BrainStation’s Web Designer career guide is intended to help you take the first steps toward a lucrative career in Web Design The guide provides an in-depth overview of the web design skills you should learn, the best training options, career paths in web design, how to become a Web Designer, and more.
CAREER GUIDE
How to Become a Web Designer
BrainStation’s Web Designer career guide is intended to help you take the first steps toward a lucrative career in Web Design The guide provides an in-depth overview of the web design skills you should learn, the best training options, career paths in web design, how to become a Web Designer, and more.
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CAREER GUIDE
The Basics
What Tools Does a Web Designer Use?
On The Job
Skills
What Skills Does a Web Designer Need?
Career Path
How Much Does a Web Designer Make?
How Long Does It Take to Become a Web Designer?
Ready to start your career in Design? Find out more about BrainStation's UX Design Bootcamp
To become a Web Designer, you must have both the technical prowess needed to make functional websites as well as the artistic ability and design sensibility to create an experience that users will love.
If you have both a creative and a technical side, the field of web design might be for you.
How to Become a Web Designer in Five Steps:
Work on your own projects to develop your web design skills
Develop a portfolio to showcase your web design work
Apply to relevant web design jobs
1. Learn Web Design Theory
The first step to becoming a Web Designer is learning web design theory. There are foundational principles for creating good websites, including user experience, structure, and color theory.
There are many different ways to learn web design theory. One increasingly popular method is to attend a web design course or bootcamp (or a related UX design or web development bootcamp). Web design bootcamps are short, intensive, and immersive educational programs that can take total newcomers to tech and design and turn them into job-ready Web Designers in around 12 weeks of full-time study (most bootcamps offer part-time courses too, but they will take longer to complete.)
There are also a huge number of interesting tutorials about web design theory available on YouTube. And, if you want to make sure web design is for you before committing to a longer course, you could enroll in free courses on platforms like Coursera or DesignContest.
Learning web design theory is different from studying other forms of theoretical learning because the field of web design is constantly changing. That’s why a good Web Designer will commit to continuous learning and upskilling.
2. Learn Key Web Design Tools
Before you can get up and running as a Web Designer, you’ll need to learn an array of web design tools. Over time, better and more powerful web design software and tools have been developed and released, and as a result Web Designers have never been in a better position to create beautiful and functional websites.
If you want to be a Web Designer, we recommend you learn the following tools:
WordPress
The longtime leader of all web design skills hasn’t lost any of its popularity. WordPress powers 27 percent of all the Internet’s websites, and owns a stunning 76 percent market share around the world in CMS. WordPress boasts over 1,000 built-in themes and plugins that will allow you to easily build, edit, customize, enhance, and optimize websites.
InVision Studio
Even though WordPress is still overall most popular, InVision Studio is considered by many Web Designers to be the best overall tool for designing a website thanks to its array of features and rapid prototyping. With gestures and interactions like clicking, swiping and hovering, you can also create custom transitions and animation.
Photoshop
Web Designers need to be able to make eye-catching and creative images -- that’s why Photoshop is without a doubt the most crucial Adobe suite for Web Designers. Its limitless array of color options and different gradients give you everything you’ll need to put together dazzling patterns and prints.
Dreamweaver
Another part of the Adobe suite that Web Designers should get familiar with, Dreamweaver allows you to directly code your website design even if you’re not a programming pro. Ready-made design templates and other tools are especially helpful for newcomers who still want to put together an attractive, responsive design.
Sketch
Typically used mainly for user interface designs, Sketch is an essential tool for creating interfaces and prototyping. When you’re working with vector drawings and graphics, Sketch can make life a lot easier.
Google Web Designer
Google Web Designer will empower you to make compelling, visually stunning HTML5 content. To give your creative vision life, Google Web Designer allows you to use animation and interactive elements and integrates seamlessly with other Google products, including Google Ads and Google Drive.
3. Work on Your Own Projects to Develop Your Web Design Skills
Now that you’ve stocked your web design tool belt, you’re ready to begin building websites. As you go, you’ll likely pick up a lot of skills you might not have expected. Some of these are technical skills, or “hard” skills, like programming in HTML, CSS, or even JavaScript. The best way to sharpen these skills is just to get started – the more sites you build, the better you’ll be.
There are also a number of user experience design skills that are useful for Web Designers to consider. Web Designers program the screens that users interact with – and they can be far more successful with a good grasp of user-centered design and responsive design.
As you build sites, try to interact with them the way a user might. Where are the pain points or navigational issues? How could the site be improved? Now you’re in the mindset of a UX Designer, and that’s going to be key to designing really solid web products.
4. Develop a Portfolio to Showcase Your Web Design Work
An excellent portfolio that showcases your flair for web design is your best tool when applying for a job as a Web Designer.
It’s important that your portfolio is diverse. It should also be concise – only the designs you’re proudest of, and not padded with websites that don’t live up to the same standard. Still, you do need to show that you’ve designed different types of sites with drastically different esthetics. When you’re interviewing, customize your portfolio to showcase work that fits the company’s look and feel.
To have a good portfolio, you have to know what makes you special as a Web Designer. Choose work that emphasizes those strengths. Also, consider the presentation of the portfolio itself. Its UI and UX should both be perfect.
Finally, employers like to see how you put together these beautiful websites. Many Web Designers like to actually use text to show the thought process and the problem you were trying to solve with the project. This also shows that you know how to communicate – a great soft skill for a Web Designer to have.
5. Apply to Relevant Web Design Jobs
There are many roles within the web design field. Someone with web design skills and the right mix of education and experience could ultimately be qualified for any of the following jobs:
Web Designer
Front-End Developer
Front-End Designer
UX/UI Designer
Product Manager
Visual Designer
Interaction Designer
Mobile Developer
If you’re fresh out of a bootcamp or other educational program, you would probably look into entry-level jobs in these fields. However, if you have previous experience in tech – even if it wasn’t in web design – you actually might be qualified for higher-paying positions. And be sure to look beyond Silicon Valley: cities like Boston, Chicago, and New York are experiencing a scarcity of technical talent, so opportunity is everywhere.
You could also consider trying to get your resume and portfolio into the hands of a Recruiter. If you did decide to attend a bootcamp, most offer career services like interview prep and resume/portfolio assistance, resources you should definitely take advantage of if you’re on the job hunt.
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