To become a web designer one needs to combine a number of skills

Nowadays, web design is one of the most profitable freelance jobs, but at the same time, it’s highly competitive, as there are many skilled professionals on the market. This casts a challenge to beginners because the entrance threshold is high. In order to become a web designer, one needs to combine technical expertise, aesthetic vision, and creativity.

Last year revived the popularity of web design for two reasons: to survive during several waves of lockdown, businesses were forced to go online. So they were working on designing their websites from scratch or modernizing already existing ones. Another reason that aroused the interest in the profession was caused by the fact that many people lost their jobs due to the economic crisis. Thus, they started to look for new job opportunities from the popular options having their eye on web design.

So here we go with the top tips for everyone who wants to become a web-designer in 2021:

Master the skill

To build attractive and elegant websites, you will need to develop the designer skillset that is usually composed of the following components:

  • User Experience, aka UX. It’s all about how the end-user interacts with a product. Everything matters starting from the interface look, location of elements to intuitive flows. This involves user interviews and researching the behavior to understand how to make the experience as smooth as possible
  • Prototyping. Before you move to the actual design, it’s required to build the schematic model of the website to have a complete picture of its structure. It will give a hint on the most optimal components placement and overall concept to see if something needs to be modified, added, or removed.
  • Visual design. It goes without saying that the visual aspect is key for a designer, as you need to be able to combine custom color schemes, choose suitable shapes and play with fonts to create impressive websites.

There are various online web design resources on the internet to help you master these skills. It’s critical to choose regularly updated courses on web design in order to keep up with the market, as the industry is volatile and the trends are frequently changing.

Choose the software

Web design is simplified by using special licensed or open-sourced tools like Figma or Sketch to build the visual part, and sometimes editors like Photoshop or Illustrator, or an Illustrator Alternative for advanced visual image editing. So, it’s necessary to research the functionality of the software available on the market match it with your requirements, try some demo versions, and then learn a tool or several ones that will be your best friends in the design process.

Learn to code

There are many disputes on whether a web designer should know how to code. The truth is that you don’t need to become a front-end developer to be able to make web-designs the modern technologies allow building the page markup with no-code apps, however understanding the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript will help to create a responsive design for different screen resolutions and platforms. There’s no need to learn how to write a code from the scratch but to understand how different elements work and affect one another.

Prepare the portfolio

A portfolio is the best way to communicate with a potential customer prior to discussing the project. It confirms professional competencies and reveals the style. Even if you don’t have real cases to show yet, it does not mean you can leave the portfolio empty. There are many ways to fill in the portfolio with zero working experience. Volunteer in some non-profit project, redesign the existing popular website, or check the job descriptions on freelance platforms and try to follow the instructions as if they were from the real client and do the project for yourself.

Pro Tip: You can try your luck and show it to the real client, who knows, they may love the end result and will be happy to accept it rewarding you with the first project experience and income.

The web design path is not the easy one as it requires a lot of time and effort to learn the basics, but once done, the world opens new exciting opportunities, and it definitely worth it.