Web design is, undoubtedly, one of the most popular and lucrative professions today. The 2019 Covid pandemic has forced many businesses to go online in order to attract more customers and boost their revenues. This has in turn led to the rise in demand for web design professionals.
But what or who is a web designer? Before we answer that, let us briefly define what web design is (we shall look at another broad topic under web design and development in the subsequent articles). Simply put, Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. It’s that simple. It is also in the public domain that the world wide web was invented way back in 1989 by Sir Tim Barnes-Lee.
Over the last decade or so, web design expectations have evolved significantly. Gone are the days when you needed to specialise in just one skill set and then jump into the job market. Today, you are expected to possess several skills in order to make it in the web design industry- be an all-round person. A web designer today is expected to be a master of all, be it graphic design, digital strategy, multiple coding languages, and more.
Essential Technical Skills
1. HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the foundation of the majority of websites in existence today. You cannot call yourself a web designer without any knowledge of the HTML language. Content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have popularised content editors WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), whereby you get to add content without ever touching HTML code. Despite these, it is still very vital to learn the language.
Learning HTML is the most fundamental step toward becoming a web designer. There are numerous free online courses available where you can learn HTML.
2. CSS
This stands for Cascading Stylesheet. It adds a visual appearance to the structure created by HTML.
3. Javascript
Javascript is a lightweight scripting language. It is an interpreted language. It is designed for creating network-centric applications. Javascript comes preinstalled in almost every modern browser, so you will not need any other special software development environment set up.
4. Content Management System
These include the likes of WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and so much more.
5. Web Server Management
After designing and developing your website, one way or another, the public must be able to access it. As a web designer, you should have a robust understanding of how web servers work, be able to troubleshoot for common server errors, and resolve any arising issues quickly.
6. Color Theory
The color theory covers a wide range of definitions, concepts, and design applications. It explains intuitively how humans perceive color, the visual effects of how colors mix, match, and contrast. Effective use of color matching and contrasting is very essential in web design.
7. Graphic Design
Ideally, graphic design is not part of web design. However, remember we had mentioned earlier on about being an all-round person as a web designer. Of great importance in the mastery of graphic design suites like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. As a web designer, you should be able to create logos for your website, manipulate images and so much more without requiring external assistance.
Conclusion
The list of requirements is a very long one. However, armed with these fundamentals that we have highlighted above, you are ready to conquer the world of web design and make some big bucks.
