Megara is seeking a designer to create a web page using software. The web design software system that we are considering purchasing is widely accepted and has great reviews, although it isn’t necessarily the cheapest software on the market today. Megara feels hiring a professional will be best since we want the page to reflect our business in a professional manner and want to avoid chance of errors. It will be important for the designer to have some previous experience with this type of software so that a thorough understanding of its capabilities can be used in designing the web page. We hope to increase our clientele with this web page by giving a solid impression of our business, instilling confidence in our customers, and providing them with all the information they need while keeping it easy to maneuver around too.
Table of Contents
Megara Would Like To Create A Web Page Using Web Design Software
In today’s world,knowing how to do web design is becoming more and more important and is now an indispensible skill for designers. Web design can be quite complex and daunting, but with the development of the Internet and technology, web design can be easier than ever before nowadays. There are many resources on the Internet, and everyone can learn to be a great web designer on their own. In this article, I will guide you about how to learn web design at home briefly.
Table of contents:
- What is web design?
- What skills do web designers need to have?
- The basic five elements of web design
- Best resources to learn web design at home
What is web design?
Many young or new designers often misunderstand the concept of web design. Web design refers to the design of websites that are displayed on the internet. It usually refers to the user experience aspects of website development rather than software development. Of course, it would be great if you know some coding language (HTML, CSS, Java), but you can’t get yourself deep into front-end development, that’s not the core of web design. The core of web design is visual and interaction. It aims to solve the communication problems between users and web page information.
What skills do web designers need to have?
As young designers, you may feel confused about what skills to master when you start your career. In this part, we will explore the top skills that a young web designer must have. Now, let’s dive in.
- Master the basic rules of visual design
Simply speaking, visual design is the process of improving the UI and UX of a web/app through visual elements and effects, including colors, illustrations, photography, typography, layouts, white spaces and the like. In contrast to UI design, it focuses more heavily on the visual effects of web/app design and aims to engage users. As beginners, if you want to have a great visual design, you need to bear the basic principles of scale, visual hierarchy, balance, contrast and gestalt in mind, which can help you to drive engagement and increase usability.
- To learn layout design
Layout design is the process of arranging visual elements — like text, images, and shapes — on a given page. Layout design is critically important for website design, because it can determine the overall appearance and the connection among graphic elements on the page to achieve a smooth message flow to maximize performance.
- To learn the color principles
Different color combinations on a given page can offer varying experiences and visual contrasts for the visitor, making it a critical component for website design. Do bear the basic principles of color, which can help you create effective color schemes for your website.
- To master the basic knowledge of interaction design
Interaction design is about creating engaging interfaces with well-thought-out behaviors. For web designers, you need to have basic knowledge about interaction design, like creating design strategies, identifying key wireframe interactions, and prototype interactions, which can help you to create a user-friendly experience for your visitors.
- To learn to use a prototyping and design tool
There are many prototyping and design tools for you to choose to create your website. As beginners, you need to choose one like Mockplus that is easy to use and offers you various built-in components,which can help you quickly get a first visual impression of your future website. With Mockplus, you don’t have to wait for the final screen design and instead you can validate your ideas within minutes.
- To understand the basic coding language(HTML, CSS)
As it’s stated above, web design is not about software development and you do not have to get yourself deep into front-end development. But as a designer, having basic programming knowledge allows you to collaborate with developers more efficiently. Here we have some best and free online websites for beginners to learn coding.
- Be familiar with your company product and the user group
No matter if you are a beginner or a professional designer, the purpose of your design is to present the value of your product or business to your customers. So the last but least skill for a designer is to have a clear persona and create a design that meets your customers’ needs.
The five basic elements of web design
After you master all the skills above, it’s time to turn the page on that sketchbook and start your web design. Here are five basic design elements you’ll want to make sure you get it right.
- Overall layout
The overall look of your website is a crucial component of web design. Studies find that
users take only 50 milliseconds to form an opinion of your website or business, and that will determine whether they’ll stay or leave. Therefore, you need to keep your design simple, clean and accessible, and at the same time, use grid-based designs to keep design items organized and orderly, thus creating a great overall layout.
