Introduction

We’re a week away from finishing this trimester now, yup this is week 12. This is the final blog for this unit, and it’s been quite fun doing regular weekly blogs really.

This week we’ll be focusing on a few important things that make a good web designer, I’ve realized that I’ve been focusing on all the “Importance of…” for the past few weeks so why not close it off with that.

We’ll be going over what makes a good web designer during this final week, as an extension of last week’s discussion.

Communication is Key

Communication between you and your client is extremely important, and potential clients as well. Effective communication is an essential skill that you would need to develop if you want to be a good web designer. It’s a job where good communication between your client, developer can dictate the success of a project. This makes sure that your client is happy with your product and you being able to ensure that you’re on the right track for the product. Many projects fail to produce the product they intend to because of poor communication between the group, so try not to fall into that trap.

Sell Yourself Out

It might start to sound like a brag whenever you’re doing this, but eventually it’ll be quite soothing. Obviously don’t start bragging about your experiences in an awful tone, but your client would need some convincing sometimes before they agree to work with you. Definitely be proud of your projects and be sure to sell yourself out there, just so people know who you are and what you can do. Focus on your strengths and try strengthening your weaknesses as well.

Embrace The Void

New technology rolls out everyday and not embracing them is just foolish. Yes, perhaps coding is significantly more difficult than someone that constructs their website via Weebly, Wordpress, etc. However, that doesn’t mean that they are less of a web designer than you. I’m not saying that you should just design all your website via Weebly or whatever, but even with those online building websites they still need effort put into them in order to make a good website. Even if you do your website via coding, if it’s a badly done website and not aesthetically pleasing at all, most people would turn to a well made Weebly-made website. All the client sees is the final product, and it’s important to keep that in mind.

Conclusion

Introduction

We’re 2 weeks away from the end of this Trimester now, and everything is closing in. The finishing line is in sight and so are the due dates.

Today, we’re going to be discussing how social media directly affects web designers and the way they work. We’ve been talking a lot about what’s important in the development of websites, but we’ve never really touched on what’s important for a web designer. So let’s do that today, although we’ll be focusing purely on social media.

It Gets You Work

Social media is very important for anybody who’s working in the media industry, and frankly even for people that aren’t. LinkedIn was created just for that exact reason, someone has clearly thought about it before me. In short, having a Facebook page or any type of online presence can get you work if you market yourself correctly and attract the right kind of people. Or even a page where you can showcase your work is a great way to attract new customers as they are able to see what you’re capable of, or any projects you’ve previously been affiliated with before they decide to shoot you an e-mail and work with you.

Personal Connection With Clients

Having a presence on social media shows clients your personality, before they even decide to work with you they can roughly see who you are as a person. It doesn’t sound like much but it does have an impact. For example, I wouldn’t contact a singer that doesn’t regularly update their online presence and would rather contact one that I can see is clearly grinding through their art, to provide vocals on the next song I’m working on. Mainly because I am able to judge their work ethic just from their online presence, it is a bit hard knowing that people might judge you based on your online presence, but well this is the internet we’re talking about here.

Professionalism

Although hardcopy resumes and CVs are still of importance, it’s quite impractical to print out every single page of your website (or websites) you’ve worked on before. Most of that would be done through a link of some sort and what better way than to have just one link that you send off to your potential client just so they have access to all your work with just one click instead of spamming a few links at once. Along with that, it would be a tad bit ironic if a web designer didn’t have their own website. Just saying.

Conclusion

Intro

Week 10 is upon us and I’ve been riddled with a ton of work, so I’ll be keeping this one short. We’ll be going over another important part of web design, which is maintenance.

Why Is It Important?

Like everything else, maintenance is extremely important. A building without maintenance would crumble and fall eventually, just like your website will if it’s not updated and maintained regularly.

Information Is Power

There are a few ways to regularly attract customers and visitors to your website. Like any other Youtuber on Youtube, offering new content and videos on a regular basis. That’s exactly what needs to be done to maintain a website, it needs to be kept updated and making sure new content and/or products are being put out on the website on a regular basis. This way it keeps the user engaged, and it also reassures the users that you’re taking it seriously. If you don’t plan to work with your client after you’ve finished working with them to build the website, just know that you’re at an disadvantage as most web designers out there are more than happy to continue working with their clients to update and maintain their websites.

Letting Your Client Ride The Wheel

If you don’t wish to continuously work closely with your client, there are a few ways where you can allow them to edit and change their website themselves. One of the few things you could do is implement a CMS for them. CMS stands for Content Management System, an example would be Weebly where your client would be able to edit the website with an intuitive GUI (Graphical User Interface) instead of code which they might not have the best knowledge of. This way you would only be contacted if there was anything too technical for them, but it allows them to add pages, images and the simple things that needs to be done which takes you out of the driving seat for a long time.

