Essential Skills for Improving Website Design

by Startacus Admin

Many business owners would like to give designing their own websites a try, but are at a loss for how to get started.  The task can be overwhelming for a person without much internet or technical experience, but these are some of the most important skills that a person needs in order to design a great website, recommendations of any web design company.

Sketch a Design by Hand

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a skill that’s useful for website design, but there really is a connection.  Suppose you come upon someone who wants to know about your website, but you don’t have a computer to load the website.  Draw a quick sketch of what it looks like.  It doesn’t have to be artist quality, but it will give a good idea of what your website design looks like.

HTML & CSS

These are two of the most necessary technical skills that are required to properly design a website.  HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is a way of tagging text files in a particular way to create details of a website, such as the font, colors, graphics, and hyperlinks of the website.  CSS, also known as Cascading Style Sheets, is a language that is used to describe the presentation of a document.  Like HTML, CSS is written in markup language.  When you visit a website, you don’t see that language, but you see the results of it.

JavaScript

This is another technical skill that is often used with website design.  JavaScript can be used to create games, scrolling abilities on a page, and to hide or display certain HTML elements.  It’s a programming language, not a markup language, and it’s used to script language on web pages.  You don’t have to know Java in order to design a good website, but it’s definitely useful.

Get Familiar with Interface Design

An interface is designed to maximize the usability of your website and improve the overall user experience.  Your choice of interface will depend on what you anticipate website visitors might want to do, actions they might want to take on your website.  Because every website is different, you might find that it’s better to design your own interface to do exactly what you want it to, rather than using a ready-made interface.

Learn and Use Framework

Frameworks can make designing a website much easier.  A framework is a package that’s made up of a structure of files and folders of the various types of code that can be used for website development.  Included codes are usually HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.  Think of a framework as a template for website development.

Print Design Fundamentals

This is another skill that most people don’t associate with website design, but in reality, the two are closely connected, and many of the basics of print design can also be applied to website design.  For example, proper layout techniques, color choices, and font choices are all integral parts of both print design and website design.

Basic Photo Editing

Images are an absolute must for any good website, and knowing how to create the best images possible is a necessary skill for anyone designing a website.  Not all images are appropriate for a website, and some must be edited in some ways before they can be used.  You should know how to do the basics of editing photos, such as cropping images, resizing images, and retouching minor flaws in a photo.

Basic Copywriting

Copywriting refers to written content that is produced and shared through online media.  It’s usually produced for the purpose of advertising or marketing, and this is the type of writing that you will likely use in business blogs.  It’s a way to get relevant content to your website visitors.  You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize writer, but you should be able to create articles that are easy to read and free from grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Basic Social Media Marketing

You should know how to use social media for the purpose of promoting your business.  You don’t need to be a complete expert on social media, but you should know the basics of the various social media platforms.  You should also know how to pick the best social media platform for your business, because not all forms of social media are suitable for all businesses.

Familiarity with the Entire Design Process

Again, you don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to have some basic knowledge of the overall process.  You should know how to use color palettes in your website design, how much space to leave between texts and lines.  Know how to properly balance your website so that it has a symmetrical feel, and know how to properly proportion it.  It’s important to make your website flow easily, so that it feels natural and users feel comfortable with it.

User Testing

This is an absolute must.  When designing or making changes to your website, know how to use A/B testing to determine which version of your website is better.  This involves creating two versions of your website, slightly different from each other.  You then direct half of the internet visitors to one version, the other half to the other version, and analyze the results.  

Effective Communication

This is a skill that any business owner needs, but the means of communication differs with website design.  You don’t have that face-to-face contact with customers that traditional businesses do, so it’s imperative that you be able to get your meaning across clearly with your website.  Ultimately, clear and effective communication is what will turn your website into a great one.

In Conclusion

You will find these skills very helpful with designing your website.  Although the idea of designing a website seems overwhelming if you don’t have any prior experience, but working on these skills will definitely give you an advantage over those who don’t have any knowledge.

Author bio: John Stone is a business consultant at Algorithm Seo Sydney. Through years of experience as a PHP developer with Nirmal Web Studio, he became a devout believer in the notion that form should always follow function and that developing the ability to think outside of the box is a prerequisite of being a successful entrepreneur." You can get in touch with him on Twitter.

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Published on: 14th November 2016