How to Become a Web Designer
Career paths, education and salaries

What does a web designer do?

In most cases, the web or digital designer is the first stop toward determining the look and feel of a website, creating its layout and design, incorporating color and branding—and essentially making a site look great and function responsively.

As such, website designers usually have knowledge of UI, or user interface, which means they strategically design a site that's intuitive and easy for visitors to navigate, and UX, which is user experience, so that users can find, buy or navigate to what they want, easily and logically.

Some of their job duties may include:

• Designing and layout of a website with emphasis on mobile responsiveness
• Thinking through the navigation and logic of a site to provide the best user experience while also accomplishing business goals
• Designing page templates and creating wireframes and mockups
• Working in Adobe Creative Cloud to create visual elements, graphics and animations
• Researching and registering web domains
• Organizing photo libraries and site files 
• Collaborating on website versions, updates and visual branding refresh
• Coordinating with developers, QA testers, content providers and other designers to create the end product site

Reasons to become a web designer

If you're an artist who innately looks for visual solutions to design problems and you also enjoy technology, a career in web design may be the best of both worlds. Web design allows you to not only stretch your creative wings but also keep up with the latest technology and standards.

In addition, business and communication skills are indispensable. As a web designer, you'll work with clients, developers, content teams and marketing departments, and to be successful, you'll need to be flexible and articulate your design vision effectively. Here are just five reasons to enjoy a web design career:

• Feed your creative side. From graphics to color schemes, website design jobs let you use artistic skills in your day-to-day work. If you have an excellent aesthetic sense and are detail-oriented in your design approach, then Web design might be a good match. Plus, designers who work for agencies rarely get bored because most projects require something new.
• Work on the web. Being a web designer enables you to not only work with websites every day but also to shape the way people interact with them. Plus, these days, a customer's first impression of a company is often through its website rather than print materials such as business cards or marketing mailings. Working with the Web as your medium allows you to make a big impact on a company's brand. The Web is always exciting because the industry changes frequently and best practices emerge and are fine-tuned, trends take hold and technology updates.
• Use sophisticated technology. If you enjoy using computers and design software, then web design jobs will provide the opportunity to do so. And you won't get bored working only with design software because web designers typically need to know HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
• Be independent. Although many designers work in-house for large organizations or are part of a design firm's staff, there are also many opportunities to work for yourself. Being self-employed allows you to pick what clients you want to work with, set your rates and work hours, specialize in websites for a certain business industry and hone your business and marketing skills.
• Work in a growing industry. Every company needs a website and wants to keep it looking current, which puts web designers in high demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its current Occupational Outlook Handbook, states that employment for web and digital interface designers is projected to grow 16.3% through 2031, which is much faster than average for all occupations.

---

Steps to becoming a web designer

---

Career paths

The web design universe has expanded beyond basic website design, and mobile and UI/UX have emerged as platforms and areas of dominance in the field. Companies such as AWS help manage and produce products for large and small companies, and technologies change constantly, which makes the field of web design both ever evolving and challenging. Here are just a couple of areas that continue to thrive in this huge universe:

Starting your own web design business

Starting a business requires thought, planning and education beyond the scope of web design. Here's how earning a bachelor's degree instead of an associate or a certificate can actually help you get there faster.

In a bachelor's program you'll likely have the option to take classes in other areas besides design, that can help you understand the complexities of owning and running a business. Classes in business management and accounting, psychology and physics will give you the skills to handle finances, loans and payroll, among other business-related topics—and possible provide insights into your clients' needs and wishes for their websites.

Here are seven tips for starting a successful web design business.

---

8 Tools you'll use

A good website designer will be well-versed in the tools of the trade, and while some tools remain staples and pioneers in the industry, there are always new and better tools to master. Here are just eight tools you can expect to use on the job:

---

What makes for a great web designer?

There are some basic traits and skills that you'll need to work as a web designer.

