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10 skills a web designer needs

10 skills a web designer needs

Creating websites is not just about designing and programming. As the production system for the web becomes more complex due to the evolution of the field itself, technological advance, new demands and new user profiles, it is necessary to acquire new skills. Web designer Ben Hunt has listed the 10 skills every web designer should have:

1. Writing and editing

The most necessary skill in any field of design is communication. In this sense, being able to clearly express ideas verbally and in writing is enormous capital and much more valuable than doing exotic tricks in Photoshop. Clear and effective writing helps the designer develop himself as a professional and enables him to help his clients establish their brand on the web. A good selection of words is also the starting point for usability: choosing the right words to tag the content, indicating the section of the site where the user is, or giving the content a title.
Also, search engines that index websites are text eaters. Well-organized, structured and written content has a much better chance of getting a good position on search results pages than others that are not.

2. Holistic conception

Basically, it means being able to see a problem from different angles. Designing for the web is not a mechanical and simple exercise of moving content to a new medium. If we want a site to function as a piece of interactive communication, we have to put ourselves in the user's place and really think about what type of content would interest them and how it should be presented.
A common vice for all designers is to fall in love (first) and hate (later) their own work. Therefore, you have to be able to take some distance from your own creations and try to make a more realistic analysis. The holistic conception is not something that can be learned in a course, rather it requires some training in observing others and seeing how they behave in front of a computer.

3. Design theory

Many designers tend to underestimate the conceptual and theoretical contribution of design theory. They believe that it is a series of abstract principles that little can contribute to something as "novel and dynamic" like web design. Nothing further from reality. On the web, the graphic component is fundamental and beyond the visual tricks or eye candies, you have to rethink the basic principles of design theory: composition, balance, proportions, colour, contrast and reading flow.
Then, on a second level, we have those more specific aspects that make up the staging of the design: typography, image editing, 3D and the different resources that are used to materialize the design. Both levels are important: the most general allows to organize, clarify and facilitate the information; the second gives it a finish and finish that will make the product look unique and charming. But be careful: if we have not solved the general aspects of the design well, little will be able to make a nice decoration.

4. Listen & discern

The designers' ego is a complicated subject. Many think that his years of study and experience give him superior status over his clients who are unable to appreciate his creative ability and his obsession with achieving perfection in every pixel. They may have some reason, but we must never underestimate our clients, who generally have been in business for years and know their market much better than we do. Therefore, the basic rule is very simple: listen.
Each business has its own particular needs. It will be the experience and knowledge of the medium that help the designer to discern in which aspects he should pay special attention to the indications received and in which issues he can innovate by bringing his own personal touch. But it must always be borne in mind that great designs, bold and innovative proposals that set trends are very clear about their objectives and strive to achieve them.

5. Self-learning

If for every new technology, product or service that appears in the market you are going to need to take a course, chances are you will lose a lot of money. Web design requires skills in visual design, technology, communication, psychology, programming, and empathy. That requires a constant effort to keep you updated both in the new version of Photoshop and in experimental psychology studies. It requires knowing the state of the art in web design but also the technological tools that are being used. You have to be aware of studies and research on the use of technology as well as new trends in design.

How to survive in this jungle? A good starting point is to spend some time diving between the landmarks of the areas that interest us and regularly checking them out to see what's new. We can do the same with Twitter, which is a fantastic way to see what industry leaders and references are doing on different topics.

6. SEO

"If a tree falls in the forest but no one sees it, did that tree really fall?" Asks a classic philosophical question. In web design, existing means being present on the search engine results pages, that despite the enormous power of social networks, they are still a fundamental means of finding the content we are looking for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or search engine optimization is the name given to a set of techniques and strategies to make our site read, interpreted and classified by search engines.

Optimizing pages so that they can be found by search engines is an important part of web design today. What's more, almost no one would hire a designer who couldn't. Keep in mind that there are marketing experts and search engines that are dedicated to 100% SEO and therefore we do not compete with them at work, but we must be able to complement each other and understand that if they ask us to include certain keywords, in certain places and with a series of precise labels it is not a whim but a need that we must satisfy. And if we don't work with experts, we should at least be able to provide a website with a decent level of optimization that allows search engines to index the site and provide clear descriptions on search results pages.

