Web Design seems to be an arbitrary term these days. People look at the back-end of websites and see HTML, plain and simple code that when interpreted by a browser, drives a completely new look and feel to a website. They might think, “Oh, since I know how to use HTML, I can make a website!” The results of those thoughts can be seen on most MySpace pages. The field of web design is not a simple job as most people would expect it to be. It takes a lot of concentration and creativity to get the design done. Not only that, but you have to know how to communicate your ideas to the client who is ultimately paying you for this design. So you want to be a web designer? These are the basics any web designer must have.

Do you know HTML?

If not, don’t even think about becoming a designer; HTML is the most essential and basic tool that this job requires. In one example, some people think that a web site made in Flash (a proprietary software made by Adobe for use in online presentations) is the same or better than one made in HTML. Quite frankly, it should never substitute an HTML site, mainly because Flash is proprietary software, which makes it less accessible to many people. The point of a site is that it will hopefully attract visitors and sell them your products, give them information, or provide them with a service. This can’t happen if the visitor can’t even access your site because they need proprietary software; this is very bad since the visitor will just hit the back button in their browser and go to the next site on their list, usually to one of the competitors’ site. Along with knowing HTML, you will also need to know XHTML (a stricter and more compliant version of HTML) and CSS (for positioning the elements, adding rendering effects, and shortening your HTML coding by abstracting your element structure to another file). This in turn, will also make your code easily changeable and configurable by your client to suit their website needs. By conforming to XHTML standards, you will also open your website up to more browser compatibility, which results in more visitors who can see your site the way it was made to be.

How good are you with art (specifically coloring)?

Color formulation is another important part of web design. When visitors come into a website, you want to catch enough of their attention to how well designed the site is, and in turn, gain the user’s respect and trust (seeing that the webmaster put good time and money into a site makes it less likely that the site is going to rip them off or do something bad to them or their computer). Color formulation is just one of those things that will make a website look good, if you choose the right colors (and by colors, this also means such things as gradients, borders, text coloring, and sometimes a little graphic design; not just background colors). This requires both an artistic outlook of the site (to match the flow of colors with the company colors for example), and a consistency with the colors that you choose and where you place them (not varying in colors from page to page as it does confuse the visitor). The hardest part of designing is choosing colors and the locations of those colors on a page that will ride the fine line of letting the visitor know that the colors exist but won’t detract their attention of the main content of the website. Basically, if you want to sell the visitor a product, you want them to be looking at the product and not at your pretty website (unless you want to sell them your web design expertise, of course). A good example of what not to do: never place blue text on a red background (there are a couple of exceptions to this rule, but only a couple). Also, never place green text on a green background, it’s hard to see unless highlighted (kind of like a white cow in a snow storm). If someone can’t read your site, they’ll move on and won’t look back, which brings up the next point.

Do you know anything about typography?

In terms of web design, do you know which fonts to use for a site, or how big those font sizes should be? There are some differing views on how font sizing generally should be on a web site, but it should come down to the question, “Can the visitor read the content on the site?” If you’re making a site for senior citizens, then you should probably change the font size to be bigger than the normal size (which is 1em at this point). Also, the placement of the text on a website is important. The text should be easily scannable for the visitor to let them find exactly what they need quickly. The more time someone spends figuring things out on a website, the less likely they will stay long enough on the site to actually buy your service. People have a short attention span and will easily go to a competitor’s website if they can find things there more easily and more quickly. Another aspect of typography is the fonts that can be used on a site. Generally, there isn’t much of a real choice here, as you can only use the standard fonts for the web (Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, etc). Reason for that is because not everyone has the fonts that you may want to use installed on their computer. Again, like Flash, some fonts are proprietary, and though they may look good in printed documents for example, they are not suited for the web. If a visitor doesn’t have that font installed, it will revert to the default font that the user has setup in their browser, which will ultimately defeat the purpose of your font. Likewise, some “bright designers” (they are neither, unfortunately) had the idea of putting text in an image, thus preserving the font for everybody to see on the internet. This was very bad on many levels: the visitor couldn’t adjust the font size, they had to download the image which was ultimately bigger than the text (which in turn put more strain on the server which served up the content), search engines could not see the “text” in the image (and thus never got indexed), the visitor couldn’t save the text as easily to refer to it later, text-only browsers could not see the content, and the list goes on.

Do you like to deal with people that are sometimes a bit…difficult?

This is probably the most important yet most overlooked part of web design – the ability to communicate effectively to your customer/client. These are the people who give you their money in exchange for a professionally made design for their site. The first part of this section is choosing those clients. The client will come to you and you will decide whether or not they’re worth your time based on a few key attributes – the money, the deadline, and the trust the client has in you to get the job done. The money and the deadline usually are made simply through a contract; the payment options are different from designer to designer based on experience, competition, and other queued jobs. The trust of the client is something you might have to find out for yourself. This is whether or not the client believes that you know what is best for the site and you will design it as such. While communicative efforts and compromises are usually made regarding placement of items, coloring, and that sort of thing, the overriding decision should be given to the designer. The designer will have to provide an explanation of why a certain feature is being implemented the way it is to the client if asked to do so. In the case that the client disagrees with the designer and still wants a certain look implemented, there can be one of two actions the designer can take. The first is to simply comply, since the client is the one paying for your work; if they don’t want the design done right, it’s their problem (and you may want to remove your name from the site design altogether, so it never gets traced back to you). Second action is a little bit more brute force, but one can choose to withdraw from the job entirely if need be. This usually is a last resort, but when all other client negotiations fail, it is just a waste of time for you to continue with them. The second part of this section is to know what your job entails – you are making a design for a site; that is it. If the client asks you to do anything else in regards to setting up their server, domain name, or even asking for some kind of technical support, politely refuse or offer those services at an extra charge (though this point could be argued upon, depending on the type of client relationship you may want to develop for the future).

Professional web design is definitely not for everyone. But even if you don’t have all the skills and talents listed here, you can obtain those skills through practice and a few good books on the subject. Visiting various sites and studying their designs will also be of good use. And remember, these are just the basics of web design.