Website & Graphic Design Blog

What other disciplines does “Web Design” actually encompass?

This was a question from my blog stats …

First of all, you’re not going to understand the required disciplines (skills) for producing a website without first understanding the process for designing and developing a website.  And you’re right, there is much more to designing a site than may be apparent to the layman.

So here it is, in fairly generalized terms (to keep it short and sweet):

Information gathering, research and careful planning. Yes this is very necessary, for failing to plan is planning to fail!

Graphic design. The interface of the web site is designed in a graphics editor, this comes after proper planning.

Development. The graphic design has to be turned into a real working web site using a cross-section of important coding languages.

Search Engine Optimization. SEO and proper content development goes hand in hand.  It is recommended that the web designer/developer is supplied with the content for the site in the “Planning” stage (content before design).

Testing. Testing, like planning (as well as every step mentioned above) is critical.  Testing that the site works as designed; in other words that it is viewable across all major browsers (IE, FireFox, Safari, Opera), that it fits in all screen resolutions (current minimum to design for is 1024×768), etc.

Delivery. This is where the project contract is concluded and the designer hands off the finished product to the client.

This brings us to the required disciplines (skills) for successfully bringing all of the above to fruition:

Communication skills. You should know how to comport yourself professionally, and how to communicate effectively with your clients, both verbally and in writing.

Business skills. If you’re a freelancer, this is especially important.

Copy Writing skills. In some cases where your client requires you to research and write copy for them, then this is a great skill to have (not everyone is a great writer, so beware!). It is recommended that a professional copywriter is contracted to help research and write copy for the website where needed.

Graphic Design skills. By this I don’t just mean that you only need to have “mean Photoshop skillz”, learned in a week on some online tutorial. You really should know and understand the underlying principles of design as an art-form, and more specifically, when it comes to web design, understand the following terms and how to successfully apply these in a web design (these principles are applicable in web development as well – a bit of an overlap if you will):

• Usability
• User experience
• Information Architecture
• … and yes, understanding Search Engine Optimization will help you to design a better user-interface, and to develop a search-engine friendly site.

Development skills. Now, not every graphic designer is a developer, and not every developer is a graphic designer. You will often find these two individuals collaborating together, and sometimes, you will find a freelancer that is proficient in both design and development.

That’s it in a nutshell. There is, of course, a great deal more to this subject. This article is meant only as a simplified summary. If you have anything else to add, please leave a comment. Questions?  Feel free to ask.

Recently I’ve encountered a few blog posts discussing the merits of specializing or generalizing one’s skill sets and services to clients.  (This mostly applies to the freelance crowd).

It seems to me that there is some confusion among some professional designers / developers when it comes to this sticky topic.  At the end of the day it really is a personal choice, but nevertheless it does seem to stir up quite a debate.

The Bone of Contention:

Is it better to be a Specialist (focus on one or two skills only) or be a Jack of All Trades?

Simply, knowledge is power.  Cliche I know, but it really is a valid argument.

It is not about being a “Jack of all Trades Master of None” – this proverb is quite out of context in this debate, in my opinion, and does not quite accord with the truth.  One can master more than one skill in a lifetime – it all boils down to one’s talent, time, breadth of thinking, and willpower.

The point is that it is good, and smart, to have a sound knowledge base of all the pieces of the puzzle that ‘make up a web design’.  One can be a specialist (a master!) and yet end-up being short-sighted when one does not, or cannot, properly comprehend the ‘bigger picture’.

The bigger picture is that it takes much more than one or two specialized skill sets to produce a professional web design.  And even if you are specializing only in development, lets say, then this is not going to do you any good if you also don’t understand how for example SEO, user-experience or accessibility comes into play.

If you’re a graphic designer and you know next to nothing about the development end of things, or usability or information architecture then you are bound to produce what may be a great artistic piece from a pure design point of view, but which may in fact be problematic when it comes time to turn the work of art into a real website that is user friendly, accessible, search engine friendly, etc.

In my opinion (which is based on over 10 years experience in not only web design and development but other professional fields as well), having a sound knowledge base of skill-sets that live side-by-side to your ‘niche’, and then using that knowledge to produce a superior product, can be a very powerful and transformative tool.

It does not mean that because you have a broad knowledge base that you are not a master of  an acquired skill-set (or two or three), or that you shouldn’t focus on a skill you’re more adept at but instead spread yourself thin learning everything you can about every skill in the book, just because of a current market trend or because the general consensus tells you that you MUST generalize in order to be considered worthy.  It is simply a matter of logic, practicality and what works best, for YOU.

If being a generalist works for you, excellent.  If you’re a specialist that is excellent as well – there is room for both in this industry.  I am a generalist and I have no complaints, because I know how to conduct my business – been there done that.

If you want a solid opinion on the issue, then go knock on the doors of the guys who have been in this business a lot longer than most, and seen it all.  Jefferey Zeldman of A List Apart (amongst others) comes to mind here.

What it all comes down to is simply that with enough knowledge at your disposal, you can produce a better end-product, that is all, even if you focus on one niche only.

At least you’ll know enough about the other requirements, such as design, if your specialty is development, to outsource the design part of your project to a skilled designer who also understands development.  It is really quite simple.

It pays to be open-minded and open to learning and acquiring new skills, even if you don’t master them all.  It is human to set goals, open one self up to new experiences and to learn and to grow.  To do otherwise simply means you’re cooking your vegetable stew with cabbage and water, and nothing else.

Read: AIGA – Designer of 2015

www.wally.com

1.  Get a friend of a friend to design your site, without first finding out if this friend of a friend is truly qualified.

2.  Have an outsourcing company in India design the site for you.

3.  Give more creedence to Aunt Hattie’s opinion than the qualified professional you hired to design and develop your business website.

4.  Use a free website builder.

5.  Buy a cheap template on the web and try to hack the site together yourself with Microsoft Frontpage (or the free web builder).  After all, you know “just enough” to be dangerous with HTML!  (I actually had someone say that to me once).

6.  You paid $1000’s of dollars for a professional website for your business, the result was everything you expected, but … you like “tinkering” with your site so you’d like to do the updates because [insert latter part of reason #5 here].

These are just some excellent steps I can think of, off the top of my head.  Got any more to share, or some lovely examples, like this?  The Big Ugly Website