31 Getting Started Right
average items and make sure your best items are the ones getting
seen. It’s tough to walk that fine line between “too sparse” and
“design warehouse,” but by carefully curating your items, you’ll
impress your clients.
Improve Your Skills
You might think that the challenge of educating yourself ended
when you received your college degree or certification, but con-
tinuous learning and keeping current on design trends and tools
is a large part of being a professional web designer. You might
start your career with general experience in a number of skills and
technologies, but it’s impossible to become an expert and stay
cutting-edge in them all. We asked designers what skills they felt
were most vital to the field.
What skills do you feel it’s important for a web designer to
know well?
Inevitably, the basic tools of graphic design and HTML & CSS
topped the list. Almost unanimously, your colleagues and clients
will expect you to master these. These are the basic tools of the
trade that you’ll want to keep in your skillset indefinitely. However,
HTML & CSS
Photoshop and
graphic design
Web typography
UI or UX design
JavaScript
& JQuery
HTML5
CMS skinning
(WordPress, etc.)
Mobile design
PHP
Flash or other
rich media
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
14.4%
39.5%
41.5%
51.7%
58.1%
64.1%
64.6%
66.5%
86.3%
92.6%
