Web design is more than programs and design principles.
While you need to be doing everything you can to sharpen your tangible web design skills, you should also be focusing on other, softer skills.
Your job does not begin or end at just designing great websites. You need to figure out how to run a business in all its aspect.
This can be hard or counter-intuitive for a lot of creative people. A lot of us tend to be introverts and/or not care for math. It can be hard to develop these business skills. However, putting effort into them can be well worth it.
If you are working as a freelance web designer, it’s even more important.
Developing these skills will help you work with customers and provide better service. They will be more likely to rate you highly, recommend you to others, and possibly even be a repeat customer.
What are the soft skills that can help you be a better web designer? How do you develop them? Why do they matter?
Fuel your web design fascination with these curated design resources.
Learn Communication Skills
Communication skills make or break a freelancer. You need to be able to comfortably and effectively communicate with people who do and do not understand web design.
Learn how to explain your design choices and help your clients understand what you are talking about. Avoid descending into technobabble or condescension.
Your goal is polite, professional communication. This will help you build trust with your clients and also make it much easier to complete the project. You should start working toward good communication at the very beginning of the project.
Your communication skills are also very important if you’re working as a part of a team. Be comfortable providing and requesting input for and from others.
Much like your communication with your clients, you should keep it polite and professional. A good, communicative team is a blessing to any project, but a team that can’t talk with each other effectively is a curse.
Learn How to Sell Yourself
Figure out how to make yourself stand out from the crowd. The market for web design has a lot of designers trying to get clients.
You need to learn how to make it clear to clients what you can offer them that no one else can. Justify the price you’re asking for your work.
Talking yourself up like this can be very hard to learn. Many web designers are naturally humble people and essentially bragging about their skills is against their instincts.
You need to learn to get over that to a degree. Don’t turn yourself into a braggart, but do not shy away from stating what you are really capable of. Embrace and display your confidence in your skills.
Also, you need to embrace marketing. Use word of mouth and social media marketing. Customers will rarely just find you suddenly. You need to put yourself out there.
Learn How to Make a Plan
You should not be designing by the seat of your pants. Waiting for your muse to sing inspiration to you sounds very poetic and artistic, but it’s not a way to make a profit.
You don’t need to get wrapped up in complex planning. Just create a simple plan with a lot of flexibility built in. Having this as your framework can provide focus and direction to your design process. It also means you’ll have a more accurate timeline to give to your client.
Divide your plan into three parts: Researching your client’s organization; asking your client what he or she want and expects from the project; look into what your client’s competitors are doing and what the industry trends are.
Once that’s done, you’ll usually have a mental concept of what the web design will look like. If you can, put that onto paper to help guide you.
Planning can be a dull, boring process that might add work to the design process, but you’ll find it makes a big difference to your final result, how long development takes, and customer satisfaction. The more you do it, the easier it will become.
Learn How to Find Mentors
Look for web designers, markers, and developers to follow closely. See what they have to say and how they do what they do. Look at their design philosophies.
Take your time to go through their portfolios and code. For marketing, follow how people promote themselves or others.
If you’re able to open communication with these mentors, that’s even better. Ask them for advice and about their ways of doing the things.
This isn’t necessary, however. You can just follow these mentors on social media and through their work. Some people maintain blogs about what they’re working on or contribute articles on various websites. That can be a great way to learn from them, too.
Learn How to Take Feedback
Web design is a constantly evolving field. There’s a lot to learn. New trends pop up and people figure out new tricks. Technology changes and opens up new avenues of creativity to explore.
It’s not easy to grasp these new lessons, especially if you are busy with your own work and life.
Be willing to take feedback. You don’t know everything. In fact, seek out feedback. Ask questions about what people think of your work and your ideas. Don’t be nervous and don’t be too proud. Perfecting your design technique will only make you a better web designer.
Other Tips and Tricks
- Build a portfolio. Show off what you’ve done to potential clients. It will also allow you a great way to look at your past work and figure out what needs to improve and what aspects turned out to be just a fad.
- Analyze your work. Know what you can and can’t do. Learn what challenges you and what needs improvement.
- Be patient. You’re not going to win awards or make the big bucks right away. Keep on keeping on. Work hard to improve and sell yourself. It might not make a huge impact right away, but over time, you’ll begin to see results.
Conclusion
Learning how to be a better web designer is more than just getting better at coding or figuring out what grid to use.
Look at these soft skills and begin to take steps to get better at them. It will help you improve your web design business and help you land more and more clients.