7. Graphic creativity

Why is this skill so low on the list? Because you can make a good site by following design theories without being creative. We can make a page that works and works without having to revolutionize the field of design. Yes, surely an innovative and original proposal gives a plus to our work, makes it recognizable and increases the quality of the service we offer, but first, we must ask ourselves if the site we are going to develop really needs it.

Google, eBay and Wikipedia are sites with a very simple and flat design that nevertheless works. However, many times you have to make an impact (more on our clients than on the end-users of the website) we have to rub the lamp to create some image that dazzles.

8. Production of sites with HTML / CSS

A long time ago, thinking about a web designer who didn't know how to write HTML code was simply absurd. However, with the rise of visual design tools that automatically generate code (Dreamweaver) and a large number of companies that specialize in translating a design in Photoshop to HTML and CSS, this need was not so obvious.

For my part, I think that knowing HTML and CSS is essential to dedicate yourself more or less professionally to web design. But that knowledge does not guarantee by itself that we know how to create good pages. Knowing HTML and CSS not only allows us to create the code for our page but even helps us create a way of thinking, organizing and working with the elements of the design, even though we are not ultimately responsible for the code. And it allows us not to depend on a person or a program to make a change or update our design.

9. Business sense

Making web pages is a business. Whether we work as a freelance, in a small company, a large company or a part-time occupation, the truth is that it is an activity for which we want to earn money. So it is important to know how the market works, how companies work and make reasonable business decisions. Much of this knowledge is given by common sense although it is also interesting to meet people from the environment either through friends, associations or events to learn from people with more experience.

If we don't know anything about business and we have to focus on one thing, it should be marketing. Create things that people want and make them choose our product or service above others. Once we achieve this, we will have to manage the money and make a list of our income and expenses to see if our work is worth it.

10. Typing

A web designer spends most of his time behind a keyboard. Although technology has come a long way, we still can't find a better way to enter large amounts of text than typing it key by key. Although graphics and image editing programs are mostly handled with the mouse, there are many other activities that a designer does and that require writing: putting together a budget, sending an email, coding in HTML, CSS, PHP or whatever language, create a report or complete an online form.

At this point, I would also add knowing the keyboard shortcuts of the programs you use most commonly. You really save a lot of time and gain productivity with it.

10 skills a web designer needs

10 skills a web designer needs

10 skills a web designer needs

Creating websites is not just about designing and programming. As the production system for the web becomes more complex due to the evolution of the field itself, technological advance, new demands and new user profiles, it is necessary to acquire new skills. Web designer Ben Hunt has listed the 10 skills every web designer should have:

1. Writing and editing

The most necessary skill in any field of design is communication. In this sense, being able to clearly express ideas verbally and in writing is enormous capital and much more valuable than doing exotic tricks in Photoshop. Clear and effective writing helps the designer develop himself as a professional and enables him to help his clients establish their brand on the web. A good selection of words is also the starting point for usability: choosing the right words to tag the content, indicating the section of the site where the user is, or giving the content a title.
Also, search engines that index websites are text eaters. Well-organized, structured and written content has a much better chance of getting a good position on search results pages than others that are not.

2. Holistic conception

Basically, it means being able to see a problem from different angles. Designing for the web is not a mechanical and simple exercise of moving content to a new medium. If we want a site to function as a piece of interactive communication, we have to put ourselves in the user's place and really think about what type of content would interest them and how it should be presented.
A common vice for all designers is to fall in love (first) and hate (later) their own work. Therefore, you have to be able to take some distance from your own creations and try to make a more realistic analysis. The holistic conception is not something that can be learned in a course, rather it requires some training in observing others and seeing how they behave in front of a computer.

3. Design theory

Many designers tend to underestimate the conceptual and theoretical contribution of design theory. They believe that it is a series of abstract principles that little can contribute to something as "novel and dynamic" like web design. Nothing further from reality. On the web, the graphic component is fundamental and beyond the visual tricks or eye candies, you have to rethink the basic principles of design theory: composition, balance, proportions, colour, contrast and reading flow.
Then, on a second level, we have those more specific aspects that make up the staging of the design: typography, image editing, 3D and the different resources that are used to materialize the design. Both levels are important: the most general allows to organize, clarify and facilitate the information; the second gives it a finish and finish that will make the product look unique and charming. But be careful: if we have not solved the general aspects of the design well, little will be able to make a nice decoration.

