Does Taking A Web Design Course Make You A Web Designer?
Are you interested in becoming a web designer? Or perhaps you’re looking for a Montreal web designer? Before you can do either, you should learn about what it takes to become one. Whether you want to be one, or you want to hire one, it’s important to understand how web design courses work, and what web designers do.
What Does A Web Designer Do?
Before we get into the semantics about who is and isn’t a web designer, it’s important to understand just what a web designer does. GraphicDesignDegreeHub puts it simply, “A web designer is responsible for creating attractive and fully functional websites, but they do more than just that”. Yes, they design websites and make them visually appealing, but there are so many little parts, and behind-the-scenes aspects that go into creating a website.
Creating a website begins with the web designer’s communication with their client; if they don’t know exactly what their client wants, then they can’t give them the website they need. Then, once they have a general idea of what the website needs to look like, and how it needs to function, they begin organizing information, creating visual designs, creating content, etc..
The link mentioned above provides a pretty nice list of some of the things a web designer may do:
- Using appropriate underlying technologies for website functionality
- Designing navigational elements
- Translating needs of clients and users into concepts
- Turning brand into graphics, colors, layout and fonts
- Using HTML coding to layout the website
- Presenting content
- Designing to search engine optimization and rankings
- Updating the website as needed
There are many more tasks that could be included in this list, but this will help you gain a general idea.
What Will You Learn In A Web Design Course?
While there are many courses you could choose from, MockPlus helpfully put together a list of the ten online courses. These courses were chosen based on different criteria such as price, ability to choose when you watch the training videos, what you learn, and more.
The great news is that you don’t need a degree to become a web designer, although some people will study computer science, graphic design, or communications to perhaps gain an advantage over their competitors.
So, taking a course in web design does not mean you have to go to school for four years. You can choose any course you find online, and some universities offer courses for credit, without the need to enroll full-time.
With this in mind, make sure you’re choosing a course that will teach you all the skills you need to know. At the very least, the courses should teach how to use HTML, CSS, or Javascript. There is no website without code, so there is no website design without these. Once you’re sure the course covers at least this much, decide what you think would be helpful. You can choose courses that teach responsive designs, design principles, user interface or user experience design (click here to understand what UI/UX is), web hosting, how to embed animations, and so much more.
After Learning All That… Are You A Web Designer Now?
So, can you become a web designer after taking one course? Yes. But does taking that course automatically make you a web designer? Absolutely not. A lot of hard work and talent goes into being a web designer and, while a course will be a building block on your way to becoming one, you still need to put in your time. Think of it this way: if you take one cooking class, does that mean you can cook as well as Julia Child? No, so taking one web design course can help you get started, but you’re not quite there yet.
But don’t’ be discouraged! It just takes time, practice, and commitment. If you’ve got all of those, plus the creative and technical skills, you’ll be a professional web designer in no time.
