What do I need to learn to become a web designer?

[untethered]

To be a web designer you need to learn design. Tools and technologies are necessary but of very secondary importance.

 

[Jonti]

Well, OK, that's what people say.

So how does one learn the elements of web design (of the visual layer)? Any links or tips?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Well, like any art, learning it is a bit of a poorly understood process. Looking at and using lots of websites, analysing what makes them good bad or indifferent; reading what other people have written about design and usability and so on in blogs, articles, books; making your own stuff and seeing how well it works and what other people think of it; looking further than just the web to other forms of design and areas of inspiration....

 

[terrythomas]

I'm trying to learn the whole design bit in parrallel. I want to do a site thats fashion oriented so I've checked out all the big brands websites in a similar vibe based on the opinion they can afford top notch designers, and its amazing how similar they all are. There seems to be a real look for each area of design (in my beginners opinion). I screenshoted the home pages and printed them all out and then kind of bastardised my own from the best bits of theirs.

Cheating a bit granted but without a design background seems to be the most logical way forward.

I'm really keen to hear any tips for keeping the pages look the same across browsers - total can of worms as far as I can see.

 

[terrythomas]

Just found this which looks like it might help the cross browser issues I'm guessing.

Anyone use this? Am I along the right lines?

http://validator.w3.org/

 

[Wintermute]

Yes you are. Always run your code through a validator

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Just found this which looks like it might help the cross browser issues I'm guessing.

Anyone use this? Am I along the right lines?

http://validator.w3.org/

yes and no


yes you need solid code but also difrent browsers will render the same code difrently

this may help

http://browsershots.org

 

[ChrisFilter]

I'm trying to learn the whole design bit in parrallel. I want to do a site thats fashion oriented so I've checked out all the big brands websites in a similar vibe based on the opinion they can afford top notch designers, and its amazing how similar they all are. There seems to be a real look for each area of design (in my beginners opinion).

There's a reason for this... usability comes before art. Ultimately these sites are businesses and they will invest significant sums of money is usability and multivariate testing. They'll be finely honed to deliver the highest conversion rate possible.

A site could look amazing, but function like shit. A genuinely talented designer will be able to create sites that look great AND convert viewers into customers at a high rate (3%-8% dependent on industry and nature of site).

 

[untethered]

So how does one learn the elements of web design (of the visual layer)? Any links or tips?

It's probably worth working out what the elements of web design are.

Among others:

- designing layouts using grid systems and knowing how to implement them
- designing palettes combining the art and science of colour theory
- typography
- visual weight
- usability
- accessibility

 

[weltweit]

How are you dealing with the sizes - in ems or something else?

And I'll always test in Opera first ;-)

I eventually sized things in pixels, I used to do a few flexible width sites but eventually I came round to primarily making 780px wide fixed width sites. Also I have a feeling that Opera, IE, Netscape, Firefox etc understand a pixel is a pixel.

I did leave text flexible for people ard of reading .. (or did I, I can't remember now! )

 

[grit]

Dont bother about making your markup validate, its a waste of time.

Your now getting into the part that makes web design difficult sometimes, cross browser compatibility.

There is a bunch of different techniques, personally I think the best is a css file for ie7,ie6 and the others. There is some simple code you can do to detect what browser is viewing the site and serve up the corresponding css file

 

[boskysquelch]

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/the-difference-between-art-and-design/

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Dont bother about making your markup validate, its a waste of time.

Your now getting into the part that makes web design difficult sometimes, cross browser compatibility.

There is a bunch of different techniques, personally I think the best is a css file for ie7,ie6 and the others. There is some simple code you can do to detect what browser is viewing the site and serve up the corresponding css file

it's not the quickest way to ensure your code works cross browser is to validate it and then put in place separate css files for different browsers particularly one for everything and then one for IE6 IE7/8. This ensures the quickest solution for XBC.

having code which is wrong and then attempting XBC is foolish you don't know if it's not XBC because it's wrong code or different rendering engine implementation.

look at the Nielsen Norman group for usability training and advice they are some of the best... http://www.nngroup.com/

 

[boskysquelch]

XBC sounds like a cyber sexual dr00g.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]