- Color scheme
The color palette and fonts on your site will directly inform your visitors’ opinions of your site and are what most novice designers start with. Wondering what color scheme to choose? Just turn to your brand or industry perspectives — along with your target audience demographics — will help to save your workload and make this a somewhat painless process.
- Typography
Speaking of typography or font design, you need to make your text easily readable, which generally means the body copy should be at least 16 pixels. It is ideal to use a complementary font for headings or accents, but do not go beyond three typefaces or unnecessary sizing adjustments.
- Navigation
Navigation plays an integral role in how users interact with and use your site or products.
Navigation design is the discipline of creating, analyzing and implementing ways for users to navigate through a website or app. Just take some time to place your navigational elements at the right place on your site, you can make it exist in a site’s header, body, and footer, but simply serve to direct your visitors to the information they desire as quickly as possible.
- Content
After you got the layout, color scheme, typefaces, and navigation design, now you need to add content to your site to make it trustworthy and capable of delivering top-notch products and services. Efficiency is key, as extra words can stand in the way and dull your brand’s primary selling points. So just think short and sweet to make your content organized and informative.
Best resources to learn web design at home
As the novel coronavirus spread around the globe, we do not have many chances to study at school or work with others, but learning is a life thing, we can also learn from some professionals at home. In this part, we will share with you some of the best resources to learn web design.
Web design learning books
- HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
This book is a full-color introduction to the basics of HTML and CSS from the publishers of Wrox. This educational book is one that you will enjoy picking up, reading, then referring back to. It will make designers wish other technical topics were presented in such a simple, attractive and engaging way.
2. Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide
This book has been recently revised and it is ideal for students and professionals of all backgrounds and skill levels. It is simple and clear enough for beginners, yet thorough enough to be a useful reference for experienced developers keeping their skills up to date.
3. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
In this second edition, Steve Krug adds essential ammunition for those whose bosses, clients, stakeholders, and marketing managers insist on doing the wrong thing. If you design, write, program, own, or manage Web sites, you must read this book. — Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards
4. Design for Hackers
This book helps beginning designers understand good design: where it comes from, how it can be produced (and reproduced) and what you can do to turn yourself into a great web designer.
5. Designing with Web Standards
This book was refreshed recently with the involvement of Ethan Marcotte. Designers will learn the how’s and the why’s of writing standards-compliant HTML and CSS through this book, Designing with Web Standards, as well as techniques for dealing with common web design issues.
Web design online courses
- TreeHouse: Web Design Track
The web design track of TreeHouse offers 43 hours of video and interactive lessons on HTML, CSS, layouts, and other web design basics. It also includes basic skills for a budding graphic designer, like an SVG tutorial.
2. Envato Tuts+: Responsive Web Design for Beginners
The Tuts+ responsive web design course for beginners is a quick introduction to the basics of responsive design, HTML, CSS, media queries, and more. You can learn how to use design software like Adobe XD and Sketch from other courses and also get access to millions of stock photos, web templates, and more with the same membership.
3. Future Learn: User Experience (UX) Design and Research
This User Design and Research program from Future Learn and the University of Michigan is perfect for aspiring web designers who want to learn more about UX design. You can learn how to develop a better understanding of how users interact with websites and apps and use the skills to offer more comprehensive services, beyond a basic website design.
4. OpenHPI: Human-Centered Design Course
If you want to improve your design fundamentals, this course on human-centered design is a great place to start. It can help you improve your ideation and research skills and quickly (in 10 hours) build your fundamental skill set as a designer.
5. WebFlow University: Ultimate Web Design Course
This Ultimate Web Design Course is a free course offered by WebFlow university, an online learning platform hosted and developed by the CMS and design tool WebFlow.
It offers designers over 5 hours of video lessons and is a great introduction to all things about web design.
Top 5 web design blogs to follow
- Smashing Magazine
This blog has everything you need from graphics to inspiration and a good deal of design. Its blog content is organized by category, covering topics like user experience, web design, React, JavaScript, CSS, and accessibility. All of the content shared on this website is designed to be easy-to-read and informative.
