The Internet and digital technologies give almost everyone the chance to start a new business, but it wouldn’t be possible without the good old web design. It’s a cornerstone of modern business because no one can afford to run a company without a professionally-looking website.

That’s why web designers are always in demand, while the average salary for this position in the United States reaches $86 thousand a year. However, the industry is getting increasingly complex and difficult in the last few years, so only the most proficient web designers can make that much.

If you are looking for the top-notch professional in this field, you need to understand the traits and qualities of a successful web designer. In this article, we will present you 10 web design skills which will be in demand in 2019. Let’s begin!

What Is Web Design: Definition and Explanation

Before we start discussing the traits of a quality web designer, we need to make a distinction between several overlapping categories. Namely, we’ve noticed that a lot of people confuse web design with similar occupations such as graphic design or web development.

While it is true that these professions intersect in many ways, it doesn’t change the fact that they represent different fields of work. Therefore, we need to make things clear and define each one of the three concepts:

• A web designer creates the look, layout, and features of a website and associated applications. The job involves understanding both graphic design and computer programming.
• A web developer is a programmer who specializes in the development of applications relating to the Internet or distributed network applications. Unlike designers, a web developer is usually concerned with the back end or the programming aspect of creating a website.
• A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and advertising.

Reading these definitions, you could probably see that the three occupations revolve more or less around the Internet, but each one in a slightly different manner. We hope this helped you figure things out so that we can move on to the most important segment of our post.

10 Traits That Make a Good Web Designer

We already mentioned that web design is a complex profession with dozens of different variables. In such circumstances, our goal is not to describe all traits of a productive web designer, but only 10 features necessary for the highest-quality work in 2019. Without further ado, here are these skills:

1. Multi-tool expertise

A modern web designer must have a solid understanding of several tools. Today, it’s not enough to use only one or two software such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. While these two platforms definitely play a major role in the web design industry, there are many other tools that have the potential to improve the design process. Some of these tools include:

• Sketch: This is one of the primary Photoshop alternatives that rely on simple document sorting and friendly interface design. At the same time, Sketch has dozens of useful plugins that make web design seem effortless.
• Affinity Designer: Another super-useful web design platform, Affinity Designer is giving you the opportunity to play with flexible vectors and images without corrupting them. Besides that, it has a powerful zooming capacity that is over 30 times higher than Photoshop.
• Figma: This platform enables multiple users to collaborate effortlessly in the real-time environment.

There is a plenty of other web design tools to use in 2019, but we just mentioned a few examples to show you the importance of finding a professional who doesn’t stick strictly to traditional (but is some ways obsolete) design tools.

2. Mobile-friendly design

In the world where over four billion people own a smartphone, it would be foolish to neglect mobile-friendly design. Mobile responsiveness is a huge web design issue, which makes it a highly desirable skill among professionals in this field. But what does it mean in practice?

Well, it means a good web design is able to craft a website that works flawlessly regardless of the device. It takes an expert who can perfectly combine the sheer beauty of your website with the overall functionality. Since responsiveness represents such an important website feature, it will remain one of the most wanted web design skills next year.

3. Immaculate UX

The best websites don’t just compete on the content battlefield but also tend to provide visitors with the immaculate user experience (UX). Therefore, web designers have to keep an eye on features such as website usability and functionality.

In order to achieve this level of quality, they need to fine-tune a plethora of details to ensure effortless navigation. These features include the following:

• Website structure: Your website should be easy to navigate. If you build a labyrinth, no one will stick around for too long.
• Webpage structure: Each page has to be clear and intuitive, allowing users to find what they are looking for almost instantly. This means adding enough whitespace, dividing different webpage elements, creating a logical content hierarchy, etc.
• CTA buttons: Your calls to action must stand out from the rest of the content. It’s the only way to ensure seamless UX while increasing conversion rate.

4. Graphic design skills

We told you before that web and graphic design represent two different occupations, but we also mentioned that they overlap frequently. For this reason, a 2019 web design version requires professionals in this field to learn a fair share of graphic design, too.

