Web design is important to the look and functionality of a website, but does a web designer need to be creative to do their job?
Web design is creative. A web designer designs the look of a website and ensures that the website functions properly. Web designers need to be familiar with design principles, color theory, design programs, creative style sheets, and some amount of code. Web designers have to be analytical as well.
Now that you know that web designers need to be creative, you may be wondering what it takes to become a web designer. If you are naturally a creative person, this might work out well for you. It does involve a lot of detail-oriented and logical thinking as well, so there needs to be a balance.
Do Web Designers Need to Be Creative?
Web designers do need to be creative as their profession requires them to create original designs that do not look too similar to other websites’ designs. If they do, then it will seem like the company is copying the format and design of another website, which is not good and can make the company seem less reliable.
Web design is the creative aspect of the creation of a website. Web developers deal with the coding of a website, while the web designer deals with the look and format of the website. The two professions do work together frequently, and many people outside of the field believe that they are the same job, but they are two different professions that require different skill sets.
Looking at different web design school programs, web designers need to be very creative and know how to create websites that both function well and look great to a viewer’s eye, which means that they need to understand creative concepts.
Design is the main part of a web designer’s job, which is why it is part of the name. All types of design involve some form of creativity, and web design is no exception. However, the design of a website should not only be creative but serve a purpose. A website needs to be able to do what the company in charge of the website needs it to do, and function well. Creative aspects can be added to the functional parts of the website, and often are, but they do not have to be added. (Source)
Part of being creative as a web designer is knowing what is good web design and bad web design. With time and experience you’ll eventually learn the specifics of this, but to get yourself a head start check out this post I wrote. It’s a list of 20 common examples of bad web design so you know what to stay away from. 🚫✋
Do Web Designers Need to Be Organized?
Web designers do need to be organized. If a website is not well organized, people will find it hard to use and will leave the website quickly, which means that the company controlling that website will lose money, which is not good. No one wants to use a badly organized website. However, if a website is well organized and is well-designed, then people will stay on the website for longer, which means that the company controlling the website will make money and will appear more credible.
The design of a website is not the only thing that web designers deal with. Web designers also need to know how to blend function and organization with creativity and design. If a website is well organized, but the design is not very creative, that is okay. Not every website needs to have fancy or creative designs on it. The most important thing is that the website is organized and looks polished. If a website is unorganized or does not seem to be polished, then people will not stay on the website for very long.
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Web designers need to know how to design a website that will look organized when it is viewed on both a mobile device and a desktop device. Have you ever gone to a website while on your phone, and it looks unorganized? That may be because the website isn’t designed to be viewed on a mobile device, which is not good because many people browse the internet and view websites on a mobile devices these days.
Web designers also need to be organized when it comes to time management. If a web designer has been hired to design a website and they lose track of time, and the website is not finished before the deadline, then the web designer will likely not be hired again by the company.
However, if a web designer is organized when it comes to time management, then the project they were hired to do will be finished before the deadline, and they will likely be hired again by that company, and will likely have more jobs available for them after they finish working for that company.
What Does a Web Designer Do?
A web designer designs websites. They deal with the look, format, and overall design of a website, and often deal with the placement and choices of the pictures that are placed on a website. They deal with the colors, placement of headings, size and type of font, and other design aspects of a website.
Web designers often work with web developers. Web developers code and program websites. They ensure that the designs that a web designer creates are implemented onto a website correctly.
Web designers often create workflows as well. A workflow is a list of each section that needs to be included on the website that they are designing and a small amount of the information that will be included in each of those sections. After a web designer has created the workflow, they show it to the client and make sure that all of the information needed is included. This is a basic part of the web designing process, but it is an important step that helps the web designer and the client stay on the same page about what will be on the website.
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Web designers create wireframes to show the client a framework of the designs that the web designer has created. Wireframes help clients stay up to date on what a website will look like, which is always good because they feel like they are included in the actual design process of the website. Wireframes help the client view the design before it is finished and allow the client to give the web designer input about what they like and dislike about the created design.
