How to Become a Web Design Expert
Web design is one of those disciplines that appear to be deceptively simple. After all coding languages like HTML are open sourced and for a few dollars more anyone can set-up a web host and set up a Wordpress. In fact, CMS platforms like Wordpress have opened up web design to the masses. Now virtually anyone can design, layout, and build a website. But the ability to install Wordpress and set-up a template does not a web design expert make. So what separates the best from all the rest? And how do aspiring web designers go from novices to experts in their chosen craft?
There are (number) simple things anyone who wants to be a expert designer should know. If you take these axioms and put them into practice you will take your web design abilities to the next level.
1. Focus on Usability
Most aspiring web designers are artists at heart. They find their energy and drive in a creative passion to make something beautiful. But, especially when it comes to a website, what someone might consider beautiful and clever design hampers the usability of a site. Remember that a great web designer will always think in terms of how something works and how the end user will use it. Steve Jobs once said, "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Follow this style advice if you want to become an expert. Keep your designs both simple and beautiful.
Large web design projects, like those for a business, may even require usability testing, where several different versions of a site are brought before different consumers and tested. If you are a new web designer this process can feel like a challenge. Newbie designer may think to themselves, ‘A bunch of people looking at my design and telling me how it should work?! How dare they!?" Web design experts know when to put aside their ego and listen to what people say. When you listen you will often find that you are becoming a better designer, because you are designing for a person.
2. Listen More Than You Talk
Whether it is a client, a user or group of users or your Mom try to listen more than you talk. After all the job of a web designer is not to just put his vision of a brand on the web. The job of a web design expert is to take the needs and desire of his client and put those needs and desires on the web. So learn to listen.
Another thing goes hand in hand with listening: understanding. It is one thing to hear what a potential client is saying but it is another thing entirely to understand what a client wants. A client may say, "I want a Wordpress site." But what he really means is "I want a Wordpress site with a blog and a shopping cart." When you practice and refine the fine art of listening and understanding your are on your way to becoming a web design expert.
3. Become a Generalist
Web designers often get locked into the trap of being just a designer. A web design expert needs to be a generalist and understand all aspects of web development and marketing. This kind of knowledge is what will help make you into a web design expert. Your clients will know that you know how design impacts SEO, conversion rates, and customer engagement. And, in turn, your clients will say, wow, this isn't a designer; this is a web design expert.
There are (number) simple things anyone who wants to be a expert designer should know. If you take these axioms and put them into practice you will take your web design abilities to the next level.
1. Focus on Usability
Most aspiring web designers are artists at heart. They find their energy and drive in a creative passion to make something beautiful. But, especially when it comes to a website, what someone might consider beautiful and clever design hampers the usability of a site. Remember that a great web designer will always think in terms of how something works and how the end user will use it. Steve Jobs once said, "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Follow this style advice if you want to become an expert. Keep your designs both simple and beautiful.
Large web design projects, like those for a business, may even require usability testing, where several different versions of a site are brought before different consumers and tested. If you are a new web designer this process can feel like a challenge. Newbie designer may think to themselves, ‘A bunch of people looking at my design and telling me how it should work?! How dare they!?" Web design experts know when to put aside their ego and listen to what people say. When you listen you will often find that you are becoming a better designer, because you are designing for a person.
2. Listen More Than You Talk
Whether it is a client, a user or group of users or your Mom try to listen more than you talk. After all the job of a web designer is not to just put his vision of a brand on the web. The job of a web design expert is to take the needs and desire of his client and put those needs and desires on the web. So learn to listen.
Another thing goes hand in hand with listening: understanding. It is one thing to hear what a potential client is saying but it is another thing entirely to understand what a client wants. A client may say, "I want a Wordpress site." But what he really means is "I want a Wordpress site with a blog and a shopping cart." When you practice and refine the fine art of listening and understanding your are on your way to becoming a web design expert.
3. Become a Generalist
Web designers often get locked into the trap of being just a designer. A web design expert needs to be a generalist and understand all aspects of web development and marketing. This kind of knowledge is what will help make you into a web design expert. Your clients will know that you know how design impacts SEO, conversion rates, and customer engagement. And, in turn, your clients will say, wow, this isn't a designer; this is a web design expert.
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