7 Skills You Need To Thrive As A Web Designer
Web design is a constantly evolving field. Those of us who have been working in the branch for a long period (i.e. six months or more) have witnessed the introduction of more products, the creation of more concepts, and the potential for greater growth than most industries experience throughout a career.
While the tools we utilize, the language we employ, and the goals we aim for are constantly evolving, the core competencies can be adapted and last for a long time and will help you not only make it through the business but flourish within it.
These skills you can master and help you develop into 2021, 2022 and beyond.
1. Decision Making
The world is full of decisions ranging from what pair of socks to put on to the best cryptocurrency in which to put your savings for the rest of your life. Every person has an enumeration of energy to make decisions — the more choices made, the faster you’ll be at the point of exhaustion.
A majority of people lose their decision-making energy by doubting themselves. They decide only to revisit the same decision repeatedly when doubt begins to creep into.
The capacity to take a decision and adhere to it separates individuals who have the energy to make strategic decisions after closing time and those who don’t know what to eat for dinner.
2. Clarity of the purpose
It’s always a good idea to learn the basics of design. From typography to color theory to layout and UI these essential skills are not just beneficial for your design work; however, they can aid you in learning to to think about design to the highest degree.
Many designers need help to look beyond the trees and focus on the task at hand instead of the larger perspective. The bigger picture isn’t just your portfolio. It’s the entire culture, history, and context of design.
A variety of musicians can play a variety of styles. However, they usually prefer one instrument. They made a significant choice that allowed them to discover music more deeply.
Although it’s a common phrase that design principles are universal, they aren’t. They’re specific to the person you are. For instance, do you use a script in conjunction with serifs? The answer will likely be “it depends” since you’re a great designer. My solution to that is “no,” because it’s an essential design element to me.
Design basics can be restricted because they provide standard answers to the most common questions. They also allow you to ask more complex questions regarding your process and why, leading to clarity about your goal.
A lot of musicians perform in a variety of styles. However, they usually prefer one instrument. They made a significant decision that let them discover music more deeply.
3. The Holy Trinity
The holy trinity of web development is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Verify what they are and how they work.
You must grasp the roles well enough to have an intelligent, boardroom-style discussion. It’s not necessary to be able to code them. However, I’ve never met one who sufficiently understood their roles to hold a strategic conversation but could not also program the parts from the ground up.
We’re not discussing libraries, frameworks, or recent build tools. They are just macros designed for developers. We’re talking about understanding the fundamentals of a website, so should someone ask you whether you require your company’s logo in the footer of your site, you can respond and back up your answer by proving your point.
4. Simple Design and Presentation
Whatever design field you’re involved in, you’ll likely have to explain your ideas to anyone who isn’t sharing your expertise. When you’re trying to explain the basics to a prospective client or the process of deciding with a friend, describing your thoughts is the most effective method of being heard.
A pitch will be most effective when you eliminate any unnecessary detail
A persuasive pitch usually employs the principle of less is more. Like a design can be completed when you’ve eliminated everything that isn’t needed, a gradient will be most effective when you stop unnecessary details.
In most cases, metaphors can be beneficial, especially if you have a basic understanding of the individual’s area of knowledge. It helps translate concepts into a form that the individual is familiar with and familiar with.
“We should…because it improves (a metric) by around …%” is usually the most favored wording. If the person selling your idea to requires more details — and they likely do not need the particulars they’re looking for they can ask.
5. Strategic SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization for two individuals around the globe who need clarification on what the acronym means) is a broad field that has more sub-divisions than there are UX occupation titles.
There are a several types of SEO that a website needs to take into consideration. Technical SEO is what that coder performs, but if you’re not a coder, you can overlook that. Content SEO is the thing that marketers use, and if you’re not a marketer, you’re free to ignore this. Strategic SEO is the macro view of a website’s goals. Each person working on a project must be aware of strategic SEO.
Strategic SEO covers subjects such as landing pages, single-page websites and whether blogs are essential, and the way, if ever, you can use social media. Strategic SEO feeds all other areas of SEO. It is so vital that it influences the first choices about a website. If you’d like to go beyond just making things look beautiful, find out more about the importance of SEO for strategic purposes.
6. A Second Language
You’ve probably noticed that the web goes beyond the boundaries of your locality. It’s a global phenomenon that means billions of people who don’t have the same language.
If you’re not a native English user, then it’s no problem to master some English. It’s optional to be fluent, and it’s optional to be a poet. However, the vast majority of documents, GUIs blogs, guides forums, conferences, and the Web are written in English, and the translating code can only get you up to a certain point.
If you’re a native English speaker, you should learn something relevant to your local area or the area you specialize in. It doesn’t matter what you’re learning in the process of learning the language and cultural background. It will make you a better human being. If you’re not picking an obscure subject and you’re opening yourself to millions, or even billions of users, that you’ve yet to be able to access.
7. Saying, "No."
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for freelancers to scrounge extra cash to pay the expenses or an experienced inside-house designer with goals to achieve; everyone struggles to say “no.”
It’s a concern that if we reject the project or feature request, we’ll not be asked for the next time; eventually, we’ll be ostracized for every project until there is no job left.
The issue is that we can only work a limited time in the day. If we spend too much time doing it and get into trouble, there must be limitations. When you answer “yes,” you’re increasing the likelihood that you’ll need the option of saying “no,” to a future opportunity that is great for you.
If you can, do so gracefully. Be courteous when you decline. Be kind. Offer to refer the client to another company. However, it’s better to say “no” instead of having the burden of saying “no” in the face of the ideal project because you’re stretched too thin.
