website would increase the likelihood of you being selected as the same.
Now, there isn't a skill that would appear tough or difficult to do. All you ought to do is outline the different skills and then highlight the ones that you need to work upon and get started.
Author Profile-
Nikhil Bansal is the CEO and Founder of Apptunix, a leading Mobile App Development Company helping businesses in streamlining their processes with powerful and intuitive mobile apps. With extensive experience in iOS app development, he has established himself as a highly-focused Solution Architect and UX expert, the one who is always ready to make efforts in the direction where technology blends with lives.