2. 12 Tips for Becoming a Successful Web Designer http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/general/12-tips-for-becoming-a-successful-web-designer/
3. Tip 01: Effective Communication Skills It is quite understandable that creative souls are not intuitively chatty in nature. However, when it comes to presenting yourself and selling your work, one has to be bold and clear in his communication with the client. You need to be able to speak intelligently about your design choices – why you chose them and how your design choice is the right one for their business.
4. Tip 02: Be Able to Sell Yourself Designers are usually humble in nature, however, when it comes to professional success, you’ll have to elbow your way to the top and mark your presence. There are a number of ways you can do so. Word of mouth marketing, social media marketing and even business card marketing can work well. However, if you prefer to sit back in your cozy chair and wait for the clients to know you and come to you, then you are doomed!
7. Pondering upon what his competitors are doing and the related industry trendsAlthough planning is a hectic and less interesting process (and so many designers are inclined to skip it), pre-design planning saves your time, money and resources the best.
8. Tip 04: Evaluate Your Own Work and Get Feedback Like all other aforementioned factors, having a good eye in pointing out mistakes in your own work is a quality that success-oriented web designers should possess. The web designers should act as a devil’s advocate and judge the success of their website being in the target audience’s shoes. Furthermore, taking some time to have other people check your work for mistakes will go a long ways as well.
9. Tip 05: Be a Web Designer, Not a Graphic Designer The reality is that web designing is a completely separate field of designing, having its own flare and expertise. There is always the possibility that a graphic designers advances to the level of a web designer once he learns certain technical skills, but it’s important not to assume that a rockstar graphic designer will instantly be successful when designing for the web. For the success of your web business, you should commit yourself to the field of web designing and specialize yourself in it.
10. Tip 06: Up-Date Yourself With New Technology The world of computer technology changes almost every day, and to keep pace with it, a web designer needs to be technologically in tune with the changes in the industry. Slice out a segment of your work-day or week and dedicate it to learning new things in your field. Find out what’s new, what’s trending, and what’s falling to the wayside.
11. Tip 07: Don’t Neglect the Web Design “Soft Skills” Every other day there is a new technique being introduced. Even if you aren’t the one programming these new tricks, a successful designer needs to learn and understand how to apply these techniques well. Apart from other core design skills, it’s important to have full grasp on subjects like, the most modern HTML coding, high quality CSS for best cross browser compatibility, smart basic search engine optimization practices, Javascript UI techniques, and to build a foundational site in that you can add more pages or content with the passage of time.
12. Tip 08: Gain Experience Experience counts, sometimes even more than your qualifications or skills. Likewise, a web designer’s success depends a lot on your experience in the field. If you’re still studying in school: Don’t just wait for college to end in order to start working, it’s worth the extra time to start working on web projects right now. The more experience you get under your belt, the quicker you’ll move up in the world of web designers.
13. Tip 09: Be Organized A well-organized professional is a born champion. No matter which field of profession you belong to, being organized is important for every person to be successful. Likewise, in the case of web designing, your work can get really messy at times, and this may lead you to many problems. So start off with organizing your computer by classifying texts, pictures, graphics, videos and even sound files in separate folders and label them appropriately.
14. Tip 10: Have Business Sense Web designers, either freelance or salaried employees, should have business mentality when approaching any project. Design in the real world is all about salesmanship, making value assessments, and balancing costs. A successful web designer does not only design the websites for their clients, they create business solutions for them as well. However, if you find managing the business side of design a bit difficult to do, it’s worth looking into working with a larger studio that will take on the major responsibilities for you.
15. Tip 11: Be a Team Player Web designing is rarely a one-man show. Whether you work in a big design studio or with a small client, team work is inevitable. Being a good team player means understanding your role in the larger scheme of things, and being helpful to others – as the old saying goes: two heads are always better than one. Learn to effectively collaborate with others, and watch your work improve!
16. Tip 12: Keep an Updated Portfolio While a poster designer can probably get away with keeping projects from the 1980′s in their portfolios because the designs are still relevant, consider how awful your web-design portfolio would be if you kept projects from the 1990′s! You’ll want a portfolio that covers every aspect of web designing… including layouts, content management, composition, typography, colors, techniques and design rationales. Showing your potential clients the full scope of your work will help you not only to get clients, but it will also help you to justify charging more money as well!
17. What does this mean? Develop good designer habits Focus on Goals Communicate with various constituents Keep up with the field Build Experience
18. Today’s Task-1 Let’s embed 2 Flash objects on our website: a Flash SWF & a Flash Video
24. Social Tools Mailchimp Facebook Social Plugins Twitter Widgets Delicious Bookmark this Button
25. Today’s Task-2 1. Go to External Links of our Blackboard Course site. 2. Visit some of the plug-ins that seems useful for your site. 3. Experiment!