You are…	Skills you should have…
Creative	Communication skills
Original	Technical skills
Visual	Business skills
Detail oriented	Listening skills
Adaptable	Analytical skills
Able to handle criticism	Time-management skills
Customer oriented	Marketing knowledge

The online tech journal UpCity polled leaders in the web design field about what traits and abilities promoted designers to the top of their game. They published the results in their blog article, 20 Qualities of Top Website Designers. Here are our seven favorite traits that are sure to set a web designer apart from the crowd:

• Remington Begg, CEO of Impulse Creative: Have knowledge of key principles. Begg says, "Good web design principles are rarely innate, which means they almost always have to be learned."
• Ben Hunt, Internet Marketing Expert: Be self-learning. "The best designers…they're all learning every day, trying out new stuff, learning what works and what doesn't."
• Raini Setia, Mass Communication Post-graduate: Find solutions. "Getting stuck is part of handling things and a good designer looks for solutions not just alternatives."
• Nick Pettit, Designer and Teacher at Treehouse: Tell a story. "Websites are a communication medium, so clients want to see work that really says something."
• Randall Parrish, the Web Development Group: Be collaborative. "Bouncing ideas off one another throughout the design process only serves to make the final deliverable all the more refined."
• Penina Finger, Owner of Fantastic Machine Design Studio: Design for emotion by doing your homework. "Not only do your customers have feelings, but they have feelings which can't be captured in a single word."
• Isaac Campbell, Lead Designer at Fannit: Pay attention to the little things. "Incredibly observant people make the best designers. Their ability to see small details of a larger picture is indispensable."

Meriel Mayo, a Commerce IET-UX Designer at AWS, has all the skills and abilities these designers suggest, and we asked her to list what she considers the five top traits for success in the field. Here are her recommendations:

• Understand your market and audience (research, research, research).
• Know how to communicate effectively on the vision, and how to present your ideas to a group of people.
• Be a visual visionary and visual storyteller to help others see.
• Keep an eye on what's going on around you in technology, design trends and other emerging areas.
• Be process oriented and have a good methodology that others can adapt to.

---

Differences between a web designer and developer

Web development and design are often used as interchangeable terms, but although some of their duties overlap, web designers and web developers work in two distinct spheres of website production.

While different, web designers and web developers work hand in hand to create a visually pleasing and structurally sound website, it might help to picture a Venn diagram—in one circle are web designers, who are experts in the graphics and layout of a web page, and in the other circle are developers, who build and program the technical aspects of the site.

Where the overlap happens

You can usually be a great designer or developer, but it's rare to find one person who excels at both. In the overlapping intersection of our Venn diagram are some skills that both jobs know and use, and may include:

• Most developers and designers are familiar with HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
• WordPress and other content management systems allow someone to do both design by selecting themes and development by adding widgets and plug-ins.
• Designers and developers have the common goal of websites that have good usability and accessibility.
• Both work with content producers.
• If you're looking at web development and design careers but aren't sure which direction to focus on, take a look at the following chart for a side-by-side comparison.

---

Web designer salary and job growth

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says web and digital designers held over 101,000 jobs in 2021 and have a higher than the national average job growth rate. The BLS says the top employers of web and digital designers are:

• Computer systems design services
• Software publishers
• Retail trade
• Finance and insurance
• Advertising, public relations and related services

Salaries for web designers are equally impressive, with a median annual salary of $83,240. Salaries generally depend upon years of experience, location and education. You can look at salaries by state here:

Since geographic location plays an important role in what you can earn and where the jobs are, the BLS cites the following metropolitan areas as having the highest level of employment for web designers:

---

Groups to join

There are many groups for web designers, some regional, but there are national associations that can help with skills and certifications, job board postings and general networking. Some of the most known are:

---

Getting started

Comparing web design schools and choosing the right one for you are important first steps in your journey to getting the web design job you want. As you look at website design education programs, keep your priorities in mind. Should you choose a shorter program that will allow you to enter the workforce sooner? Or do you want the well-rounded education that a bachelor's degree can provide?

If you feel sure that a web designer education is the way to go to meet your future goals and aspirations, your first step is to find the right degree or certificate program for you. Our list of accredited schools can help you on your way to a coveted career in web and digital design.

Published: May 19, 2023