Way to become a web designer, of course, you must have the technical expertise needed to create a website as well as artistic ability and design sensitivity.
What Hard Skills Should a Web Designer Master?
Before talking about skills, the first thing that everyone must master in their work is responsibility.
Then the main role of a web designer is to determine the visual appearance of a particular website.
You do this by combining several elements such as color, typography, layout, graphics, and visual hierarchy.
And here are some hard skills that must be mastered to become a web designer:
Know Design Principles
These principles are important keys to creating a visually appealing image or design. Design principles to know include harmony, balance, repetition, emphasis, harmony, contrast, proportion, movement, and negative space.
Understanding how these principles interact and their impact on users is critical to creating designs that users love.
In addition, by knowing the principles thoroughly you can also simplify and streamline the design process by guiding designers on how to get started and how to combine elements.
UI & Visual Design
The most basic skills a web designer needs are a strong User Interface (UI) and visual design skills.
Although learning the basics or theory of design is important, you will also need a lot of practice, and analyzing other designs.
There are several things you need to pay attention to in the web design UI, namely:
- clear site display and navigation elements
- persuasive call-to-action (CTA)
- website flow that is clear and easy for the audience to understand
Have Skills About HTML & CSS
While not all designers will work directly with HTML and CSS, it is also important to have a solid understanding of how they work.
If you know how to use HTML and CSS, you’ll be able to create web designs that actually work well.
Have Knowledge of UX
User experience (UX) is one of the most important parts of designing an outstanding and effective website.
On larger projects, there may be a dedicated UX expert, but on smaller projects, a web designer may also serve as a UX designer.
Creating Responsive Designs
The majority of people around the world today will access the internet via mobile or mobile devices, of course that is the reason why responsive design is important.
Understanding how to design for various phone screen sizes is very important
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Most modern websites are built using a specific CMS. Even though WordPress is the most popular to date, there are actually hundreds of other CMS out there.
You don’t have to learn how to use them all, but it’s highly recommended to learn the basics of how a CMS works.
Testing/Debugging
Every local website that looks simple to an international scale website, certainly can’t be separated from bugs. But in order for the website to run well, it must eliminate these bugs.
Testing is part of the ability of web designers to help speed up and solve these problems.
Know the Kinds of Software for Design
Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or XD, Affinity Designer, and Figma are popular and often used choices for design, although other software exists. Although the specifications of how each application works are different, they basically all have the same features for creating and organizing elements and layouts or layouts. Which software you will choose depends on your personal preferences and the possible requirements of the company you work for.
Typography
Typography is the art of selecting and arranging letters in a medium or space. This skill is a must-have for a web designer. The reason is that the daily work of web designers is closely related to fonts. You have to choose what type of font fits the characteristics of your brand. Not only that, but you also need to arrange so that all posts can be read properly by site visitors.
Understanding Color Theory for Design
Of all the design elements, color has the potential to have the strongest impact on usability and user experience. Web designers must master at least the basics of color theory to be successful. This includes understanding color psychology, how to create a color palette, and concepts like the contrast. Becoming a true color theorist takes years of practice and study, but learning the basics can be done relatively quickly. From there, you can experiment and test the colors in your designs.
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