2. Webdesigner Depot
Webdesigner Depot stands out among the most popular design blogs in the world. It has a comprehensive hub of tech tips, news, thought leadership posts, and inspiration. It is frequently updated with content from a series of experienced authors. In this blog, you will get the latest design news, explore the pros and cons of different coding systems, discover and learn from some of the best design resources around.
3. Mockplus Blog
Mockplus is more than just a blog producer. The company offers designers a design platform to prototype, design and collaborate, and with scalable design systems, your design workflow will be completely streamlined. It has everything design teams need to go from ideation to execution. The Mockplus blog delivers easy-to-consume content to designers from all environments, using various kinds of tools and software. Many of its popular posts are lists of useful resources, websites, and downloads you can use in your design tasks.
4. Web Design Ledger
This blog is beautifully organized and packed with helpful information. Web designers can find content categories for portfolio work, mobile design, business development, ecommerce, and even wearable devices on this website. More than that, it has a review section, where you can check out some of the latest tools available for design professionals.
5. Web Design Library
This is a simple but very attractive blog environment for design professionals. It provides a lot of valuable information for beginners and professionals looking to hone their skills. The “Freebies” section on the site is a great place to visit for budget-friendly resources too.
Coding resources for web designers
- W3Schools
W3Schools is a freemium educational website for learning coding online. It offers courses covering all aspects of web development. It is run by Refsnes Data in Norway. It is a web developer information website, with tutorials and references relating to web development topics such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, PHP and ASP.NET.
2. Codecademy
Codecademy is an entirely free educational website where many beginners get their start. The company is committed to empowering all people, regardless of where they are in their coding journeys, to continue to learn, grow, and make an impact on the world around them.
3.Udemy
Udemy is an online learning platform where you can find coding resources for beginners or more advanced programmers there. It also provides programming courses on almost any language and framework imaginable.
4. freeCodeCa mp
This is a completely free tool for coding and only requires an email address to get started. On this website, you can learn powerful skills such as JavaScript, HML5, CSS3, and more. You can also further develop your skills by working in a small team to build solutions for nonprofits while gaining real-life experience.
5. edX
This website offers university-level courses in various computer science disciplines, including Python, front-end and full-stack development, and blockchain. The courses on this site is free but if you want to a verified certificate, you need to pay $50–$300.
Wrap up
Whether you are a beginning designer or a professional designer, you need to bear in mind that learning is the only way to achieve your goal. If you want to know about how to learn web design at home to hone your skills, above is all you have to know. You can build your design circle in there, but you can’t be a web designer by tooling around. Just take your time to learn and be a professional designer as you want. Wish you good luck.
what would be the best web design software to use if you wanted to add
1. WordPress (Free and Paid)
Here at websitesetup.org, we recommend people use WordPress to create their websites.
Why?
Through our experience creating hundreds of sites, we’ve found that WordPress offers the best combination of flexibility, power, and ease-of-use necessary to build and launch content-based websites.
And it seems like the internet agrees with us! Over 35% of all websites run on WordPress. WordPress powers popular blogs, e-commerce stores, communities, and more.
To get started with WordPress, you have two options:
- Set up a self-hosted WordPress site (WordPress.org)
- Sign up for a free WordPress.com account
If you’re just looking to host a small personal site, WordPress.com may be a great choice. However, if you’re starting a more complex project a self-hosted WordPress site is probably a better option.
If you are already using WordPress, but looking for help creating a WordPress theme or customizing WordPress pages, we recommend checking out the Genesis Theme Framework and the Elementor Page Builder.
2. Bootstrap (Free)
Originally created by the engineering team at Twitter, Bootstrap is now the world’s most popular framework for building responsive, mobile-first websites.
Put simply, Bootstrap is a free library of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that simplifies the process of coding a website from scratch. Bootstrap offers dozens of features like a grid system, responsive breakpoints, and a large library of components that make coding a website quick and easy.
The component library includes headers, navigation, buttons, forms, alerts, and more. The Bootstrap team has comprehensively documented each feature, complete with examples and suggestions for customization.
