One of the best things that technology, specifically the internet, has made possible our WEBSITES.
Websites have made it possible for you to learn more about a certain brand or organization. If you visit their website, there you will see a description of their organization. You will also see there their mission as an organization and even their history.
And that has enabled businesses to expand their market to other parts of the world and made branding easier and faster.
And for consumers like you, purchasing has never been easier. You can just lay in bed and scroll through Starbucks’ website and order your favorite morning coffee.
Websites have also made it easier for students, and even for you to look for the information you need. For example, when you research a human cell.
Yes, you can go to the local library and look for a biology book that talks about human cells and borrow it. Sometimes, however, it’s just not convenient to be carrying around thick biology books.
With websites, all you have to do is open your laptop, or desktop, or even your tablet or phone, whatever is convenient for you, and open a search engine like google, type in the keyword, count one, two, three, and boom, a list of resources for your research!
And you know, some of the books you’re using have electronic copies already. You can just search them on their website to download a copy.
To make the long story short, websites have made things convenient and easy for us.
Thanks to programming language developers and web designers, these online features are available.
So, how are these websites made or developed?
Organizations and companies hire what we call “web designers”.
Yes, as the term denotes, a web designer designs websites.
But let's dig a little deeper, shall we?
What is a Web Designer?
A Web Designer helps you give an awesome web experience to your web visitors which will encourage them to visit more often.
Yes, just like an interior designer who helps beautify your home, if you are a Web Designer you help in the process of beautifying a website. However, your work is not only to make a website aesthetically pleasing. Part of your job is to make the website as functional and convenient to navigate as possible, of course, without compromising the aesthetics.
With that being said, it takes certain skills to become a web designer.
So, how do you become one?
How to become a web designer
Just like any other designing career, you have to learn the basics first and also, develop some web designer skills and learn about the do’s and don'ts of web design.
The first thing you need to do is enroll in a school or an online website designer class.
In those classes, you will learn two skills which are crucial in becoming a good and even the best web designer.
- Technical skills
This skill is the most basic thing you should ever learn before becoming a web designer. You have to learn how the website works and how to build it from scratch.
That means you have to learn some programming languages like HTML and CSS.
HTML which means HyperText Markup Language is the language you use as a web designer to create the structure of the website. With this coding or programming language, you can put the headers and other content on your websites like pictures and videos.
Of course, you don’t want your website to look boring or look like a resume on a white bond paper. You want it to be interesting and extraordinary.
That’s where CSS or the Cascading Style Sheets comes in. This coding language will tell the web browser how your website should look like.
CSS will instruct the web browser that the color of your header should be Yellow with an Arial font style and 18 font size. It will also be the one who will tell the web browser that the color of your background is black and the alignment of your blog is center.
That wasn’t hard, right? So, learn the basics and master them so you can do more in your website designs.
By the way, there are also other programming languages, like JavaScript, which you can use to enhance your website designs.
Try learning about them as well. It can help you increase your technical skills and that is a plus in the books of those who are looking for expert web designers.
2.Creative Skills
Now that you know how to build the structure of a website, you can make it more appealing and interesting.
If you’re born naturally creative and with the ability to mix and match colors and create a pleasing color palette, then good for you.
If not, don’t despair. There are also online website designer classes that you can take that will help you develop your creative skills.
You can also enroll in a visual design class or learn about tips to help you get the ropes on the whole color scheme, imagery, and typography skills which you can use to embellish your website.
There are other web design skills which you will eventually learn as you go about your classes and also when you’re already starting your career.
Aside from having the technical and creative skills, there are also a few things you need to consider when making a website.
Here are some of the points that you need to consider in your web design.
- Appeal
Of course, one of the important things you should consider is how the website will look appealing and interesting in the eyes of the users.
This is where your creative skills mainly come in handy. Being able to know what color schemes will work best for a specific kind of website will help in grabbing the attention of visitors.
Under this point are two related points which you should also consider making your web design appealing.
A.. Relatable to the target market
This only means that you should consider what makes a website appealing to a specific target market.
Like what kind of color scheme or images you should use for a website that would make it reflect the personality of the site owner.
Take for example, if your client is a clown. Do you think his prospective customers will want to book him for a birthday party if his website is only composed of black and white colors?
He would seem to be a melancholic clown if that’s the case.
But if you put a bit of yellow, orange, red, green, and blue colors in his website, it will make the website look fun and that will also reflect a happy and cheerful site owner, which is the clown!
See? Just with the use of a color scheme, your client was able to establish his identity as a clown. That’s what you would also want for your other clients.
Pick color schemes that are trendy, images, and fonts that are appropriate to the kind of website you are about to make for your clients.
B. Easy to follow
This is different from the “follow” on Instagram. This means that you should create a web design that is easy to read and understand.
It can somehow be exciting to decorate something. Add different features to make it more interesting and unique. However, bear in mind that putting on more than what is needed in a website can make it look messy and disorganized.
So try to keep it simple and just put in the necessary stuff. That way, the web users will not have a hard time reading and seeing the contents.
2. Usability
As a web designer, you should not only think of the aesthetic part of your web design, you should also think of the usability or functionality of your design.
What sense is there in a beautiful website if the links do not function well?
Take, for example, you designed a fashion website for a certain brand. The images of the clothes are well organized and the web design is not all over the place.
However, there is no call to action button that customers can click to make a purchase. They’d still end up going to the physical store to make the purchase.
That is why it is important to hone your technical skills. In that way, you will be able to add useful features to the websites you are designing. That creates convenience and ease of use which customers love!
Take away
As individuals, organizations and companies continue to take advantage of the internet, millions of them are in the hunt for expert web designers. They are looking for people they can work with to help them make beautiful and functional websites that their clients can visit.
So, what’s in it for you?
A wonderful opportunity!
So go ahead and enroll yourself in an online website designer class or school. Develop the technical and creative skills needed and be the best web designer ever!
Maybe start with your own personal website?
