The developments in the field of the internet have increased the demand for web designers in recent years and will continue even in 2021. With such a massive popularity in recent years, comes a huge competition, which gave rise to this question of how can a professional can improve their skills to remain competitive in this field? A professional web designer must have a combination of visual, content, and non-technical skills like communication that is a must to stay competitive in this field. There are other skills too that are equally important which most of the web development companies in Mumbai look for or give a professional edge over the other professional with the same qualification.
Basic designing principles
Many examples in the world have achieved the pinnacle in their respective field without any basic fundamental knowledge. Some people are born with innate artistic abilities, but it always pays to have the basic understanding of designing principles that might come in handy while creating a design that’s calculated and unique. These fundamental principles are the foundation of the web and graphic design; will guide you whether designing a portfolio or a print ad.
Typeface
Your choice of typeface is as important as what you do with it – this quote is enough to emphasize the importance of typeface in the web designing field. Typeface helps in shaping our perception of ideas. It is essential to understand which is the best way to deliver the message using appropriate choices for a designer. Many font options make it hard for a rookie designer to select one. Fonts like Georgia, Verdana, and Roboto work well while writing the body copy while other decorative typefaces can be used sparingly as ornamentation. A good designer needs to know the different typefaces, how and where to use them.
Arrangement or Composition
The next critical skill that is a must for a web designer is the arrangement of text, visuals, and other elements keeping in mind both artistic and utilitarian purposes. The main idea behind keeping the visual harmony of a design and hierarchy of ideas is that the critical idea should grab users’ attention first and look great. The most important feature of a well-composed layout is creating balance with contrast, negative space, and keeping all elements in proportions. For inspiration, you can look around you – websites, painting, scenes, billboards, etc. Try to recognize a good composition, and try to follow the same while creating your own design.
Basic color concept
The next important thing that a designer must be familiar with is basic color concepts. Basics things like complementary colors, contrasting, and how analogous colors work together. One of the most common mistakes that most designers make is the use of clashing colors. A conflicting color option can make any layout ugly and unreadable but on the other hand, a bit of visual dissonance can make an attractive design. While creating text, CTAs, and headers a designer should choose colors that work well together and maintain a strong sense of readability. Having a basic understanding of when to use lights and darks, contrast, and saturation are some of the most crucial web designing skills.
Client Handling
This is one of the most essential skills that a web design professional or any other professional must acquire either working as a freelancer or an employee for a company. Understanding what a client requires and explaining how you or your company can help him achieve the same. Have an idea about the goals and finances of your employer or own company and use them to pitch ideas and guide the clients. If the business is designed directly for the client then make sure the cash flow and project backlog are doable in the short and long term.
Editing software
A web designer must have the ability to photo-editing and some necessary graphics tweaks like a logo or a call to action. Grasp over editing software like Adobe Illustrator, XD, Figma, Webflow, and others is a great plus point for a designer. Some budget-friendly software like Gimp and Inkscape might come in handy for a designer while working on a low budget without spending a ton of money. As you progress in this field and get skilled in this field use animation software like Motion and After effects are handy to add motion to your work.
Responsive design
One of the critical components of a web development process is responsive design and a designer should have complete knowledge of how to create it. A responsive design ensures that HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements like menus, text, and buttons are clearly visible and usable everywhere. Responsive design provides consistent delivery of content, works well by having a master layout that fits the screen it is loaded on. For a designer, the design translates to different devices and helps in reaching more people without compromising the user’s experience. A designer can also use tools like Webflow to bring a responsive design to life.
User Experience(UX)
User experience (UX) design is the process in which a designer focuses on the emotional response of the user to the website’s usability, dynamics, and navigation. UX aims to give a better navigating experience while guiding them through the site. Some of the best user experience practices include:
Creating organized layouts with negative space and logically placed content. Focusing on creating a design and content that focuses on humanistic experience. User-specific design and information created specifically to meet their needs.
User Interface (UI)
Where UX deals with the broad aspects of how a design affects a user, User Interface (UI) is the series of screens, pages, and visual elements such as buttons and icons that enable a person to interact with the website or the application. In short, menus, buttons, and micro-interaction are all a part of UI and they guide a user through a design, free from obstructions, for a smooth experience. UI touches different usability such as:
Intuitive interfaces and Navigational elements.
- To guide people with CTAs and what you want them to do in the shortest amount of time.
- Repeatable and intuitive actions users can follow and learn while using your design.
