For anyone contemplating a career in web design, we trust you are aware that there are several technical skills that all successful web designers must possess. Without these skills, not only will you be compromising your ability to create websites, but we would go as far as to say that you will unlikely be able to create a website worthy of being published.
These technical skills can all be learned, first by studying and understanding the specific theories and details of them and then using that foundational learning to start using them practically. This is likely to be done by practising with them first before using them to build a portfolio of completed websites. As for what these seven main technical skills for web designers are, they are all outlined below.
Website Coding (HTML, CSS): It should come as no surprise that website coding languages such as HTML and CSS are first on the list. Not that modern websites are built by writing line after line of code as they once were, however, knowing how these codes work and being able to alter website pages by editing their HTML and CSS code will be invaluable to your web design career.
Programming Languages: In addition to HTML and CSS, there are other programming languages that web designers should have a decent working knowledge of. These include Python, JavaScript, C++, and Swift and they are used to create much of the functionality that a website’s design calls for. Of the four mentioned, Java is the one used most often.
Content Management Systems (CMS): Content is an essential part of any website, or at least it is if the website has any chance of ranking or converting. A CMS is what allows web designers to initially include content, and subsequently, the website owners to add content. Examples of CMS include WordPress, Joomla, HubSpot, Drupal, and Wix.
User Experience (UX): The way search engines, and especially Google, now assess and rank websites, have made User Experience (UX) a huge factor in web design. If you can get this right, your career as a web designer will soar. Essentially, UX concerns providing visitors with a highly enjoyable and rewarding experience using pleasing layouts, intuitive colour schemes, and content that informs and/or entertains.
User Interface (UI): Whilst UX is geared towards the emotional impact of a website, UI is more focused on the practicalities of using it. In other words, getting UI right means creating logical menus with easy-to-understand navigation, having calls to action that are obvious and unambiguous, plus making the website devoid of any obstructions, including technical ones, which would hamper a visitor’s use of it.
Graphic / Visual Design: Much of a website’s success is influenced by how it appears, which means web designers need to have the skills, not just to make the website function, but to also look visually appealing to those who land on it. This includes selecting fonts, having consistency, choosing appropriate layouts, being aware of how certain colours impact visitors and publishing the most impactful images.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): We mentioned how UX affects how Google assesses a website for its ranking, but there is much more to it than just that. Many ranking factors exist both on the website you see and behind the scenes in much of its coding. Knowing how to optimise it all to boost a website’s ranking is a key skill that the best web designers have.