Are you thinking of becoming a web designer and don’t know where to start? Becoming a web designer is not as difficult as you may think, getting the right information and developing the necessary skills can bring your dream come true. 

In this post, we will look at what is web design? And The skills and techniques for learning web design

WHAT IS WEB DESIGN?

Web design refers to the design of websites that are displayed on the internet. It involves the process of planning and building the elements of your website. For example the structure and layout of images, colour, fonts and graphics.

Web design can also be seen as the user experience aspect of website development. It is very important because it can affect the behaviour of the users either negatively or positive

When it’s been done right it comes with dozens of rewards, I believe that what we all want.

SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR LEARNING WEB DESIGN

Web designing just like any tech role requires some skills and techniques. 

1. Web designing tools

Understanding web designing tools is the first step to becoming a web designer. These are the platforms you will make use of to create your website. There are several platforms to be used. Understanding a platform and its purpose is very important. For example,  we use PicsArt to edit photos and Adobe Illustrator to create logos icons and sketches

2. User Interface (UI)

These are the visual touchpoints that allow users to interact with a product. It is the combination of typography, colour palette, buttons, animations and imagery.

It’s all about making sure that the user interface of a product is as intuitive as possible, and that means carefully considering every visual or interactive element the user might encounter in your site.

3. User Experience (UX)

Refers to the interaction between the user and a product or service. This is the full experience from a user’s first contact to the last. Recent research shows that 75% of people form their opinion of website credibility based on its aesthetics.

A UX designer thinks about how the experience makes the user feel, and how easy it is for the user to accomplish their desired tasks. For example: How easy is the checkout process when shopping on your site? How long does it take for the site to load? The ultimate purpose of UX design is to create easy, efficient, relevant, and all-around pleasant experiences for the user.

4. Responsive design

Responsive web design is about creating web pages that look good on all devices. It automatically adjusts according to the type and size of the device that is been used. For example, laptops, Ipads and phones. To create a responsive website, you will need to add a meta tag to all your web pages.

5. HTML

HTML means Hyper, Text, Markup, Language. It is the standard language for creating Web pages. It is the backbone of web design. It consists of series of elements that tell a browser how to display content. Without the knowledge of HTML web design becomes difficult. HTML is the foundation of computer programming

6. Programming languages

As a web designer, you need to be able to speak the language of the computer to be able to communicate with the computer. Programming language is referred to as ‘computer language’. It the language programmers use to give instructions and commands to the computer. They use it to create Apps, Websites, games etc. Examples of programming languages are, Java, JavaScript, Python, CSS, Prolog etc. 

7. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

This is the code that tells browsers how to format and style HTML for a web page. CSS can control the layout of multiple web pages at a time. For example, you can adjust the colours, change the fonts, or add a background of your choice to your website with CSS

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You may think that SEO does not concern a web designer. It will surprise you to know that there’s a lot of design work that’s connected to SEO 

The web designer can create a solid framework that search engines can read. The web designer can incorporate SEO in the types of images/ videos and the way they are uploaded. Some images/videos are very heavy and take a longer time to load which can affect the web performance in SEO

In conclusion, when embarking on a new journey, it is important to get direction from someone who has embarked on that same journey so you don’t get lost. We at Mentortribes would love to embark on this journey with you to help make your dream come true.

Now I’d love to hear from you, which skill from today’s post are you going to learn first?

Let me know by leaving a comment below