4. Listen & discern

The designers' ego is a complicated subject. Many think that his years of study and experience give him superior status over his clients who are unable to appreciate his creative ability and his obsession with achieving perfection in every pixel. They may have some reason, but we must never underestimate our clients, who generally have been in business for years and know their market much better than we do. Therefore, the basic rule is very simple: listen.
Each business has its own particular needs. It will be the experience and knowledge of the medium that help the designer to discern in which aspects he should pay special attention to the indications received and in which issues he can innovate by bringing his own personal touch. But it must always be borne in mind that great designs, bold and innovative proposals that set trends are very clear about their objectives and strive to achieve them.

5. Self-learning

If for every new technology, product or service that appears in the market you are going to need to take a course, chances are you will lose a lot of money. Web design requires skills in visual design, technology, communication, psychology, programming, and empathy. That requires a constant effort to keep you updated both in the new version of Photoshop and in experimental psychology studies. It requires knowing the state of the art in web design but also the technological tools that are being used. You have to be aware of studies and research on the use of technology as well as new trends in design.

How to survive in this jungle? A good starting point is to spend some time diving between the landmarks of the areas that interest us and regularly checking them out to see what's new. We can do the same with Twitter, which is a fantastic way to see what industry leaders and references are doing on different topics.

6. SEO

"If a tree falls in the forest but no one sees it, did that tree really fall?" Asks a classic philosophical question. In web design, existing means being present on the search engine results pages, that despite the enormous power of social networks, they are still a fundamental means of finding the content we are looking for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or search engine optimization is the name given to a set of techniques and strategies to make our site read, interpreted and classified by search engines.

Optimizing pages so that they can be found by search engines is an important part of web design today. What's more, almost no one would hire a designer who couldn't. Keep in mind that there are marketing experts and search engines that are dedicated to 100% SEO and therefore we do not compete with them at work, but we must be able to complement each other and understand that if they ask us to include certain keywords, in certain places and with a series of precise labels it is not a whim but a need that we must satisfy. And if we don't work with experts, we should at least be able to provide a website with a decent level of optimization that allows search engines to index the site and provide clear descriptions on search results pages.

7. Graphic creativity

Why is this skill so low on the list? Because you can make a good site by following design theories without being creative. We can make a page that works and works without having to revolutionize the field of design. Yes, surely an innovative and original proposal gives a plus to our work, makes it recognizable and increases the quality of the service we offer, but first, we must ask ourselves if the site we are going to develop really needs it.

Google, eBay and Wikipedia are sites with a very simple and flat design that nevertheless works. However, many times you have to make an impact (more on our clients than on the end-users of the website) we have to rub the lamp to create some image that dazzles.

8. Production of sites with HTML / CSS

A long time ago, thinking about a web designer who didn't know how to write HTML code was simply absurd. However, with the rise of visual design tools that automatically generate code (Dreamweaver) and a large number of companies that specialize in translating a design in Photoshop to HTML and CSS, this need was not so obvious.

For my part, I think that knowing HTML and CSS is essential to dedicate yourself more or less professionally to web design. But that knowledge does not guarantee by itself that we know how to create good pages. Knowing HTML and CSS not only allows us to create the code for our page but even helps us create a way of thinking, organizing and working with the elements of the design, even though we are not ultimately responsible for the code. And it allows us not to depend on a person or a program to make a change or update our design.

9. Business sense

Making web pages is a business. Whether we work as a freelance, in a small company, a large company or a part-time occupation, the truth is that it is an activity for which we want to earn money. So it is important to know how the market works, how companies work and make reasonable business decisions. Much of this knowledge is given by common sense although it is also interesting to meet people from the environment either through friends, associations or events to learn from people with more experience.

If we don't know anything about business and we have to focus on one thing, it should be marketing. Create things that people want and make them choose our product or service above others. Once we achieve this, we will have to manage the money and make a list of our income and expenses to see if our work is worth it.

10. Typing

A web designer spends most of his time behind a keyboard. Although technology has come a long way, we still can't find a better way to enter large amounts of text than typing it key by key. Although graphics and image editing programs are mostly handled with the mouse, there are many other activities that a designer does and that require writing: putting together a budget, sending an email, coding in HTML, CSS, PHP or whatever language, create a report or complete an online form.

At this point, I would also add knowing the keyboard shortcuts of the programs you use most commonly. You really save a lot of time and gain productivity with it.
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