пропозиції роботи
Marta
W.
Quality inzynier
(Aerospace,
defence, F1)
Temat: Charakterystyka dobrego projektanta stron internetowych...
Witam wszystkich....znalazłam całkiem interesujących słow pare....
Characteristic of good web designer
September 3, 2009
author: Karol Zielinski
Tags: characteristic, charasterics, design, web designer, web development, webdesigner
Everyone could be a web designer. Few days ago I tried to explain what’s the difference between web designer, graphic designer, frontend developer, flash designer and flash devloper. Now it’s a great time to explain what is a characteristic of good web designer.
First of all… is that you need to understand one thing: it’s not enough if you are good designer, it’s not enough if you know Photoshop as your own pocket. If you want to be a web designer… you must know how to create whole website, not just a part of it. Web designer is a guy, who can create whole frontend of the website.
Now, have a look at the list below. Good web designer:
* needs to love Internet and be interested in it. Good web designer simply MUST love Internet and be interested in all kind of stuff related with it. What’s the most important is that he (or she) need to be interested in all kind of new web trends.
* needs to talk to other web designers and presents his/her works. Web designer need to have an account on most popular social media sites, need to know what is deviantart.com, flickr.com, istockphoto.com and these kind of websites, where he (or she) can present his (or her) works.
* needs to read other web designers’ blogs. Good web designer has to know what is smashingmagazine.com, six revisions, web design ledger or webdesigner depot. He (or she) needs to read these kind of blogs and comment entries on these blogs.
* should read other (none-web) designers’ blogs. Good web designer should be interested in nice things, beautiful illustrations and photos, interesting projects and ads. Not only… web-based projects. These kind of things simply inspire him.
* needs to know how to work without wireframes and specifications. I truly believe in the easiest possible wireframes – hand skatched on paper. I wrote about it some time ago. However… good web designer needs to know how to work without any helpers (like a wireframe). Good web designer needs to understand… that sometimes – client just wants to have a good project and truly doesn’t want to describe how each part of his website should looks like. I know that ‘good project’ is something else for each of us. However… sometimes client just wants to give a chance to demonstrate designer’s skills, because he simply believes in his possibilities.
* needs to like to learn new things, read tutorials, test and learn new tools. Good web designer simple wants to learn new things and from time to time – he (or she) wants to try build the same thing using other (most likely: better) methods or tools.
* needs to know that not all of the things he (or she) can create in Photoshop could be a web-based project. You can quarrel with me because of that. However… I won’t change my opinion. Not all kind of things built in Photoshop could be used in websites. Sometimes… it’s just impossible to have the same effects or to have the same looking web-based projects as it could be looking if it would be a JPG or a PNG file.
* needs to know what is SEO. Yeah! SEO is one of the most important things in web development. Good web designer needs to know what is SEO (search engine optimization) and how to build good website for search engines.
* needs to know what is usability. Users like easy-to-use tools and websites. Good web designer needs to know why is that and how to build this kind of website. In addition, it’s really nice if web designer know what is Alertbox and heard about “Don’t make me think” book.
* needs to know what is image optimalization and how to compress images. There won’t be easy-to-use and good web site, if this website won’t be fast. And… there won’t be a fast web site without methods of image optimalization.
* needs to know how to use Photoshop (and should know what is Gimp). That’s the first thing, that all kind of designers should learn… especially web designers. All kind of web designers must perfectly know Photoshop. They have to know how to add and use filters, brushes, fonts, etc.
* should know what’s the difference between vector and pixel and how to use Adobe Illustrator. Maybe it’s not so important for web designers… that’s much more important for graphic designers. However… all of the web designers want to create/draw nice illustrations. That’s why they learn how to use Adobe Illustrator and similar vector graphics editors.
* needs to know how to use (x)HTML, CSS. That’s why (web) graphic designer is not a web designer. That’s the difference… web designer simply has to know how to use (x)HTML and CSS. Web designer has to be interested in all kind of methods of building frontends.
* should know how to use JavaScript. JavaScript is not so easy… especially for designers. It’s a programming language, not some kind of ‘design stuff’. However… good web designer should know basic things of that language, he (or she) should know what is jQuery or Prototype, how to use these frameworks and how to add new plugins to his (or her) projects.
* needs to know all differences between Internet Explorer (6/7/8), Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari. Yes… in this place - I mean cross-browser design. That’s the worst thing for all kind of web designers, frontend developers, etc. They simply have to know why in IE this box is five pixels on the left, and why in Opera these fonts are so big and this box is too much on the right. Everybody freak out when they hear about cross-browsing… unfortunately for web designers it’s normal day of work.
* should know basics of flash. Flash is nice… and web designers has to love nice things. Good web designer doesn’t has to know how to build advanced projects in this technology – it’s a work for flash designer or flash developer. Hovewer… he (or she) should know how to design static images for flash projects, and how to create simple animations.
* should know english. It’s not obligatory, however it’s really useful. All of that because… all the tech-world speaks english, all the best designers can speak english, most of really good documentations, books and tutorials are in english.
* doesn’t need any art degree. If you want to be a good web designer – you need to have an open mind, you must think like a client, like a potential user… not like your art teacher teached you. Good web designer needs to focus on users’ needs, while create something really nice and innovative. Good web designer has to know how reconcile beauty and client’s needs.
* doesn’t need to like talking to clients, but he needs to know how to listen them. Good web designer needs to listen his client. If not – he simply won’t create, what client needs and won’t earn any money. Web designer should advise, should be innovative, should be smart. Web designers (especially these worse ones) has some disease… they think that only they have sense of taste and they know the best what is nice and what is not. However… good web designer needs to remember that the most important person in the project is a client and the last word always belongs to him.
So, are you a good web designer?
