How To Become A Web Designer: Degree and Career Guide

While many digital programming and software engineering roles may require you to have technical knowledge and skills, an equally important yet somewhat opposite role that is needed for the success of a website is a web designer who fulfills more of a creative role.

With businesses and individuals wanting to establish a strong online and brand presence, they tend to invest a lot of time and money in optimizing their websites, making them appealing, effective, and generally optimized. People choose to go with the professionals who seem to have an innate understanding of why people tend to click and stay on a site. These geniuses are web designers.

To become a web designer, you would need to first become qualified in the field, develop the appropriate skills, create your own website that will ultimately serve as your portfolio, and then search for a job or market yourself if you choose to become a freelancer.

Let us delve into this career path and see what steps you would need to take to pursue this career.

What Does A Web Designer Do?

Web designers create the visual aesthetics and layout of a web page, and they make sure that every part of the site seamlessly flows from one aspect into another. However, you need not only be creative, but you also need to be quite tech-savvy and have a keen understanding of programming and software development.

Essentially, a web designer aims to enhance and improve the user experience of all individuals who visit a web page by making general updates that will appeal to as many people as possible. The important thing to remember is that web designers cannot appeal to every type of individual that exists out there, which means they need to choose the larger demographic and design a web page that suits the demographic which draws the most traffic to the site.

From colors, fonts, layouts, and graphics, web designers do it all, but they also make sure that a website is effective and fast. There is no point in having a beautiful site, but it is extremely slow to use. A graphic designer makes sure that all the parts integrate and work together seamlessly.

Steps To Become A Web designer

Step One: Obtain Your Qualifications

While getting a bachelor's degree may be effective in many careers, gaining the appropriate certifications as a web designer is much more effective You can obtain your certification in Adobe or get a certificate from Google to hone in and develop your skills.

Step Two: Develop Your Skills

Once you understand what skills you need, you then need to develop those skills by enhancing your ability to use graphic software, programming languages, search engine optimization techniques, web design theory, and since you will be working with clients, you would need to have superior communication skills to know what their wants and needs are.

Step Three: Apply Your Skills And Create Your Website

Being a web designer requires you to practically showcase your skills. Creating your own website is a great way to showcase your skills and compile your portfolio for potential clients to see what you are capable of doing.

Step Four: Search For A Job Or Market Yourself

One of the benefits of being a graphic designer is that you can work for a design company, as an in-house web designer, or as a freelancer for yourself. Once you have the skills and qualifications, you can then begin searching for the best role for you or you can begin marketing yourself if you are hoping to be a freelancer or work for yourself.

In What Environment Does A Web Designer Work?

From working in a traditional office space with a nine-to-five job, or working remotely from anywhere at your own time and pace, being a web designer allows you the freedom to choose your own career path. If you would prefer to work as an in-house designer for an organization updating its site, working on web content, and even focusing on social media and website engagement, you can easily find such roles.

If you prefer to work for a web design agency that consults and outsources services to clients, you can search for that full-time role as well. If you prefer to freelance and work for yourself, you can do that too, but you would need to market your services effectively to make sure there is a constant stream of income coming in.

What Is The Salary And Job Outlook For Web Designers?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), web developers and digital designers earn a median annual salary of $78,300. The job outlook expects to see a 23% projected growth over the next ten years with about an average of 21,800 jobs opening each year.

FAQs

Are Web Designer Jobs In demand?

When you consider that the job outlook has a projected career growth of 23%, it is clear to see that web designers are greatly in demand and that the chances of this career becoming irrelevant is extremely unlikely in the near future.

Is It Worth It To Become A Web Designer?

Ultimately, the answer to this question will lie with you and whether or not this is your passion and the career you are hoping to follow. With great earning potentials and salary prospects, and great industry demand, becoming a web designer is certainly worth it.

Do You Need To Be Creative To Be A Web designer?

You would need to have several skills to be a web designer. You would need to be extremely creative, you would need to have knowledge and understanding of computer processes and online programming, you would need to understand the psyche of the end user to make sure they find the site appealing, and you would need to be able to move and adapt with the times.

So, while creativity is an important aspect of web design, it is but one aspect.

Conclusion

If you think you have all the important components that make up a web designer, and if you are quite tech-savvy with an inkling to understand web programming and development, then this may be the best career for you.