Website design is not a simple career, it requires diversity. It requires one to have all the skills that increase his/her creativity. For a long time, people have opted to be website designers then progress to become web developers because of the kind of skills that are imparted on the person during the learning period.

Personal Skills needed by a website designer

Goal-oriented – This means that you should always have a goal when doing a project, designing a website, learning new techniques and when making a plan.
Patient – As a website designer, you need to learn the art of being patient. Whenever a code doesn’t work, you should be patient and keen enough to note where you went wrong or which punctuation you missed.
Diversity – As a website designer, you need to be as diverse as possible. This includes acquiring more knowledge as you advance. You shouldn’t just settle on just being a website designer, also strive to be a website developer.
Team-player – You need to know how to work in a team or as a team. This is important for all website designers. Moreover, it will help you work well with back-end developers and for effective communication.
Creative – Creativity can easily be acquired through our surrounding. For example, if you look at nature or trees you will note that jungle green matches well with lime green and white.

Thus, when building a website, you will know which colors blend well and those that don’t. Another example is the sky, it includes shades of blue that differ to some extent. All this can help you in blending and matching colors. You can also solidify your knowledge by playing around with different colors and see how they look next to each other.

Professional skills needed by a website designer

HTML
As a website designer, you need to have the knowledge of HTML. Professional website designers and web developers can attest how HTML/XHTML/HTML5 has helped them in a huge way. It is the first thing, one is taught when venturing into website design, but it is also the most important. This is what lays a foundation for the whole process.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
It is also important to know CSS, which helps in designing the general appearance of a website. It is important to have an external CSS file if the website is large, and an inline CSS file if the website is not that large.
For every website designer, it is essential to know what code is used to change the color, font, font-size, font-family, layout, images and all media.
JavaScript
Even though JavaScript is not as popular as CSS and HTML, it is still important to know it. It is through JavaScript that you can set a date changer on the website. For example if today is 7th of May, when tomorrow come the website will automatically show the exact date as 8th May. The function works on its own, without any adjustment.
Thus, JavaScript is that powerful and functional.
JQuery
JQuery is also just as important as JavaScript, as it adds more functions to a website. It is commonly used along with JavaScript and helps add more features to the language. However, it is not as popular or commonly used as JavaScript. As a website designer, you still need to know the various ways to make something to work. JQuery has been around for long and is slowly being embraced by some developers. However, it hasn’t yet reached its full capacity.

Content Management System

a) WordPress
WordPress is a type of content management system that was initially modified for blogs. However, over time people have been using it even for creating websites. WordPress is not as complex as Joomla and Drupal its counterparts.
Anyone can setup and start using WordPress within a short time. They also have a support community that ensures the user doesn’t get stuck. Thus, as a website designer, it is important to know how to use WordPress and the various plugins that are added to it.

b) Joomla
Joomla is another content management system that is used for making websites. It is as easy as creating a database, configuring it, and setting it up. It is not hard to set up a Joomla website. However, the tricky part comes in when adding plugins, extensions and modules to the website.
Thus as a website designer, it is essential to know Joomla and all its functions. In this way, you will make your clients happy when you create a website for them. However, you should be keen when choosing a template for the website. Some need licenses if they are to be used for commercial purposes, while others limit the website’s responsiveness.
Joomla can be used to make blogs, online stores, business websites and much more.

c) Drupal
Drupal is a bit advanced and complex than Joomla. It can be used for corporate and large websites. Just like WordPress and Joomla, Drupal also requires having a database for it to function well.
Thus, as a website designer, you need to know either of the two very well and the basics of the third one. Knowledge of any of the three depends on your interest. If you are more interested in one, focus on it and so on.

Dreamweaver

Before Joomla came to be, there was Dreamweaver that worked more or less like it. However, Dreamweaver didn’t lead to responsive websites. In addition, it was mostly used for acquiring some certain codes.

Photoshop

As a website designer, you need to know how to edit images using Photoshop and also how to create a website using it. Photoshop also helps in designing logos, business cards, cards and invoices. Thus, as a website designer, you also need to be a partial graphic designer and know how to create certain things.

Latest Trends in Website design

The various trends in website design include:
Having a responsive website – This is because nowadays people prefer using tablets, smartphones and laptops for browsing. If you don’t have a responsive website, one will have to zoom in and out so as to read certain content.

Minimal use of slideshows – Slideshows are slowly becoming extinct. This is why it is important to use large images instead of slideshows if you want to deliver certain information on the front page.

Using ecommerce platforms to create online stores – Many people are embracing having online stores. In addition, to the physical shop it is also important to have an online presence. Thus, as a website designer you need to be equipped with that knowledge. For instance; osclass, tomatocart, opencart, magento and abante cart.

More use of databases when creating websites – It is essential to know all about databases, what they help to do, their importance and use. Thus, have enough knowledge on how to create the tables plus how to export and import them. For example; MySQL and Oracle.

Using more of content management systems rather than the regular coding – Although, it is essential to know how to code, CMS are also fairly important to know. There are many Content Management Systems that you can get on softaculous. In addition, they are like software that you setup and configure as you wish.
They are also fun to work with.

Conclusion: –
As a website designer, it is very important to acquire the professional skills and also know all the emerging trends. Reading blogs, newsletters and subscribing, will help increase your knowledge in various capacities.

Also be open to new knowledge and correction. In addition, any feedback received is equally important, so never assume anything. You shouldn’t limit yourself, learn website design and also strive to know website development. They go hand in hand.