How To Learn Web Design: 4 Steps To Start Designing

In the US alone, the web design market is valued at $40 billion. Web designing can be self-taught. While the avenues of education are not free, there are cheaper alternatives than the academic route.

Online courses on web designing and there are resources that you can purchase online. The most important thing is actually determining which aspect of web design to learn first. Such aspects are important when presenting your career as a marketable one.

Back to the question: How to learn web design? From crucial learning tools to marketing techniques, a web designer must know them all.

Web Design and the Job Market

Web designing is a lucrative career path. It pays well, too. According to popular employment site, Glassdoor, a website designer can earn as much as $88,373 per year.

Even if you already have a career, it’s still an advantage to learn web design. Whatever business you are in, a website is always an integral part of it, so web design skills are transferable.

This is particularly essential if you are doing freelance work. As an individual doing business, a website is even more important since you don’t have the manpower to help you with marketing.

Steps on how to learn web design:

Understand the basic tenets of web design

Understanding the basic web design principles is important for your success as a future web designer and developer. What’s really great about web design is that it is a balance of science and creativity. There is a science to creating a website as you have to follow a formula and a process.

The web designer has to understand the concept that needs to be translated into something visually attractive. Part of knowing the basic tenets is also knowing the front end and back end of web design. Whatever you see on a website was due to the work done on the back end. Knowing how to read a webpage is an essential skill that will help your web design, from identifying tags to format adaptability.

The user usually makes a command from the front end. So, when they navigate a web page and press a button for the site to do a specific thing, the server will internalize the information and send it through the back end with all the correct HTML code so that the correct request will be displayed on the screen.

Back-end personnel are called programmers. Their task is not something that a web designer actually needs to master but it’s still good to know about it.

The front end, on the other hand, is where the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and others have to work together in order to display the right page on the site. This is where web visitors engage with the website. It also follows that you know the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These are the languages of web design. There are many online courses and tools available to learn this particular skill, from Codecademy to Skillshare.

Learn the principles of visual design

Creativity is usually guided by emotions. In the complex world of web design, creativity is guided by both learned practices and emotion.

Here are the important web design concepts that you need to master:

Line: Every character in the layout for the website is made up of lines. These lines also compose a more generic structure. You need to understand how these lines will create order and organization on the website. It is important that balance is achieved when it comes to the use of the lines on the design.

Shapes: You will be working with three basic designs: circles, squares, and triangles. You have to understand the practical uses of these designs when creating the website. Not only that but there are also emotions attached to these shapes. This just means that you have to be savvy about how to use the shapes to shape a website.

Color: You should know that there are appropriate colors to use for appropriate designs. There are colors that would portray the brand properly. It’s important that every web designer knows the story and the meaning behind every color and if they would mesh well together.

Typography: Just like color and shape, the use of font also conveys a message. You need to know which fonts to use that will make your website easy to understand while also making sure that they look good. There should also be consistency with typography. This doesn’t mean that you have to use only one type of font, just that the different fonts shouldn’t be at war with each other.

Master the foundations of User Experience and User Interface

User experience (UX) is what will make more people visit your website. Sometimes, it’s not the number of people who visit your site, it’s the number of people you have converted into loyal customers.

Users will spend money on the brand if the website makes it easy for them. The creative part and the science part should go well together in order to bring out the best of the website and make people feel good when navigating the site.

There are two important factors that need to be considered: information architecture and user flows. You want the display to be easy to understand and then you want the flow to be easy for the users to operate. Every button and page should be highly functional.

The user interface (UI) is what users see on every page. The content should be easy to read and the buttons should be easy to understand. Coursera provides a 4-month free course on the fundamentals of UX and UI, covering user research and project management.

Creating the Website Layout

Organization is very important in layout as well as continuity. Understanding what makes a good layout will help the UI design. A powerful website is one that can help your client achieve the full potential growth and reach of their business.

To design a website with a great layout, use these tools.

Featured Image:Eftakher Alam, Unsplash.