5 Essential Skills Every Web Design Should Know
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1. Design Layout
Text, images, and other elements are arranged in a way that is both artistic and functional. The visual harmony of a design, as well as the order and hierarchy of ideas, are both important. Important stuff should be visually appealing and catch our attention.
Contrast, negative space, and proportionate pieces are used to create balance in a well-composed layout. Pay attention to the design on the web, in artworks, in movie scenes, and on billboards. The more you notice and understand strong composition, the more it will appear in your own work.
2. Color Theory
Basic color theory, such as blending primary colors to make new colors, will aid you in creating beautiful color palettes.
You should be familiar with the color wheel as a designer and how complimentary, contrasting, and analogous colors interact.
Beginner designers sometimes make the mistake of using contrasting colors. While a little visual dissonance can make for an interesting design, clashing colors can make a layout look unattractive and unreadable. Colors that complement each other and preserve a strong sense of legibility should be used in text, calls to action, and headings. In website design, understanding and knowing when to employ lights and darks, contrast, and saturation are equally key color skills.
3. User Experience(UX)
User Experience is concerned with a person's emotional reaction to a design — a mixture of a site's usability and the use of interactive and dynamic components to make the design enjoyable to explore. The goal of user experience (UX) is to influence a user's experience by engaging them and guiding them around the site.
The following are some of the best UX practices:
Negative space and strategically ordered content in uncluttered layouts (be clear)
Design and content that is intuitive and focused on a humanistic experience rather than a mechanical one (design with empathy)
Design and content adapted to the needs of the target audience (know your audience)
4. User Interface (UI)
UX is more concerned with the broad features of how a design affects someone, whereas UI is more concerned with details. UI includes web pages, buttons, menus, and micro-interactions. These aspects let an audience navigate a design without becoming stuck, resulting in a pleasant experience.
The user interface affects a variety of aspects of usability, including:
Simple, intuitive UI and navigational elements
Calls to action that direct individuals to accomplish what you want them to accomplish in the quickest time possible.
When using your design, your audience can learn and follow intuitive and repeatable behaviors.
5. Graphic Design
Website and graphic design both operate in the same creative realm. Both entail the skillful creation of graphics. However, although web design is a medium in which modifications and upgrades are a part of every project, graphic design is about generating long-lasting aesthetics. Although designing a website and designing a logo are two independent design professions, they are both part of branding.
Your skill set will be rounded out if you have graphic design expertise. Knowing how to make bespoke graphics, hand-drawn typography, and other forms of creative flourishes will improve your web design job.
Making beautiful websites isn't all that web design entails.
A web designer, like many other vocations, requires a diverse set of talents. Like design's visual language, where font, color, and use of space all come together in a pleasing balance. You should be well-versed in the guiding principles that result in work that is both effective and appealing to the eye.
Communication, perseverance, and patience are all skills that will help you become a better designer and human. It's good practice to manage customer criticism well so you can hold your cool when your sister criticizes your parallel parking. Being a competent designer also entails being a decent human being. However, I am not a good driver — please accept my apologies.
Author: Jared Flenter, Writer
axamo.co