Website and graphic design
Both website and graphic design involve some artistry and crafting visual skills sharing similar creative space. Web design is a medium where changes and updates are included in any project but on the other hand, graphic design is all about creating visuals. When it comes to designing a website or a logo both are different but on a whole but a part of branding. Graphic design is a different skill set of knowing how to create hand-drawn typography, custom illustrations, and creative flourishes that will enhance your web design work.
Attention to detail
Attention is a practical design that doesn’t materialize by chance. One of the essential skills that designers need is the attention to detail skill. It is critical that designers have good attention to recheck your work for major or minor mistakes. Often what put a website’s design over the top are the subtitle details. To create a beautiful website requires a great deal of the attention. The various websites to be designers that show incredible attention to detail. When rechecking your website, and pay attention to the little details. Most of the people will post something and then move on, missing vital information they could have fixed. Now is the time for unfettered objectivity.
HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language used to put content on a web page and one might not have imagined that a web designer would need to know anything about coding. But nowadays most Web development companies in Noida prefer to have this skill while searching for a designer. A web designer should know how to convert words into headlines, paragraphs, footers, and how you get content like photos and videos on a website.
CSS
Cascading style sheets or CSS partners of HTML is also a code used to tell a browser how to style and format HTML for a web page. CSS helps to adjust the colors, change the fonts, or add a stunning background and so much more or in other words make content on the page look good. This is where the designer skills are tested and how a designer leaves the creative impact on every website he designs.
JavaScript
With the ability to write design code in HTML and CSS, knowing how to code using JavaScript is a huge advantage for a web designer in this competitive environment. Twitter feeds are an excellent example that updates automatically using JavaScript that will make the static element on a website more interactive and thus an important skill to work upon for a web designer.
Search engine optimization
The process of improving your site to increase its visibility for the relevant searches. SEO is the collection of tools and the best practices to help your website rank higher in search engine results. The excellent page to search visibility of the products, the more suitable to collect attention, attract, and existing users to your business. The SEO once adding the keywords to your site for search engines to find is more complex and involves a much broader scope of considerations.SEO is a fundamental part of digital marketing. It is a full-time job for small businesses and turning to the website design and marketing experts support.
Copywriting
Copywriting is also called “writing for the web”; it is the process of writing online content, social media posts, and some other marketing materials. Huge writing and design are about making an impact. Well-crafted copywriting can keep readers busy and leads them to take some action, such as making a purchase or submitting to the shape. Web design isn’t moving to complete the steps and they’re made-up to it, it’s not very useful. Whether you want to start offering to Copywriters your design clients, you want to understand what copywriter is coming from, here what goes into good copy.
Photo editing
With a little editing, an experienced person can bring life even to a mediocre photo. Photo editing software like Canva is prevalent among professionals who edit pictures for the website or social media. An expert needs to have a trained eye for small things like color levels, brightness, saturation, and the contrast making photos look great.
Time management
Time management is an essential skill for a web designer whether learning to go freelance or to work for an IT company. To become outstanding in the web designing field a designer needs to be on time with schedule and able to deliver projects within a specified time frame. Knowing about time management tools like JIRA will help you keep track of projects progress and mastering the art of prioritizing work becomes essential for a designer to be successful.
Communication
Communication is the primary factor in the success or failure of any web design project. We can better engage audiences and more effectively serve people’s needs. Communication is essential for the website design to the industry for many reasons. Contacts can be quite challenging to achieve, when a project involves many different peoples are different backgrounds, experiences, skills, etc. Your customers need to process a lot of information, making it hard for them to focus on what you have to say. If we stream useful audio content to visitors, interactive training, or videos that are also communication. People skills are as necessary as pixel skills.
Business strategy
An effective web design strategy will help you make the right decisions to create a company grow online. It’s probably safe to assume a significant part of your design strategy for today’s business. A strategy process model to provide a framework that gives rational vital activities of the strategy development and as well as implementation. The various companies look out of the websites to look classy and support the latest trends when it comes to serving their actual intentions. The web design strategy is a plan of action designed to reach the goals.
Final Words
To be successful and be competitive in any field a professional needs to keep on acquiring new skills and adapting according to the recent advancement in their area. Skills like communication, client handling, time management, etc are some of the essential skills that most employers look for in a candidate and give a considerable leg up to a web designer against its competitors. If there is a skill that helps you as a web designer and needs to be on this list, then comment down below and we will definitely add the best suggestion in our blog.
