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Web design, What qualifications do you need for a web designer?

Website design is a skill and an art. While creativity plays a very important role in creating beautiful and effective websites, knowledge is equally important for developing powerful layouts that convert. This article takes a closer look at the key things to look for in a web designer to maximize your chances of picking a reliable and knowledgeable professional.

As more and more people access the web using a smartphone or another type of mobile device, a good website needs to be fluid and to perfectly adapt to a wide array of devices and screens. The first and foremost skill of a good web designer is the ability to develop responsive websites. Responsive web design is a set of best practices all web designers should know and implement in their projects. When a website is perfectly functional on all viewing devices, users tend to visit more pages during one session. Also, they tend to spend a longer time on the website, as they follow through the sales funnel to accomplish the specific goals you’ve set in the beginning of your project. Search engines reward websites that cater to the user by offering them higher positions in the SERPs. This can help you save money on search engine marketing, as your SEO endeavors will be more effective.

A good web designer should be able to think beyond the look and feel of a website. The loading speed, for instance, can make a huge difference in the way Google crawls, indexes and ranks a website. It is true that a good web developer or coder can use specific programming techniques that can speed up the loading of a website. However, if the web designer doesn’t know how to avoid bulky or slow-loading visual and functional elements, the coder won’t be able to do wonders for the loading speed of the web page. When choosing a web designer, ensure you get one who knows how to optimize a layout to load as fast as possible.

Good web designers are always up-to-date with the latest news in their industry. They know what the best practices are at any given time, and they are able to implement them in the projects they develop for their current and future clients. If, for instance, you come across a web designer who doesn’t know what a hamburger menu is, you should cross them off your shortlist. Everybody browsing the web on a mobile device knows hamburger menus and expects to see them on every website they visit.

Skills and creativity are very important, but they aren’t the only things to look for in a good web designer. A really good professional should have excellent communication skills, in order to be able to understand what their clients need and to deliver the results these clients expect. Before everything else, you have to ensure the web designer you intend to hire is able to communicate with you in a smooth and effective manner. He or she has to keep you informed on all progress, so that you can keep tabs on your project and schedule other activities accordingly. A web designer who is very difficult to reach may not be the best choice ever. Web design shouldn’t be a black box. Good websites are usually the result of a close cooperation between web designers and their clients.

Last but not least, the best web designers are able to stick to the agreed deadlines. Reliability is as important as any of the above mentioned skills and abilities. If you need a website for the launch of a new product, you won’t be too happy to have it delivered with a three-months delay. Pay close attention to all these details and you’ll surely make the best choice.