How to Become a Web Designer

To become a web designer, you should study the creative and technical aspects of creating attractive web pages. Through a bachelor’s degree program or certification through a college program, you can learn how to become a web designer and work with all the website's visual components, from colour and font to layout. 

Read on to explore the web design skills, education and credentials you may need, and courses you can take to get started. 

Build the right skills for web design

Web designers can benefit from a variety of technical and workplace skills. You can have an eye for creative web design and learn how to put it to use, gaining or refining these skills.

Technical skills 

Web design technical skills are design and technical skills needed to create a website. To start, you should experiment with design software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, and Illustrator, to acquire design skills. With these tools, you can learn how to combine fonts, colours, patterns, and white space for eye-catching web design. These types of software also help with tasks like photo modification, logo design, and website layouts (called mockups). 

To succeed as a web designer, learning about the back end of the process is essential. Here are some technical skills you'll likely pick up along the way.  

HTML

Hypertext markup language (HTML) is what you'll use to build the structure of a webpage. With this tool, you can learn how to perform these functions and more:

• Insert headings, lists, tables, spreadsheets, and photos into web page copy

• Add hypertext links so users can move quickly to another web page

• Design forms for user interactions like ordering products or making reservations

• Incorporate applications like video clips and sound clips into web page copy 

CSS

As HTML provides structure to your web page, cascading style sheets (CSS) is the computer language that gives it style. With this tool, you can change fonts, adjust colour, modify backgrounds, and more.

JavaScript

JavaScript (JS) is a scripting language used with HTML and CSS to make web pages more interactive. With JavaScript, you can generate and control elements of web pages like photo slideshows, interactive forms, and animated graphics. 

UX

Short for user experience, UX is a style of website design that focuses on what a user needs. Good UX designers consider website accessibility, usability, and visual style and consider how a web page makes a user feel. One practical example of good UX design is building a website responsive to a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, and mobile device. 

Python/Django

Python is a simple, versatile, and efficient programming language. You can use Python to create web applications and games, conduct statistical calculations, and more. If you're looking to build a complex, scalable website like Netflix or Spotify, you might use Django, a popular website-building framework written in Python.  

Take a closer look at web design-related courses and certificate programs on Coursera:

•Web Design for Everybody from the University of Michigan

•HTML, CSS, and Javascript for Web Developers from Johns Hopkins University

•Google UX Design Professional Certificate from Google

Workplace skills

Also known as core skills, workplace skills have to do with how you work with others and on your own. Examples of workplace skills that benefit web designers include:

• Creativity

• Critical thinking

• Reliability

• Organizational skills

• Time management

• Attention to detail

• Problem-solving 

• Communication

• Conflict resolution

You can work on building these skills in your daily life. For example, strengthen your attention to detail by being more observant of the creative choices that go into other people’s designs. 

What education do you need to become a web designer?

There are a number of educational paths to a career in web design. Exploring your options can make it easier to decide on the best path for you.

Earn a certification in web design.

You can learn many skills you'll need to become a web designer through certification and degree programs. These programs are an attractive option if you want to earn a credential in less time and with a lower investment than a degree. Typically, these programs last one year or less. You can find many certifications or certificate programs online.

If you're interested in single-subject certifications, you can find courses on various coding languages, concepts in web design, and more. Or, you can look for programs combining several subjects into one certification. Some students enrolled in these programs get a bachelor's degree in web design later. 

Consider earning a degree.

If you're committed to becoming a web designer, you might want to pursue a bachelor’s degree in web development or information technology. 

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor’s degree is optional, but if you're interested in getting one in web design, the journey will likely take four or more years if you attend classes full-time. You can get a bachelor’s degree in web design and development from one of the seven universities that offer web design and development programs in Canada [1]. Examples of classes you might take for this degree include:

• Basic and advanced database structures

• Programming languages and platforms

• Web scripting

• Web publishing 

• 3D modelling 

• Graphic design 

• Human-computer interface (HCI) design

• Visual frameworks

Next steps

Taking online courses is a great way to build web design skills and explore career options. Consider an online introductory course on Coursera, such as Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding from the University of Michigan or Meta's Introduction to Front-End Development. You can also check out specific web design skills you're interested in, such as HTML or UX design.