For example, web design usually deals with dynamic presentations to lead users through the website, while graphic design takes a more static approach because it focuses mostly on printed documents. There is a big difference between materials (paper vs screen) and data volumes (size-dependent vs infinite).

Web designers have to be multi-practical, fulfilling the needs of their clients on both sides of the spectrum. This will, however, be close to impossible without knowing at least the fundamentals of graphic design.

5. Web development skills

Once again, we have to highlight the complexity of contemporary web design. That is why web development skills are as just as important for web designers as graphic design skills. How come?

To put it simply, web design is a multidisciplinary profession that no one can truly understand without knowing some of the crucial programming languages at least to some extent. For instance, a proficient designer should know:

• HTML: This is the basic web development program and it’s not possible to craft quality website content without it.
• JavaScript: JavaScript is more or less the official programming language of the Internet, which makes it extremely important even for web designers.
• CSS: This program essentially controls the looks of a website, so it’s necessary to figure it out, too.

6. Education

We all probably know a few youngsters who claim to be “experts” in web design, but the fact that they can make a simple WordPress website doesn’t really make them professionals in this field. On the contrary, the industry has evolved so much that it takes at least some sort of formal education to boost the web designer’s career.

There are literally thousands of colleges, courses, seminars, and online schools where experienced mentors teach people web design skills. Most of them have the official teaching certificate, so designers can use their diplomas as the proof of professional capabilities.

This is particularly important for web designers who would like to work for large companies or join corporate teams because such organizations usually require a certain minimum of formal education.

7. A knowledge of fintech industry

The fintech industry controls one of the largest markets in the world, amounting to billions of US dollars in digital payments alone. This makes fintech a booming industry that impacts the world of web design as well.

In such circumstances, web designers have to learn how to deal with fintech companies, startups, and all other stakeholders who are launching their own websites. It’s necessary to learn industry specifics such as online payments, currency exchange, security risks, and many other details that make this business so sensitive.

8. Live chat technology

With all sorts of brands, products, and services available online, businesses are not able to distinguish themselves with prices or services alone. Instead, they are trying to win over new clients through better customer support.

A report reveals that 86% of buyers will pay more for a better brand experience, while satisfaction ratings for live chat are often higher than all other support channels combined. Instant messaging obviously has a huge impact on customer service, so it becomes one more issue web designers need to deal with.

It’s a special feature that requires its own space and needs to stand out from the rest of the webpage content. For this reason, web designers have to embrace it as the new and highly significant element in their professional portfolio.

9. Soft skills

Most people underestimate the value of soft skills, but this is one set of traits that can make all the difference between underperformers and super-successful web designers. It includes many different characteristics, including:

• Communication skills: Web design professionals cannot afford to create confusion or misunderstanding among clients and superiors. Their communication has to be clear, concise, and straight to the point.
• Time management: Being a talented web designer means nothing if a person is not able to respect client demands and deliver products in a timely manner.
• Problem-solving skills: Web designers should be able to understand the needs of their clients and come up with quality solutions relatively quickly.
• Proactive behavior: This is another highly desirable trait because people expect web designers to be agile and propose solutions without waiting for the green light from their colleagues or clients.

10. Content creation skills

Most marketers claim that content is the king of modern marketing, so they often ask web designers to take part in content creation activities. A lot of posts now come in multimedia format, which gives web designers a plenty of room to express their creativity and contribute to the higher marketing goal. Professionals who can fulfill this demand can count on even better career prospects than their peers.

Conclusion

It’s almost impossible to think of a company without its own website. This is one of the basic preconditions of a successful business, so it takes the state of the art web design solutions to craft a functional and good-looking site.

Of course, it all depends on the person you hire to do the job for you. Contemporary web design encompasses many different skills and areas of expertise, which means that you have to be careful while recruiting a designer.

This article showed you 10 web design skills which will be in demand in 2019. If you find a person who fulfills most of these requirements, rest assured you’ve got the perfect web designer for your team!