To get started with Bootstrap, simply download the latest version of the Bootstrap framework, copy one of the example templates, and start coding.
3. Wix (Free and Paid)
Wix is an easy-to-use, affordable alternative to WordPress.
Much like WordPress, Wix can be used to create a variety of different sites, including blogs and stores. Through its drag-and-drop editor, Wix makes it simple to set up and launch your site in just a few minutes.
Wix is a fully-managed subscription service, meaning that the company handles all the details around hosting the site, backing it up, and handling security.
Wix offers a free, ad-sponsored plan that includes hundreds of templates and options to choose from. Paid plans start at $14 per month and include ad removal, increased bandwidth, and additional space for videos.
4. Dreamweaver (Free Trial)
Dreamweaver is Adobe’s application for coding, editing, and maintaining websites. It lets you edit websites both by coding them manually and through an intuitive visual interface.
Dreamweaver includes many of the features of a traditional, text-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like syntax-highlighting, automatic code completion, and the ability to collapse and expand sections of code. You can even use Dreamweaver with Bootstrap!
Unlike a traditional IDE, however, Dreamweaver’s visual interface is what makes it really stand out. Any changes you make in your website’s code are automatically displayed in real-time in Dreamweaver’s interface, and you can also point and click to edit your website’s code visually.
If you’d like more power than a simple drag-and-drop editor, but need something simpler than a code-only IDE, Dreamweaver is a fantastic option.
You can subscribe to Dreamweaver on its own for $20.99 per month or choose a subscription to Adobe’s full Creative Suite for $52.99 per month. Adobe offers 7-day free trials for both options, and discounts for students are frequently available.
5. Squarespace (Paid)
Squarespace is another good website builder that serves as a third alternative to Wix and WordPress.
Much like Wix, Squarespace offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for creating your website. Squarespace also offers a huge variety of different themes and color customizations and includes many of the standards you’d expect like SSL encryption and the ability to build an online store.
Squarespace’s personal plan starts at $14 per month with limits of 20 pages and two contributors. The business plan lifts these limitations and costs $23 per month.
Best Software for Interface Design & Prototyping
Interface design apps and prototyping tools help designers envision and communicate how websites will look and behave before they’re launched. Here are a few great candidates to consider.
6. Figma (Free and Paid)
Despite being one of the newest tools on this list, Figma is also one of the most powerful. If you’re looking for a feature-loaded tool for interface design and prototyping, Figma may be the perfect fit.
Much like Sketch, the next app on this list, Figma features an intuitive, vector-based interface that makes designing websites simple. Anything you can do with Sketch or Adobe XD, you can also do with Figma.
What makes Figma really shine, however, is its collaborative, cloud-based approach. With Figma, multiple team members can edit a design file simultaneously. Business stakeholders can also leave comments, and developers can copy code snippets to simplify the process of turning your design into a real site.
Figma offers a free plan that includes up to 3 projects. Paid plans start at $12 per month and include advanced options like custom user permissions.
7. Sketch 3 (Free Trial)
Sketch is an extremely popular interface design tool focused on simplifying the process of creating beautiful, high-fidelity mockups. Sketch gained popularity in the early 2010s when it won a design award from Apple.
Designers love Sketch because its uncluttered and intuitive interface makes it easy to create beautiful designs quickly, without the steep learning curve often associated with other design tools. Sketch also has a comprehensive ecosystem of plugins and integrations that bring added power and make it simple to integrate Sketch into your workflow.
While Sketch has recently added some features focused on prototyping and collaboration, the program isn’t as advanced in these areas as some of the other tools on this list.
Sketch is available for macOS and costs $9 per editor, monthly (or $99 per editor, annually). Sketch comes with a 30-day trial.
8. Adobe XD (Free Trial)
Tired of being beaten out by simpler tools that were better-suited to interface design and prototyping, Adobe released XD in 2019 as its answer to the other tools on this list.
XD is a powerful, vector-based tool that also supports prototyping animations. If you like Adobe’s other products like Photoshop and Illustrator, chances are you’ll also like XD.
