Web design (from English web design) – a branch of web development and a type of design, whose tasks include designing user web interfaces for sites or web applications.
Web designers:
- design the logical structure of web pages;
- think over the most convenientinformation submission solutions;
- are engaged in the decoration of a web project.
As a result of the intersection of two branches of human activity, a competent web designer must be familiar with the latest web technologies and have the corresponding artistic qualities. Most of the specialists working in the field of design usually concentrate in themselves such a creative education as a design studio.
A web designer is a relatively young profession, and professional education in the field of web design is not yet widespread in Russia. In connection with the increasing demand for representation on the Web, the demand for website design is growing, and the number of web designers is increasing. Currently, web design services are provided by both web studios and individuals (web designers who are freelancers).
Explanation of the term
Web design is a type of graphic design aimed at the development and design of objects of the information environment of the Internet, designed to provide them with high consumer properties and aesthetic qualities. Such an interpretation separates web design from web programming, emphasizes the specifics of the subject activity of a web designer, and positions web design as a type of graphic design.
Currently, the term web design is understood precisely as the design of the structure of a web resource, ensuring the convenience of using the resource for users.
Recently, an important part of the resource design has been bringing the resource into compliance with WZS standards, which ensures the availability of content for disabled people and users of portable devices (see usability – “usability”), as well as cross-platform (in this case, the so-called cross-browser) layout of the resource. Also directly related to website design are Internet marketing (Internet marketing), that is, promotion and advertising of the created resource, search engine optimization.
Process and result
A unique design is more expensive, but it also involves drawing from scratch, a completely unique development for a specific order. Depending on the professionalism and / or policy of the company, the web designer either develops the idea and concept of the design completely independently, or receives a number of requirements (color, style, etc.), expectations and ideas from the customer or the creative director (art director) and tries to stick to this direction when developing a layout. Most customers mistakenly equate a web designer and a webmaster, entrusting him with the publication of the site.
Sometimes a designer can offer a design solution based on templates (his own or even someone else’s), this speeds up the work and will cost the customer less. Some designers even specialize in making design layouts for sale as ready-made templates, which can then be bought and used by less experienced designers or webmasters to make generic websites (essentially no unique designs). Sometimes the development of web design is called a small re-layout and adaptation of such a template for a specific order.
The end product of a web designer’s work is a design layout: a picture that represents the intended future look of the site’s pages. This picture is multi-layered, where, at the discretion of the designer, almost every detail is a separate layer attached to other picture layers, due to which revision, replacement, rearrangement and other tasks can be easily performed. Depending on the idea and goals, the layout can include photographs, complex collages, illustrations, text layers, unique icons. For the main page and internal pages, sometimes separate layouts are drawn with additions or changes in accordance with the topic of the page.
The image can initially be vector or raster, made in Adobe Illustrate, Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or another visual editor (for example, Scribusor Inkspace), but for the layout designer, the image is usually converted to a raster format.
For demonstration to the client, the image is usually translated into a simple one-layer and familiar image format.
A designer is not only an artist
Design is about the balance of beauty, logic and possibilities. The web designer has to make the project look beautiful, but this is only one of his tasks. First of all, he is a designer and analyst who creates simple and understandable products based on the analysis of user behavior.
The word “design” now means not how the site looks, but how it works and how easy it is for users to achieve their goal. Creativity and art in design faded into the background. For business tasks, a web designer works in such a way as to attract the attention of a visitor, to interest and convey the necessary information.
Essential web designer skills besides design
- Internet Marketing and Analytics,to analyze data about the needs and desires of users, to know how advertising works and why create a website at all.
- Conversation,to communicate with customers and colleagues.
- Text writing and editing,because text and design are inextricably linked.
- Psychology,to be able to put yourself in the shoes of a website visitor and understand what is important to him
- Layout and frontend development,to know how the layout drawn in the program is turned into a working site.
- Other areas of design:illustrations, graphic design, animation and interactive banner creation.
In which direction to develop as a web designer
As the designer develops, he either delves into one of the areas of web design, or learns to work on the entire product, applying knowledge from different fields.
Here’s what a web designer can specialize in:
- UX / UI design – designing the appearance of sites and applications, taking into account the convenience for different users.
- UX, short for user experience, literally means user experience. Here, attention is paid to the user and what impression he gets from working with the interface, how he navigates through the pages, whether he achieves his goal and how difficult it is for him to do it.
- UI – user interface – means the appearance of the interface, its characteristics and design. The location, the size of the elements, and the color accents are important here. Because, first of all, you need to make the design user-friendly.