Simple Bug Fixes and Corrections

Introduction

Currently running quickly into Week 9, and that means it’s another blog time. The past two blogs have been discussing the few importance in web developing so I thought I’d continue with that, this week we will be looking at the importance of testing in web design.

There will definitely come to a point where the web designer (yup, that’s you!) will attend to the final details of your web design and the testing of your website. A few things includes, the functionality of the website, double checking that the links work, the ease of access, compatibility issues, etc.

Obviously, Run Them.

First and foremost, it might be a good idea to run them through your client one last time before delivering your product. This ensures you that the client is happy with the current design and functionality of it, and it re-assures you that there wouldn’t be any changes after you’ve uploaded your website to the internet. Along with that, this would also give you a chance for any last minute edits of additions to the website before it goes through it’s final stages.

Compatibility & Different Web Browsers

Every web designer must ensure that their website is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions. It is one of the few things that makes a good web designer, well, good. Web designers need to be well versed in current standards for website design and development. The few basic technologies currently used are HTML and CSS. The web designer must ensure as part of the testing to check the code written for the website validates. Meaning that your website meets the current web development standards, which is very helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility.

Bugs Are The Worse

Introduction

We’re currently in Week 8 of Web Design, and a few weeks towards the end of this Trimester. Well, 4 weeks if you want me to be specific.

Alright without further a do, let’s dive directly into this week’s blog where we’ll be going over the importance of aesthetics in a webpage and how it affects how good a webpage is.

Before we get started, let’s get something out of the way here. Visual appeal is important, but obviously it isn’t the highest priority. For example Wireframing which I went into detail about last week. Obviously another thing as well is that everyone has different taste, so you can’t exactly appeal to everyone.

The Balance

There are a few websites out there which I would not name have a bit of a misconception about web design. There is a big difference in building a cool website and building a website that suits the purpose of the client, obviously the do walk a similar path however are still very different. Having a visually appealing website without function is not a great website; alternatively, having a functional website without aesthetics is equally as bad. The best way to counter this would to most likely take a look at the design layout of it from a outsider’s perspective, rather than your own point of view and what you enjoy.

Colors Of The Wind

Obviously be reasonable about the colors that you choose for the website, some colors just pop out and not in a good way. Blue and yellow doesn’t exactly make it look professional, having a fully gray website doesn’t give off a good aura. Along with that, it also depends on what the website is about and who it’s meant to be for. The website should give off a good aura, and if it’s a website selling products it should give the customers/viewers in the mood to buy and shop. A simple white with some exciting colors do go well together, but again the colors should reflect the energy and vibe of your website depending on what it’s meant to be.

Originality And Whatever

Introduction

Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be writing little blogs in regards to web design. A little bit unusual compared to my older audio related blogs here on my blog site, however I’ve recently picked up web design as my elective for my final trimester.

So, to start off the first blog, we’ll start from the very beginning. This week we’ll be talking about Wireframing and why it’s such an important step to take in web design.

Firstly, what are Wireframes?

Much like blue prints to any architectural designs/projects, Wireframes are exactly that but for web designers. They are basic layouts that outline the specific size and placement of elements that go on certain pages on a website. It showcases basic fonts, page elements, site features, navigation for the website, etc. They are not the most aesthetically pleasing thing to look at but they are important and we’ll go into a few reasons why.

Communication Is Key

Wireframes basically allows clarification of website features, they clearly communicate to a client how certain features will function on the website. The aesthetics of it might sometimes be a distraction and it’s purely for visual purposes, having a blue print of what’s actually happening underneath does show the features and ideas implemented for the website.

Doing Unnecessary Work

If every time a client requires a website to be made to it’s entirety only to change their mind later in the near future, a web designer would essentially be creating multiple websites for a single client and wasting their time. Having just Wireframes makes sure that the web designer gets it just right, and able to do changes with the feedback given by the client. This also allows the web designer to create the website only once and rendering it perfect for the client when the website is created.

Learn How To Crawl Before You Run

The list can go on and on about how important Wireframing is. However, the main point is start at the beginning and not solely focus on the end product. The same reason why most architects and builders don’t start building without a blueprint. It clarifies everything which makes the building process easier and more efficient. This way it makes the website more calculated, and being able to avoid multiple mistakes later on in the process.

- important to validate everything validator.w3.org

- all input tags are self closing