Becoming a successful web designer is about a lot more than learning how to use a design program or having the right software. There is a lot of useful information that aspiring web designers should consider when they’re starting out, including focusing on skills and traits that you might have but haven’t cultivated. We’ve prepared a list of important tips to become a great and successful web designer in time.
Contents 1. Learn how to communicate 2. Sell yourself well 3. Come up with a plan first 4. Critique your work 5. Focus on the web design 6. Stay ahead of the technology 7. Focus on your soft skills 8. Get as much experience as you can 9. Be organized
9 Tips for Becoming a Successful Web Designer Starting from Scratch
Attaining the level of a successful web designer, there is a certain number of jobs you’d have carried out that would earn you an outpouring of positive feedback, which in return results in more returning sales over time. In this article, we are going to be discussing how you can become a successful web designer while taking note of hindrances you stand a chance of facing on your way to the top of the career ladder in the creative industry.
1. Learn how to communicate
Being an efficient communicator is a skill that’s important in all industries, but specifically in web design when you need to frequently communicate with a client or fellow developer. Being creative doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re great at communicating – it actually makes it quite likely that you would find chat and small talk difficult – so you need to work on presenting yourself and your design choices. You made each decision you made for a very good reason, so justify this to clients and to your fellow developers, without hesitation. You must believe that your choice is the best choice, and be able to show this to clients.
If you work on communication, when the inevitable small disputes arise with your clients, you will be able to resolve them with ease throughout your career.
2. Sell yourself well
Similarly to the previous point, a successful web designer also needs to be able to sell themselves to prospective clients. There is so much competition out there and only the best will make it so in order to stand out as a successful web designer, you need to be able to showcase yourself and your skills. This isn’t the time to be humble – you need to be at the front of the pack when marketing yourself.
One way to do this is to design and distribute your own business card. Another way is to use social media marketing, creating ads and competitions on Facebook, Instagram and other relevant social media.
You can’t just sit around and wait for your clients to find you.
3. Come up with a plan first
Before you launch into a design, you want to plan a little bit before and research your client. Learn more about their company, what the client’s expectations are, and what their competitors are doing. Although planning is less fun than designing, it will save you time and money in the long run.
If possible, you should meet with the client to discuss precisely what is required. Based on what the client says during this meeting, draw out a rough, un-finessed sketch of what you think the website is going to look like, and consider showing this to your client. You can skip doing this, but the planning of some sort generally tends to save you a substantial amount of time in the long run. Ultimately though, it is known that each web designer has its own unique web designing process.
4. Critique your work
At the end of the project, you want to evaluate your own work but also get feedback. You should by now have formed your own opinion of what went well when developing your latest website, what features are working great and which aren’t. You should analyze your work by yourself.
However, it’s important to be able to accept and act on the feedback you receive or you won’t be able to get far in the business. Be sure to invite your client to leave suggestions, perhaps reviewing you on your portfolio website or a website like Trustpilot, as well as making sure they leave the standard, important end of contract feedback.
You also need to be able to find your own mistakes and that’s a quality that all designers should have, but sometimes don’t. Do not let clients complain about site mistakes that you should have noticed and fixed earlier in the process when you were testing or during milestone review meetings with your client.
5. Focus on web design
People that aren’t in the industry tend to merge web design with graphic design, which isn’t the case. Web design is actually completely different than graphic design and requires its own set of skills. Commit yourself to web design and become the best you can in that field and the most specialized, and don’t worry about hiring a graphic designer for certain tasks – your project will be the better for it.
6. Stay ahead of the technology
There are constantly new developments in technology so as a web designer, it’s important to be aware of these changes. Take out a bit of time every week and learn what’s new in your field, what’s trending, and what’s being left behind. You want to be ahead of your competitors and be the most knowledgeable in your field. By staying one step ahead of everyone in the industry, you can cement yourself as a successful web designer to reckon with whenever the need arises.
7. Focus on your soft skills
Web design soft skills are incredibly important because the field is constantly changing and you need to be able to learn quickly on the go. In addition to design skills, you also want to be well versed in HTML coding, CSS, SEO practices, javascript, and more. The more generalized understanding of multiple fields you have the better you can sell yourself to clients as a well-rounded option. Brands are looking for successful web designers with a touch of high-quality taste and they can go at any length to get this quality, by focusing on gaining new soft skills will help you master how to win in this category.
8. Get as much experience as you can
One of the main things that clients look for, sometimes more than skills or certifications, is experience. Work on as many web projects as you can and get as much experience as possible under your belt because that will be sure to help you improve quickly in the field. It’s important to have a good portfolio of past projects for prospective clients and to be able to speak confidently on any topic in meetings.
9. Be organized
Lastly, you want to be well organized, because that’s the surest way to become a true web design professional. No successful person has made it where they have without being organized. In web development, to become a successful web designer with a special touch of excellence, it’s normal for your work to get messy but be on top of your computer’s organization by classifying text, pictures, graphics, and other files in their own properly labeled folders.
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Hello Beatrix Potter,
Thank you for sharing such a useful information through your experience. Actually in your Article i like the point of ‘accept and act on the client’s feedback’. For your business growth its very important to take feedback of client and react accordingly. So its really important for all designers.
Keep Posting such a great information.
Thank you.
Hello Beatrix,
Thanks for the great guide. Experience matters more than skills and certification. I feel that Innovation and Creation are the ones that make the web designer more successful.
i really like this article… thanks for sharing… i read this article second time on your blog.