At it’s core Web Design is about building a Website that has to perform a task. That might me the Website has to sell a product or service or market and idea. Your clients can’t afford for you to be romantic and caught up in your own idea of what Web Design is.
To become a good or great Web Designer, you have to understand actual Design and on some level Marketing. You have to understand what a good website looks like and how to build one. Which means learning to copy and reproduce the best websites out there in order to learn the process.
Many artist will tell you that they learned by drawing what they saw, not using their imagination. Some even learned by tracing to the muscle memory down to be able to draw in that style or make those types of shapes naturally. That is part of the process of the work.
Analyze Dozens of Websites with Good Web Design
Studying good web design, mimic good web design, deconstruct and analyze good web design, then when you understand, you can execute on good web design from scratch yourself. Find your favorite 10 or 20 sites and really take a hard look at them. Make a list of things you like about them and start looking for things they have in common. Start drawing the layouts of these websites on paper and then try and reconstruct these layouts in code and in mockups. This will teach you the process for developing and road mapping a good web site.
Learn About Web Typography and Type Design
Good typography is part of the experience of web design. Most of the web is still text despite a recent flood of images and video. That text has to be attractive and readable. Make sure you learn not only about how to choose and implement good fonts on web sites but also about line spacing and how to format paragraphs using CSS.
Understand the Purpose and Goal of Website
My website is not setup to impress other graphic designers and web designers. It is meant to convert thousands of dollars of business for my services and help me rank where I want in Google search. It accomplishes that goal, which makes it a well designed site. Good web design is not just about visual aesthetic and technical coding. It is about sales and marketing, or education, or whatever the overall purpose the site was built for, and the measure of the site is how effectively it accomplishes it’s goal.
“If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense”. Get it? So make sure that everything you’re doing in the design facilitates the overall goal and objective. Your clients and employers will feel more comfortable with you if you adapt this mentality sooner rather than later. Do not be romantic about design, it’s a trap.
Consider Mobile When Designing a Website
Mobile First Web Design Matters Today
We have become a mobile first experience culture when it comes to the web. There are more smartphones than laptop and desktop computers, and this is now how people consume information and media. You have to keep this in mind with your web design from the very beginning instead of thinking of the mobile experience as an afterthought or add on. Responsive design is not a catch all answer, so don’t use it as a crutch. Think hard about how to make the mobile experience the right experience for the right reasons.
Video on How to Become a Better Web Designer
Don’t Become Dependent on Your Tools or Methods
Don’t be a coder or a visual designer, just be a designer. Tools are irrelevant, don’t use them as a crutch, learn as many tools as possible. Stop listening to the Jack of All Trades narrative, it’s a lie. Your core skill is design, learning to use multiple tools to execute on that skill doesn’t water it down anymore than a mechanic knowing how to use everything in his/her toolbox. Don’t be a Mac or PC designer, just be a designer.
Don’t resist tools because they go against the grain of what you’re comfortable with, unless you’re okay with leaving money on the table and limiting your client base or employment opportunities.
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