If you’re a beginner in tech, it can be tough to figure out where to start. There are so many paths available to you — from web development to web design to digital marketing, and every specialization under the sun. Web design is often a great place to dive in if you’re new to the scene, but the question is: how to become a web designer?
Like many roles in tech, becoming a web designer requires both the creative and analytical sides of your mind. Web design is a versatile career with lots of opportunities to niche down or course-correct once you discover exactly what you love.
? Related: What is the Difference Between a Web Designer and a Web Developer?
What skills do you need if you want to become a successful web designer? In this article, we’ll cover the essential skills you need to know to get hired as a web designer, plus the soft skills that will help set you apart.
How to Learn Web Design: What Are The Tech Skills You Need to Know to Become a Web Designer?
First, let’s go over the technical side of becoming a web designer.
1. VISUAL DESIGN
It might seem obvious that you need design knowledge to be a web designer, but what exactly does that mean? Well, web design is actually a subset of the larger field of visual design, so it makes sense to start there.
At Skillcrush, we teach visual design because it focuses on digital products and sets you up to succeed across design careers, including web design. When you learn visual design, you learn the fundamental design principles you need to be a web designer.
? Related: What is Visual Design? Graphic Design, UI Design, Web Design — What’s the Difference?
Design principles are what determine the look and feel of a site, and are one of the most important concepts for web designers to know. They can range from proportions, to typography, to grid systems, to color theory. Learning visual design means creating mood boards and type hierarchy and experimenting with web fonts and color palettes.
2. UX
UX stands for user experience, or how people feel (calm, frustrated, etc.) when they use a website. Above all else, UX design is about approaching your designs from a user-friendly and user-first perspective — how can you produce a website design that helps them get exactly what they need?
To do that, you’ll research your users and create “personas” (profiles of imaginary ideal users). You’ll lay out the pages and content with a site map. You’ll figure out the path users take on your site in user flows. For example, do they always click straight through to social media? Or are they just looking for contact information? You’ll use responsive design to account for different screen sizes and improve functionality for all users, regardless of device.
As a UX designer, you’ll build wireframes and use prototyping and templates to sketch out the key parts of each webpage, including the user interface. All of these components are essential to practicing user experience design.
3. GRAPHIC DESIGN AND WEB DESIGN SOFTWARE
Like any craftsperson, as a web designer, to do your work, you need the right tools. Knowing your way around web design and graphic design industry standards will be helpful in every case and critical in many. While designing a website can be done right in a web browser, tools like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Sketch are used in graphic design and web design for important job functions: creating mockups, designing assets (think logos and images), and of course, modifying and enhancing photos.
You should learn how to use them (although, if you’re just getting started, consider trying out a few free Adobe Photoshop alternatives instead).
4. HTML
Wait, to become a web designer, do you need to know how to code? You might not have imagined that web designers would need to know any code, but some amount of technical skills is necessary — a little familiarity with HTML and CSS is expected for most design jobs nowadays. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is the programming language used to put content on a web page and give it structure on the front end. That means it’s how you turn a bunch of words into headlines, paragraphs, and footers. And it’s also how you get the “cool” content like photos, videos, and graphics on a website.
5. CSS
And then there’s HTML’s partner, CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is a coding language that tells browsers how to format and style HTML for a web page. In other words, it’s what makes all the text and other content look good and have a design. With CSS, you can adjust the colors, change the fonts, or add a stunning background — and so much more! This is where your eye for design really shines and how you can put your creative stamp on every site you create.
Pro tip: If you want to start learning web design for free, HTML & CSS are great skills to start with. We’ve got our free coding camp if you’re ready right here and now. Otherwise, take a look at our roundup of free resources for learning to code.
? Related: These Are the Jobs You Can Get with Just HTML and CSS
BONUS! JAVASCRIPT
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