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Career Spotlight: Web Design
If you’re looking for an exciting career where you can still make your mark, try web design, says Shaun Uthup, creative director of web design agency, Sozo. With companies all over the world competing to have the most effective website, web designers are more in demand than ever right now.
What is web design?
Web design is a bit of an overused word – there is a clear distinction between a web designer, who is concerned with branding and layout and probably has a graphic design background, and a web programmer, who deals with the more technical side of building a website. It’s actually very rare to find someone who can do both well.
So what does a web designer do?
A web designer’s primary job is to get the look of the whole site right. There are many types of websites, but the designer should make sure it relates to the brand and the unique selling point (USP) of the company you’re designing for. The designer also needs to make sure the site is designed in such a way that it talks to the target audience and that it guides people to different parts of the site effectively.
How does web design differ from other types of graphic design, such as magazines?
A website is so much more than just an online brochure – you have to think about the interactivity of the site and how different people are going to use it. People come to the site for lots of different reasons, so it’s got to appeal to everyone and be easy to use so that visitors can get to where they want to get to. Another way in which it differs from print design is that you’re faced with a number of technical restraints. On a magazine or print brochure you can use any number of fonts and graphics but that’s not always possible on a website. There are also lots of constraints in the programming side that you have to overcome.
Is it a good time to be in web design?
An economic downturn is actually a great time to be in web design because people are focusing on their site more. Websites are now the main marketing tool for many companies, so there’s a big demand for it. The industry moves very quickly and clients are constantly trying to outdo their competitors, which means redoing their sites every so often. It’s a very different feeling to how it was five years ago, when companies only had websites because everyone else had one – now they’ll actively forfeit print brochures so they can have a really good website.
What do you enjoy about being a web designer?
I like the fact that you can track results so precisely – we know the habits of every single visitor to each of our sites and we can present this information to the client who’ll see exactly where their money is being spent. What’s great is that you can then make changes accordingly, so the site is constantly evolving.
It’s also a very exciting industry because it is still relatively
young and new. That means it’s still possible to do something that
no-one else has done before. And I enjoy the variety – working with
different industries and different types of people. It’s an extremely
flexible career – you can pretty much work from anywhere and keep your
own hours if you want to freelance.
What skills do you need to be a web designer?
You definitely need graphic design skills and it often helps to have worked with print beforehand. A lot of sites fall down because the designer doesn’t have any experience of typography – working in print will teach you how to use the right font so the site looks better, reads better and communicates better.
It would suit someone who is creative, with original thought and who is open to new ideas but can keep up with trends, because website design changes so quickly. It helps if you have a genuine interest in websites and an understanding of marketing.
What advice do you have for anyone wanting to become a web designer?
A degree in graphic design is still essential. At the moment, universities haven’t caught up with the industry, which means there aren’t many creative web design courses. A traditional graphic design course will teach you all the design skills though and anyone with a background in this will be able to do web design.
For more career spotlights, visit www.jobsite.co.uk.
To see examples of Sozo’s web designs, visit www.sozodesign.co.uk
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