9 Ways to Become a Better Web Designer

Sometimes all is going well. People are liking your work, you are getting more clients, making more money – everything is going smoothly. Until all of a sudden, everything stops. Your business slows down, your clients seem unhappy, you seem to mess up every project you get.

This happens when you feel uninspired and bored. Web designing is an art. You are an artist. If you don’t feel inspired by your work, you are never going to get profits from it.

The key in web design business is to keep learning – yes it will never end. Surround yourself with inspiring and talented people and always look to learn new things. You love web designing, of course you do otherwise you wouldn’t have become a designer.

So don’t quit or lose heart if things are not going the way you had wished. Here are nine ways to transform you as a web designer. Get ready to be reborn as a web designer.

1: A tutorial a day, keep the worries away

Tutorials are a MUST if you want to keep yourself up to date with new technologies. Things are changing fast out there and one must keep up. If you set yourself a goal for one tutorial per day, you will be shocked to see how you improve as a web designer simply by watching an 11 minute video or reading a 1000 word article.

There are countless sites that offer free tutorials. Our ancestors (web designers from 90s and early 2000s) had to purchase books, visit experts to learn new skills. What do we have to do? Sit in the comfort of our home and utilize free tutorials, pfft…!

2: Recreate your favorite designs

There are always a few designs that you absolutely adore. You jaw drops when you look at them and cannot stop but appreciate the marvel of the designers who designed them. When you come out of the state of amazement, ask yourself this: “why can’t I create these designs?” – The answer probably would be: “because I have never tried…”

Recreate your favorite designs or the works of your favorite designer. These may not have any commercial value, but they will increase your skills by ten-folds. After creating an awesome design, you will feel that you are ready to go to next level!

3: Read tech magazines and follow interviews of industry people

If you do a Google search you will find many great tech magazines out there, both print and online. Reading magazines will give you a unique insight into the industry, you will get to know what the “big boys” are doing.

Following interviews of industry related people will give you guidelines and tips. Think of it like if you wanted to become a musician, won’t you watch interviews of notable musicians to see how they go about their life? – You are a star, embrace it! You don’t have to read these magazines cover to cover, reading important stuff while skipping the rest of perfectly fine.

According to a study, you are more likely to read a hard copy subscription with more interest than ‘just another online read’.

4: Beautify your workspace

Redecorating your workspace will give you enormous amounts of motivation, inspiring and creativity. I am not overselling this point. Designers tend to take their surroundings for granted but go ahead and redecorate your workspace – you will see notable increase in your work proficiency, guaranteed!

For the record, by beautifying and redecoration I don’t mean renovation with huge amounts of money. Just clean everything up, put a new poster, new sets of pens, put some stickers on your monitor, moving your desk to a different location and so on, these types of things would do. You don’t have to buy new furniture or move into an expensive office to achieve beautification of your workspace.

5: Make friends, go to events, conferences and seminars

One thing web designers, in fact all IT professionals, lack are the social skills. While it is perfectly alright to be a geek (I know, I am as anti-social as they come), but you should focus on human networking. Make contacts, make friends, share work experiences, if need be help them out.

The other thing is to go to seminars, events and conferences. Once at a conference, talk to as many people as possible. Tell them about yourself, try to make them your clients.

6: Always keep a notebook

This might sound old school but it is very important. Before you start a web design project, it is important that you chalk it out on paper. Plan your projects, timelines and important notes, essentially make it your work diary.

It will help you organize your work to an extent you couldn’t have imagined.

7: Subscribe to various design blogs

Apart from reading books and magazines, you should subscribe to various blogs. Reading articles, tips, tutorials will help you learn new things quickly. The other benefit of reading blogs is the interactive comments section, almost every good blog has them. You can share your problems, solve other people’s problems, give feedback and ideas, overall this activity will help you tremendously.

9: Use a project management software for better planning

It is only recently that I myself started this practice and found it to be very helpful. There are various project management tools such as Slack, Trello, Bitrix and Basecamp. It doesn’t matter which project management tool you use. Make sure you are planning your work properly.

Project management tool will help you keep your deadlines. The more organized you are, the better your work flow would be.

9: Keep on trying new tools

Like I stated before, web design learning is a never ending platform. Every day you get to learn new things. In order to keep up your inspiration for designing great websites, you should try new tools frequently.

The tools you use don’t have to be related specifically to your work. It will just help you keep an eye on latest ideas and trendy stuff in the market.

Web designing is a great thing, only the most fortunate people get to do it, act like a privileged person. It could be worse, imagine organizing events or selling insurance for living!