Web designing is one of the most important jobs out there today, especially on the web.
Because of this, it’s important to continually develop your skills and stay on top of the newest trends. Plus, the sign of a good web designer is one who continually tries to be better at their craft.
To help make the process easier, we’ve rounded up a few ways to turn you into the best web designer you can be.
1. Prioritize Accessibility and Usability
As a web designer, it can be tempting to design exclusively based on what looks the best.
After all, aesthetics do play a big part in which websites succeed and which don’t. In other words, no one wants to look at an “ugly” website. But the visuals of a website should never outpace the usability of a website.
If your site is beautiful but not usable in any sense, then you’re not the best web designer. A truly successful site will appeal visually but also be usable.
That means your site is intuitive, easy to navigate, and functional just as much as it is beautiful. If you’ve got the design portion down, consider focusing more on accessibility and usability to ensure you’re doing your job well.
2. Keep Your Reader’s Goals at the Forefront
It’s easy to neglect readers when you’re usually building and passing off the site. While you might think the actual content of the blog is what caters to user intent, catering actually begins at the building of the website.
That’s because there are some issues that are fundamentally built into a website and can’t be fixed with the best of bandaids. Keep potential user intent at the forefront of all design choices to help limit issues down the line.
For example, if you’re building portfolios, be sure that your website design focuses on highlighting a person’s stunning visuals rather than making them difficult to look for.
Alternatively, if you’re building a community-based website where people can come to comment on a number of topics, don’t make finding the topic they care about impossible to find.
3. Avoid Choosing Aesthetics Over Speed
No web user will want to waste time waiting for a webpage to load slowly. This is a great example of building a site that you would want to use. Do you like to wait for a page to load infinitely?
Generally, the answer is no. We want what we visited a webpage for very quickly. Because of this, it’s important not to let your passion for design and aesthetics get in the way of page speed.
Not only will this be a negative user experience, but it also can harm the web page owner’s overall success due to things like SEO.
Being a good web designer means balancing the ever-changing demand for both a beautiful layout and honoring the rules of the web.
4. Stay On Top of Broken Links
A website’s greatest flaw is often the negligence of constantly monitoring for bugs and error pages.
If you consistently are making websites that have 404 pages or links that just don’t work, you’re causing a lot of harm.
The experience of repeated broken links means that web page visitors will have a poor experience and can also harm domain authority.
If you’re selling a website as a template, you’ll want to make finding broken links an inherent process for the user.
Otherwise, you may consider integrating a tool like BugHerd to help manage bug detection for you or your purchasers.
No matter how pretty the site is, being a good web designer continues to come down to functionality.
5. Don’t Forget Responsiveness
One key factor, especially in today’s online landscape, is keeping responsiveness in mind.
Too many web designers focus on building their site for the traditional computer layout and neglect other forms of internet access. After all, the percentage of web traffic is higher on mobile than on desktop!
If you only consider the desktop visitor, you completely neglect a huge percentage of web visitors.
Once again, not only does this harm the visitors themselves but also the page operator as lack of responsiveness can be penalized by search engines.
Good web designers will invest just as much time in creating a responsive mobile version as they do in the traditional desktop approach.
Conclusion
Web design is one of the most important occupations in today’s world, especially when it comes to operating online.
As a web designer, especially if you want to be a good one, you’ll want to carefully consider what it takes to be a better web designer.
While that can always change, this list is a great jumping-off point for web designers looking to improve their craft.
Also Read: Characteristics And Care Of The Roosterfish.
