Tips for Becoming a Successful Web Designer

Posted by infocampus on August 7th, 2017

Intro: Getting Some Perspective

Apart from making an eye-catching web design and balancing a huge amount of information, the challenge that web designers face involves effectively managing their professional careers. The job of a web designer does not end at building websites that look good; you also have to manage all of the things that combine to form a successful business. From planning and execution to marketing and communication, a web designer has to be astute as well as professional at every step taken.

Tip 01: Effective Communication Skills

Effective communication is one of those skills that can make or break you in any field, but it's especially important in web design where communicating with a client, art director, or developer can dictate the success of a project. It is quite understandable that creative souls are not intuitively chatty in nature; However, when it comes to presenting yourself and selling your work, one has to be bold and clear in his communication with the client.

Tip 02: Be Able to Sell Yourself

It’s a small world, and from a web designer’s perspective, it's also a jungle. Web designers face as many competitors as a forty-niner during the gold rush... and only the fittest will survive. In order to make yourself stand out from the competition, you need to let people know about yourself and your skills. Designers are usually humble in nature, however, when it comes to professional success, you’ll have to elbow your way to the top and mark your presence.

Tip 03: Plan Before You Design

1. Researching about the client’s company
2. Asking the client what he wants and expects from the web
3. Pondering upon what his competitors are doing and the related industry trends

Tip 04: Evaluate Your Own Work and Get Feedback

The cycle of a web design project ends at evaluation and analysis of your designed work. Being able to accept and implement feedback effectively is an important trait of the creative professionals. Like all other aforementioned factors, having a good eye in pointing out mistakes in your own work is a quality that success-oriented web designers should possess. The web designers should act as a devil’s advocate and judge the success of their website being in the target audience’s shoes.

Tip 05: Be a Web Designer, Not a Graphic Designer

It is a general misconception that graphic designers, owing to their computer graphics skills, can also be web designers and vice versa. While this might be true in theory, there are very few professionals that bridge the gap between print-based projects and web-based projects on a regular basis.

Tip 06: Up-Date Yourself with New Technology

The world of computer technology changes almost every day, and to keep pace with it, a web designer needs to be technologically in tune with the changes in the industry. Slice out a segment of your work-day or week and dedicate it to learning new things in your field. Find out what's new, what's trending, and what's falling to the wayside. If you don’t want to see your competitors take away your business by appearing to be newer and fresher than you, pay heed to this tip.

Tip 07: Don't Neglect the Web Design "Soft Skills"

Apart from other core design skills, it's important to have full grasp on subjects like, the most modern HTML coding, high quality CSS for best cross browser compatibility, smart basic search engine optimization practices, JavaScript UI techniques, and to build a foundational site in that you can add more pages or content with the passage of time. Having even just a general understanding of these multiple skill-sets will certainly land you a good job or better clients.

Tip 08: Gain Experience

From your perspective, having a broad experience in the field will help you to quickly identify design solutions as they are presented to you in meetings. My advice if you're still studying in school: Don't just wait for college to end in order to start working; it's worth the extra time to start working on web projects right now. The more experience you get under your belt, the quicker you'll move up in the world of web designers.

Tip 09: Be Organized

A well-organized professional is a born champion. No matter which field of profession you belong to, being organized is important for every person to be successful. Likewise, in the case of web designing, your work can get really messy at times, and this may lead you to many problems.

Tip 10: Have Business Sense

Web designers, either freelance or salaried employees, should have business mentality when approaching any project. Design in the real world is all about salesmanship, making value assessments, and balancing costs.

Tip 11: Be a Team Player

Web designing is rarely a one-man show. Whether you work in a big design studio or with a small client, team work is inevitable. While a web designer’s work does not require a large team of professionals, it's important to understand just how often your ability to work with others and delegate tasks will come into play over the course of a project. 

Tip 12: Keep an Updated Portfolio

The portfolio is the best medium for web designers to showcase their abilities and aesthetics, but more importantly, it shows potential clients that you are current, relevant, and active in the design world of right now, not 5 years ago.