21/04/2017
Website Design: A Modern Art Form
What Is Website Design?
Website design is the act of designing and creating websites, and it is quickly becoming a modern art form. The design of a website can often be the deciding factor of whether or not visitors leave or stay.
During the early 1990’s, after the introduction of the World Wide Web, there were literally just a handful of websites online. The number of websites grew at an exponential rate during the end of the 20th century, and today there are hundreds of millions of websites. Millions of new websites are added each month, and the majority of these websites are created by website designers.
What Does a Website Designer Do?
A website designer is often responsible for the layout, color scheme, and general design of a website. Designing a website is not just about making said website aesthetically pleasing, though. Skilled website designers must also make a website easy to navigate, so visitors can find exactly what they need as soon as possible. Website designers must also know how to help a website rank in a search engine and where to place advertisements so they are effective.
Website designers are usually creative types, but extensive knowledge of computers is also necessary. Even designers who use simple website design software should have at least some computer programming and coding knowledge.
What Is the Average Salary of a Website Designer?
Most website designers charge anywhere from $20 to $50 an hour. This rate can vary depending on things such as the experience of the designer as well as the complexity of the website. The average website designer can often expect to make roughly $50,000 a year. A website designer’s salary, however, is largely determined by his skills and how often he works.
Some of the more talented and hardworking website designers, for example, can make over $100,000 annually. Amateur or part-time designers, on the other hand, might only may $20,000 a year.
What Kind of Education Does a Website Designer Need?
There are no set education requirements to become a website designers, and some motivated individuals may be able to break into this field simply by learning design and programming skills on their own. Website design is a rapidly growing and highly competitive industry, however, and successful website designers usually have at least a few years of post-secondary school under their belts.
A website designer needs to be artistic as well as computer savvy. Therefore, most website design degree programs focus on combining digital media courses with computer and web programming courses. At the very least, website designers should know basic web programming languages, particularly HTML and CSS.
More and more traditional universities are offering website design programs, as are many online universities. Students interested in a degree in website design may also want to consider art schools as well as technical institutes.
What Can a Person Do With a Website Design Degree?
Website design and development firms also regularly hire talented website designers with degrees. Inexperienced website designers will often start out as assistants or apprentices to gain valuable hands-on experience. After they have helped design several websites, they are often able to advance their careers and take on more challenging projects.
A website designer can also work as a freelancer. This means that he works directly for individuals or companies that need their websites designed. To obtain consistent work, a freelance website designer will often need to have an extensive and impressive portfolio of previously designed websites.