There are two types of wireframes: low-fidelity and high-fidelity.
Low-fidelity wireframes are typically very simple line drawings of the layout and placement of the elements of a website. They do not typically have the color of the different aspects listed, and mainly focus on the features that will be included on the website and where they will be placed. Low-fidelity wireframes are the first type of wireframe that is shown to the client.
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High-fidelity wireframes are the second type of wireframe to be created and shown to a client. High-fidelity wireframes are very similar to low-quality wireframes, but they include more details. High-fidelity wireframes may include the color of the background of the website or the color that each feature will be. High-quality wireframes help clients visualize what the website will look like and allows them to give the web designer feedback on each aspect of the website before it is finished.
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What Programs Do Web Designers Need to Know How to Use?
A web designer needs to know how to use Photoshop and other commonly used design programs. Adobe Dreamweaver, WordPress, Bluefish, and Visual Studio Code are commonly used web design programs. Web designers also need to know HTML.
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Web designers need to know how to use Photoshop because it helps them create new designs, icons, and graphics for a website. Clients often want new icons to be designed specifically for their websites. Although web designers may not use Photoshop every day, they will use it often and need to know how to use it properly.
Web designers need to know HTML because it deals with displaying items, formats, and colors on a webpage. HTML is mainly created and changed by web developers, but web designers need to have a basic understanding of how to create HTML so they understand what designs will be implemented well by the program. The better web designers understand HTML, the more valuable they are to a company.
Web designers need to know how to create Cascading Style Sheets, otherwise known as CSS. CSS helps the HTML implement different designs, and it makes the HTML easier to read for code-reading programs because they have less to read at one time. If a web designer does not understand how to create CSS, then the web developer that they work with will have a more difficult time doing their job.
Do Web Designers Use Web Design Programs?
Web designers do often use web designing programs that have different formats pre-programmed, which makes their job a lot easier to do. WordPress is a very commonly used one because it has many formats to choose from, but also allows you to choose many aspects of these formats, like the color of the different icons.
However, many companies who choose to hire a web designer, especially if they will be kept on the payroll for a long period of time, will choose not to use this type of web design program. Instead, they want the web designers to create and design the format of the website they are hired to create.
This means that web designers need to know how to format websites in a way that is appealing to viewers and is easy to use by consumers. If you know how to use web design programs like WordPress, then you can be very valuable to a company because you have a usable skill set. However, you may not use this skill set very often as a web designer, as your clients will expect you to design most items and formats from scratch.
They are hiring a web designer to design and create a website for them, not to pick and choose from the different available website templates.
Should I Become a Web Designer?
If you are creative, organized, enjoy designing websites, understand design principles and color theory, and are able to think out of the box, then you can definitely become a web designer. However, it is not an easy job to do and often requires you to spend long hours looking at a computer screen or piece of paper.
If you do not feel like you are a creative or organized person, you can still become a web designer, but it may be harder for you to do the job. If you understand design concepts and color theory, but are not very creative, then you may have an easier time web designing than many others and can become a web designer.
If you enjoy organizing different aspects of websites and enjoy messing with different fonts and formats, you may enjoy becoming a web designer, as these are major parts of web design that web designers deal with daily.
Web designers need to be able to think out of the box, and many people struggle doing this. It is very easy to design websites that look like other websites you have seen, but it is hard to create website designs that are both original and functional.
If you enjoy being both creative and analytical and want to become a web designer, then you should become a web designer. Web designers need to be creative, but they also need to be able to understand coding and how different formats will be implemented onto a website. Web designers also need to be able to create CSS to make it easier for the programming to implement their designs.
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If you enjoy working with people, but also want to be creative on your own, then web design may be a good fit for you. Web designers work with clients and web developers to create the best-looking and best-functioning website they possibly can. Web design may seem like a very solitary job position, but it’s not. While it allows people to be creative on their own, it requires them to work with others.
Ultimately, it is up to you whether or not you should become a web designer. If you enjoy the coding aspect of web design and do not feel like you are very creative, then web development may be a better fit for you. Web designers are very important, and the job market is growing.
