You can learn web design in many, many different ways! However, web design can mean different things to different people - web design is a big topic. In reality, web design is a combination of a number of skills and disciplines. If you are wanting to start your own web design agency, you will need to have a wide range of these skills and disciplines. Conversely, you may want to learn just a specific area of web design to be able to undertake some basic tasks for your business.
Key Areas of Web Design Learning
1. Visual Design & Website Layout
Visual design is the obvious first thing you need to be able to learn if you want to learn web design. Visual design brings out your creativity and the need to be able to visualise layouts on different screen sizes and shapes. Visual design covers areas such as colour schemes, typography, grids, running order and much besides. In the modern world of mobile-first web design, you will need to make sure that the website is great to use on all screen sizes.
2. User Experience
User Experience (or UX) comes hard on the back of Visual Design. To learn be a good web designer you will need to be able to visualise the website you are designing from the perspective of the website's eventual visitors. How easy is the website to use or navigate? Does it have all the features the visitor would expect to find? Are the controls and calls to action easy to understand and use on all screen sizes? You will want to run through all these scenarios from the perspective of different types of user likely to come to your website.
3. Website Platforms
If you want to learn web design you will find it easiest to concentrate on specific website platforms. The options open to you are huge! There is everything from the self-build template websites (SquareSpace, Wix,...), to blogging platforms (WordPress,...), to complex content management systems, or CMS, (Drupal,...), or you can even code a website from scratch. One of the easiest ways to learn web design is to use a platform like WordPress where there is a vast array of support available. WordPress is also quick to learn, though mastering it takes much more effort!
4. Coding
With all the self-build or drag 'n' drop website platforms out there, you may not have considered the coding element of learning web design. The two most important coding skills you will need to make a priority are HTML and CSS. HTML will allow you to do things like make headings or paragraphs, to add images or videos, create classes which can isolate content ready for individual styling. CSS is the code which allows you to change colours, alter text size, add backgrounds, or make elements do amazing visual things. If you are feeling really techie, you could also learn Javascript to make use of Javascript's abilities for integration and automation. Javascript is not for every web designer though!
5. Managing Your Time
Web design is a time-consuming job. There are so many different tasks to complete and you will need to learn how to manage your time well to be able to keep to your time constraints, deadlines and to manage multiple projects. Everybody has different ways of best managing their time, but whichever way you choose, make sure you are able to prioritise time on the projects it is needed for.
6. Communicating With Your Clients
As a web designer, you will be communicating with your clients on a regular basis. The chances are that your initial communication having landed the web design project will be to work out the exact specifications of the website with your clients. Throughout the project, you will need to keep the client updated about progress, as well as getting content from the client. Diplomacy and presentation skills are the areas you will need to concentrate on here.
7. Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a whole range of different areas you will need to get to grips with. Digital marketing covers everything from search engine optimisation (SEO), social media management and marketing, email marketing, video marketing, chatbot creation and integration, the list goes on! You should try to learn the basics of all of these and will find that a lot of the skills needed for the different disciplines of digital marketing cross over from discipline to discipline.
Where To Learn Web Design
1. Online Resources
Many people start to learn web design through simple Google searches. You can find loads of information and guides about any aspect of web design if you search the Internet for it. Not all resources are good or helpful, but many are. Even experienced web designers still need to look up how to do something every now and again. Don't forget that technology moves at an incredible pace, so there is always something new to learn anyway!
2. Online Courses
Online courses are growing in popularity and availability, day-by-day. However, before you choose a course, make sure that the course provider is both good at what they provide and also provide updated and revised training as technology and trends change. We recommend the online courses in web design and digital marketing from the Internet Marketing School. Their courses are all provided as videos, which are broken down into manageable topics and chunks of around a maximum of one hour per video or topic. Additionally, the courses are regularly updated, often as much as three to four times a year, so you will always have the latest information available to you. Once you have bought a course, you have lifetime access to the course and all updates!
3. Seminars & Live Courses
An excellent way of how to learn web design is through either seminars or live courses. Seminars will usually provide you with a lot of useful information, but the seminar host will normally try and sell you a course or product on the back of it. Live courses are where you will be taught the techniques you want to learn face-to-face and with the ability to ask questions as you go along. The best live courses we know of in the UK for web design and Internet Marketing are provided by Simon Coulson's Internet Business School. We highly recommend these amazing training courses. If you are serious about learning web design, then the intensive 3 Day Diploma Course In Internet Marketing gives you excellent tuition in basic web design and all digital marketing disciplines, together with an accredited diploma in Internet Marketing! This course has changed many people's lives and even made a number of millionaires as a result.
Learn WordPress Web Design With Cotswold Websites
If you want to concentrate on WordPress as your web design platform of choice, we can teach you how to use WordPress to the greatest advantage. We will teach you web design best-practice and how to design a WordPress website in the real world. You will learn how to use WordPress and one of the most powerful WordPress themes on the market. We go beyond the basics and you will learn web design together with how to use CSS and to incorporate all the most important digital marketing areas.
Our WordPress web design courses are aimed at beginners or intermediate users who want to take their skills to the next level. The courses are held in person or online through Zoom or Skype. Invariably, the course will be tailored to your needs, so that it is personalised, rather than being a rigid course.
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About The Author
Christopher White
Christopher White is the founder of Cotswold Websites. An accredited digital marketer and website designer, he has over 18 years of experience in creating bespoke websites.
With a background in international logistics and business analysis, Christopher uses his business experience to advise organisations how their website can and should work for them, along with helping them implement business strategies to use Digital Marketing techniques to boost their public exposure.