Being a web designer entails pleasingly mixing graphics and content. Non-technical abilities like teamwork and communication, on the other hand, are crucial.
You can start planning your career as a web developer by following the stages in our crucial guide, whether you're picking your future school exam alternatives, you've just graduated, or you want to retrain in a future-proof industry.
Here are ten skills that will help you become a web design expert, regardless of where you are in your career.
1. Know the principles of design
You don't need to know music theory to write a song, and you can sketch even if you've never taken an art lesson. Some of us may be born with artistic talent, but understanding the principles can mean the difference between reproducing what you see and creating a calculated and distinct design.
"Essential visual design principles" delves deeper into the Gestalt psychology-based principles of visual design. These foundations constitute the bedrock of online and graphic design and are essential to understand. These ideas can influence your work, whether you're creating a portfolio or a print ad. Let's take a look back at what we've learned so far.
2. Color Theory
Basic color theory, such as blending primary colors to make new colors, will aid you in creating beautiful color palettes.
You should be familiar with the color wheel as a designer and how complementary, contrasting, and analogous colors interact.
Beginner designers sometimes make the mistake of using contrasting colors. While a little visual dissonance can make for an exciting design, clashing colors can make a layout look unattractive and unreadable. Colors complement each other and preserve a strong sense of legibility should you use in the text, calls to action, and headings. Understanding and knowing when to employ lights and darks, contrast, and saturation are essential color skills in website design.
3. Software for design
Designers should be comfortable with Adobe Illustrator, XD, Photoshop, Figma, and Webflow, among other design software tools. You should be familiar with the fundamentals of photo editing and the capacity to change vector-based images, such as a logo that may show to you.
Free photo-editing software like Gimp or the vector-based Inkscape will provide you the power to achieve what you need without spending a lot of money if you're on a budget. Additionally, as your web design skills improve, animation software such as Motion or After Effects can help you add movement and pizzazz to your work.
4. Responsive design
Responsive design is an essential part of the web development process. Thanks to responsive design rules, HTML, CSS (cascading style sheets), and JavaScript elements like menus, text, and buttons are clear and valuable everywhere.
Your material will deliver your material hanks to responsive design consistently. Making sure your methods work across various devices allows you to reach a wider audience without losing the user experience. You don't need a web developer to bring responsive designs to life using tools like Webflow.
5. User Experience (UX)
User Experience is concerned with a person's emotional reaction to a design — a combination of a site's usability and interactive and dynamic components to make the design enjoyable to explore. The goal of user experience (UX) is to influence a user's experience by engaging them and guiding them around the site.
The following are some of the best UX practices:
Negative space and strategically ordered content in uncluttered layouts (be precise)
Design and content that is intuitive and focused on a humanistic experience rather than a mechanical one (design with empathy)
Design and content adapted to the needs of the target audience (know your audience)
Check out our UX reading list to learn how to improve your own project's UX.
6. User Interface (UI)
Where UX is concerned more with how a design affects someone, UI focuses on specificity. Web pages, buttons, menus, and micro-interactions are all a part of the UI. These elements guide an audience through a design, free from obstructions, for a smooth experience.
UI touches many different facets of usability, including:
Navigational elements and straightforward, intuitive interfaces
Calls to action that guide people to do what you want them to do in the shortest amount of time
Intuitive and repeatable steps your audience can follow and learn when using your design
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