The program also supports opening and editing files from Sketch, making it a popular choice for Windows users who need to collaborate with other designers who use Sketch. That said, novices may find XD’s learning curve a bit steep, and even many professionals prefer other tools on this list.
You can subscribe to XD on its own for $9.99 per month or choose a subscription to Adobe’s full Creative Suite for $52.99 per month. Adobe offers 7-day free trials for both options.
9. InVision Studio (Free and Paid)
While InVision got its start offering a cloud-based prototype service that integrates with tools like Sketch and Photoshop, it now offers its own full-featured interface design and prototyping tool called Studio.
Think of InVision Studio like an advanced version of Sketch, complete with advanced motion animations, collaboration tools, and options to create and share prototypes.
InVision Studio is currently in free beta. To share prototypes using its cloud service, you can opt for a free plan or upgrade to one of InVision’s paid offerings, which allows for more collaborators and projects.
10. Framer X (Free Trial)
Framer originally started as a JavaScript library and toolset for prototyping, but it’s evolved into the most powerful tool on this list.
Framer X is a rapid prototyping tool that supports complex animations and generates the code for React components on the fly. At first glance, Framer’s vector-based interface looks extremely similar to Sketch, but there’s far more power under the hood.
Designers like Framer for its responsive design features, an array of premade components, and support for advanced animations. Developers love it because it simplifies the process of turning a design into production-ready code.
If you’re already part of the React ecosystem, or if you simply want a powerful interface capable of creating high-fidelity prototypes with realistic interactions and animations, Framer X is a fantastic option.
Framer X offers a free plan for up to two editors. Framer’s paid plans start from $20/month.
Best Software for Graphic Design
Photo-editing and graphic design tools allow designers to manipulate images and create graphics. Here’s our top pick of the best graphic design tools.
11. Adobe Photoshop (Free Trial)
If you’re looking for a powerful, do-it-all graphic design tool, Adobe’s Photoshop has been the leader for decades.
While originally released purely for photo editing, Photoshop has evolved to support a variety of use cases, including interface design, video editing, and more, while remaining true to its photo-editing use.
While many designers prefer to work exclusively in Photoshop because of its flexibility, others prefer more specialized tools. Like Adobe’s other products, the learning curve is a bit steeper because of the vast array of tools and options Photoshop offers.
You can subscribe to Photoshop on its own for $20.99 per month or choose a subscription to Adobe’s full Creative Suite for $52.99 per month. Adobe offers 7-day free trials for both options.
12. Canva (Free and Paid)
If you need a simple tool for creating graphics for social media posts, flyers, or business cards, Canva is a fantastic option.
Users love Canva for its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface. With thousands of templates and hundreds of design types, marketers and hobbyists can produce beautiful imagery in just a few clicks.
Canva offers a free plan with over 8000 templates. Pro plans start at $9.99 per month (up to five people) and include advanced features like the ability to export transparent PNGs and the option to resize a graphic for multiple use cases in just one click.
13. Vectr (Free)
Vectr is a free, cloud-based illustration tool with features similar to Sketch and Adobe Illustrator.
If you want to create complex illustrations, or simply design a website or mobile app, Vectr offers everything you need to get started.
Vectr’s drag-and-drop editor is easy to learn, and since it’s cloud-based, it’s easy to share designs with others for feedback and collaboration.
14. Pixelmator (Free trial)
Much like Photoshop, Pixelmator is a feature-rich photo editor for macOS.
While you can use Pixelmator for illustration or interface design, it works best as a tool for editing and retouching photos, with features for color correction, retouching, and applying filters.
Pixelmator costs $39.99 and is available on the macOS app store. Pixelmator also offers a free, 15-day trial on its website.
15. GIMP (Free)
GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program), is a popular, open-source photo editor that supports Windows, Linux, and macOS.
While the interface feels a bit dated, don’t let that fool you. GIMP packs quite a bit of power and is capable of nearly everything that Photoshop can do.
While the free price point is certainly appealing, GIMP isn’t the easiest tool on this list to learn or use day-to-day. Still, it’s a great choice for budget-conscious designers who need to edit photos or design interfaces.
Conclusion
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