Qualities and skills you need to become an expert in website design

Considering the rapid growth of the global worldwide web activities, it can be said that many companies and organizations these days depend on their online presence to survive, the people tasked to design, develop, and manage their websites are in high demand also which makes it a trend that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

 

Are you just starting out as a web designer or web developer or probably looking to change careers and become a web professional, there are some key skills that you need if you hope to be successful in this industry. The following list of skills, both technical and otherwise, represent some of these key areas of knowledge that you should work to add to your repertoire as you begin down the path to become a website designer. it is best that one must have this below skills in the palm of his/her hands.

1.- HTML

HTML skills is an important apparatus of every web designer’s toolbox since the very start of this profession. For many, this markup language is noted to be their entryway into the world of web design.

HTML which is an acronym for ‘hypertext markup language’ is the very foundation of how websites are built. This makes it one of the most important things a web designer or web developer can learn (and which is why is it is one of the first things you will learn). Even if you intend on using WYSIWYG (which stands for ‘What You See Is What You Get’) editors or a CMS for most of your career, knowing HTML will give you an understanding of how those tools work and as well give you so much more control over your work. This knowledge will also ensure that if you do need to work outside of those editors, you have the ability to do so.

In conclusion, anyone doing professional work on the Web today has an understanding of HTML. Even if they do not use it in their normal job functions, they understand this basic markup language.

2. – CSS

Being that HTML dictates the structure of sites, CSS, on the other hand, takes care of the visual appearance. As such, CSS is another incredibly most important language that web designers can learn.

CSS is considered to be an imperative skill for web designers and front-end developers. While CSS may be useful to back-end web developers, it is not as important as it is for designers and front-end devs (these are the professionals who would take a site mockup and code it with HTML and CSS to appear on the screen). That being said, web developers who know CSS will be able to make their applications interact more effectively with the design.

To many in the professional line, CSS is learned alongside HTML since the two languages are really the combination that builds the structure and style basis for any web page.

3. – PROPER DESIGN SENSE

In my raw words, I would call this ‘common creative sense’ which in many cases are never common. Notably, having a good sense of design is important for web professionals who fall more into the “designer” category. There is a lot more to web design than simply knowing which colors look good together. You must be knowledgeable of the elements of design as well as the basic design principles and also typography best practices, how to use images, layout principals and more. You will also need to have an understanding of how real people will interact with a design so that you can make the right decisions to help meet the needs of that site.

Design skills are no bad thing to have, professionals who are more focused as web developers do not need this skill as much unless they are working as a freelancer and are responsible for all aspects of a site’s creation (meaning they are not working with a separate designer).

4. – JAVASCRIPT AND AJAX SKILL

As an interactive element of a website, JavaScript is an important tool for all venturing into the web world and web developers should be comfortable in JavaScript before they learn any other languages, especially how it interacts with HTML and CSS to create the 3 layers of web design.

You may not have the need to learn JavaScript as an ordinary website designer unless you are doing front-end development as well – and even then, a basic understanding of Javascript is often more than enough. Web developers should learn JavaScript as it plays a critical role in many websites and web applications today. Anyone engaged in back-end development is likely to be very comfortable with Javascript.

5. – PHP, ASP, Java, Perl, or C++

This is another hard nut to crack and sometimes, learning to program web pages requires that you learn at least one or two programming languages. Of course, there are many more options than the ones I have listed above, but these are some of the most popular ones. PHP is easily the leader on the web today, in part because it is an open source language that is embraced by a strong community. Should you consider to choose only one language to learn, my suggestion is that it should be PHP. The number of resources you will find online for PHP will be very helpful to you.

Still, a web designer may not need to learn a programming language (other than HTML, which is a markup language, not a pure programming language). Web developers must learn at least one and the more you know the more employable and flexible you will be.

In conclusion, I will say that if you Want to make yourself super valuable? Look to learn languages that are still in demand, but which not many people are pursuing these days. If you are qualified in those languages, you will find that there may not be a ton of career opportunities for that skill, but those that do exist are super hard to fill, meaning you will be a premium asset and of course offers will be lining up for you daily.

Learning all this and more can be as simple as anyone can imagine though they may sound tough but trust me, it solely depends on where you are learning from and the tutors that are handling you per time.

This is why here at Soutech, we engage the most professional hands in ensuring that we meet the needs of your intellectual capabilities. We are passionate about your advancement and our doors are open for you to learn all these and more as it is of fact that there is more to be learned beyond this five mentioned above.

I hope to see you someday soon and will be glad to be your tutor.

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