Six Outlaws for Web Designers

In addition to improving design ability, there are still some aspects that you need to understand or even learn to design web pages well if you want to be an excellent designer. I have to say one Web Design A teacher is a miscellaneous scientist. Graphic designers can use various special typeface , irregular layout, and so on. Because of some limitations of web pages, web designers need to complete the design under some special restrictions. In addition to understanding design, we also need to understand or even learn some knowledge unrelated to design to do a good job in design.

Although I had sorted it out before I wrote this article, I found that if I wanted to list all my non professional abilities in web design, it was really: the old lady looked at the map – where would I go. It involves too many aspects. In addition, due to my limited ability, I found that my ability to master web designers is not enough. First, make a list of 6 important things to encourage each other.

1. Coding capability

Due to the limitation of web code, web designers need to know what can be done and what cannot be done before designing. It is not possible to do layout design as graphic designers do. Not only that, but also how to design SEO Favorable, which means that many characters cannot be displayed in pictures with special fonts.

Coding capability includes many aspects: HTML code, css+div, js, action script, etc. Here are some codes from my personal experience:

• HTML： Don't even know how to claim to know the web page? You can search the tutorial on Google for details.

• css+div： At the beginning of learning, I read several books respectively, and compared them with the "CSS Website Layout Record: Web Standards Based Website Design Guide", which is very practical. Others, such as CSS Zen Garden, can be ignored.

• actionscript: I have to say that after so many years of development FLASH It is a very important part of the website. Several basic functions of AS2, such as gotoAndStop(), gotoAndStop(), getURL (), still need to be mastered. For example, if you are interested in AS3, please refer to Heiyu's "The Road to the Hall of Flash ActionScript 3" (a bit complicated, but a challenge for designers without programming experience).

• javascript： I can't help it. It's really annoying to bother programmers to add small JavaScript programs. Not to mention being able to write, at least you can understand the code and modify the existing code.

• php, ASP , .net： This is also true. If you think you are an attractive person company The handsome guy of a beautiful programmer, go to find someone else for minor modification. Or think you are a beautiful woman who can attract handsome programmers in your company. If the other party is not willing to help, then try to be self reliant.

2. Lifting User experience Ability of

Although user experience has been paid attention to abroad since 2000, it has only become popular in China in recent years. After all, the purpose of building a website is not to give users an interface to appreciate, but to let users use the website. The interface of the website is designed well, but the user is not smooth. Then, users cannot be retained.

There are many books about user experience, which are not listed here. Interested students can see my previous article "Sorting out the Interactive Books I Read", which lists in detail some of the user experience and Interaction design A book about. In addition, the article How Interaction Designers Improve Their Capabilities should also help students interested in user experience.

3. Statement expression design ability

There is no denying that the designers rely on their own designs to impress customers. However, this still requires the designer to have enough presentation ability to elaborate his works. He not only needs to show the design to customers, but also needs to convince customers to accept the design with words. To answer customer questions such as: "Why do you need red instead of black?", "Why do you want vertical layout instead of horizontal layout of competitors?". How to persuade customers smoothly is also a skill, which is mentioned in Translation: How to persuade your users, bosses or customers.

4. Ability to communicate with customers

After elaborating the design works, the next step is to communicate with customers. Only through full communication can we dig out some original unknown ideas of customers. Why do people say that designing is so tiring? Although the final draft is only one, repeated communication and revision account for most of the designer's time and energy. Some were even tortured.

I believe that only by fully communicating with customers can we ensure that the revised design can better match the customers' ideas. In this way, the customer will dare to let you do it, and prove your confidence to the customer, which also means that the amount of modification will not increase so much.

But blindly acting as a responder will only make the customer feel that he is a design expert, and you are just a tool to complete his design. Remember: You are an expert in design. Don't blindly agree to the excessive design requirements of customers who are not design experts. Otherwise, the customer will not only lead us by the nose, but also if we make a mistake, we can also fight against the rakes by pig Bajie. I think this is also the trouble of many designers. I won't talk about it here. If you are interested, please refer to the previous article: Designer's ability: full preparation - making your design easier to pass.

5. The ability to continue self-learning

If you pay enough attention to the design industry, you will find that the popular design styles are different every year: in 2004, Korean style was popular, with large solid color blocks and delicate gradient colors everywhere. Since 2005, the web2.0 style has gradually become popular, and a series of styles such as font size have become popular. It also requires designers to always care about the design trend. Instead of following the trend, designers should absorb useful elements from the design trend to improve their design ability.

On the other hand, as you can see, Internet technology has been in constant high-speed development. If the popular technology a few years ago is not supplemented and learned in a timely manner, the ability may be outdated in a few years. Therefore, web design should not only have an understanding of the existing technology, but also maintain the mentality of full learning to recharge. This is also the reason mentioned in the previous article: "Copying - One of the Essential Skills for Web Designers". Through constant copying, we can "keep pace with the times" with the design trend. Of course, we should be honest and remember the "eight honors and eight disgraces" of designers. Don't grab a few screens to put together and go outside to show off. It can be said that the earth is big, but the network is not big. Copycat works are hard to be seen through.

6. Communicative Competence

As the saying goes, three heroes help one another.

If designers not only do vision Design, and at the same time, update the program of the customer's website (although there are many free and open source CMS systems available now, it is hard to guarantee that the customer needs to change the code). At this time, it is very important to have a programmer friend who can help change the code. Maybe the designer needs to change the code for 2-3 hours, and they can do it in about ten minutes. Therefore, it is very important to have a good partner.

On the other hand, although it is said that peers are enemies. However, it does not affect some exchanges between designers. There are many benefits: exchange design experience with each other/form a team to receive cases that cannot be completed by a single designer, etc; In addition, there are many handsome men and beautiful women doing design. If there is love or something besides cooperation after meeting, there is no way. Hum hum~~