(percussive music)
- Hey everybody.
This is Roberto Blake of robertoblake.com,
helping you Create something Awesome today.
So, today I'm gonna talk about Five Design skills
that Web Designers actually,
but wait Roberto,
I thought Web Design was all about Coding?
Uh no, you need actual Design skills.
Those kind of matter.
Obviously, HTML Code is important to Web Design,
if you want to do it correctly
and you want full control over things.
There are a lot of tools that
don't require you to code in order to build a website
and those can be pretty cool.
You got things like Wix,
You got things like Adobe Muse.
Squarespace.
And that's all well and good,
but what I really want to get into is
some skills that you need,
whether you're coding or not, as a Web Designer,
that actually matter a lot
in the overall result and grand scheme of things,
when it comes down to effective Web Design.
So, let's jump into it.
Number One, I actually think
having strong skills in Typography
is more important than it's ever been, for Web Design.
For one thing, from a Design aesthetic standpoint,
it's important but then,
from a user-experience standpoint it's important because,
one of the things I can't stand is,
you know what guys?
I
wear
glasses,
and I cannot stand when I have to deal with
small or illegible type
on a website.
It just really is the most annoying thing in the world.
Ah. (clicks)
It's just really the most annoying thing in the world to me
and the thing is,
I shouldn't always need to put these on
in order to have a proper website experience.
So, I think that Typography really matters
when it comes to usability, legibility
and it does matter when it comes down to
a really great, consistent aesthetic for the brand.
So, learn Typography, please.
Number Two, I think that as a Web Designer,
you should have some basic understanding
of Color Theory and Color Psychology.
I think you should really know what palettes go together.
I think you should understand
how to develop a color palette
and why this is important for brand consistency.
I think you should be able to understand
what branding guidelines are
and utilize those,
if they are presented to you,
so that you're matching the colors appropriately.
These things don't matter a lot to "technical people".
They matter a lot to business owners.
They matter a lot to end users.
And it matters because we actually have
Color Association and Color Psychology.
And there are websites that,
look, there is a reason that
almost all these social media websites
have similar color schemes, and tones and palettes.
And there is a very nuanced reason behind that.
I could probably do a whole video just about that,
if I really wanted to.
So guys, understand Color Theory and Color Psychology.
It makes a real difference.
No matter what type of Design you're doing,
it plays a role.
I mean, one really specific example I can give is,
if you have a brand that has an equal split,
or a close-to-equal split,
of an audience that's male and female,
you need to think about things like
gender-neutral colors.
That's a real thing.
That matters.
That's why most of the social networks
actually have gender-neutral colors and tone palettes
because they want to have that even balance.
They don't necessarily want to alienate a group
in any way, shape or form.
You see the same thing with dating websites.
A lot of them do the exact same thing.
There are very few exceptions there.
Number Three, Layout Design skills.
I can't stress this one enough.
It seems obvious but it might not be.
A lot of people that I've known, that are Web Designers,
are actually really not Designers at all.
They're just Coders.
They actually are closer to just being
Front-end Developers or being Web Developers outright.
And I have absolutely nothing against those people,
some of them are very good friends of mine.
My thing is that, if you are titling yourself as a Designer,
having actual Layout Design skills matters
because it's gonna play a role in the user experience
that you're creating for people.
It's gonna play a role in how information
and how the buying process works,
or whatever the website is designed to do,
it's gonna be very important
that the Layout Design of that is cohesive,
and that it is well thought-out and it's meticulous.
It actually is very similar to
all the things that happen when you're actually trying to
layout a magazine for print.
There are things you have to
really take into consideration there.
Not to mention that in a world now,
where Responsive Design is
more important than it's ever been,
for us viewing these experiences on multiple devices.
I think that Layout has a very important place
and I think that it's gotten
a little intimidating for some people,
so I would say that it matters and that it's very important.
Tip Number Four.
Let's just wrap all the Gestalt Uniforming Principles
into a singular thing here and say, learn that.
I'm talking about understanding Repetition, Uniformity.
There are so many of these things,
that we could just go into,
that need their own video and I would just say that,
having a firm understanding and a respect
for the Gestalt Uniforming Principles
will make you much better as a Web Designer.
It will make you better as a Designer.
It will make you better as a creative professional,
if you understand the Gestalt Uniforming Principles.
I would expect that my friend, Shawn Berry,
probably has some stuff on that.
The Fifth Design skill that I would say
you need as a Web Designer,
that again, has nothing to do with
the Web portion of things,
nothing to do with the Coding but is a Design thing,
is you probably need to be able to have
really good Communication skills for non-Designers.
You need to be able to come up with creative briefs.
You need to be able to explain a scope of work.
I think that sometimes,
a lot of bad execution or client relationships
comes from overlooking this very important skill.
Understand that Design is visual communication.
We have the visual part down but sometimes
we really lack in the communication part and silo ourselves.
We get very into the creative in the process
and yet we don't communicate with the client
or the stakeholder or the employer.
And really, again, understanding
and empathize with what their needs are.
We don't articulate our position well to non-Designers.
We beat them over the head with Design aesthetic
and all of our Design rules
but don't give them a practical reason,
in layman's terms, why we're doing something.
And I think that this creates a lot of unnecessary tension,
a lot of unnecessary problems, and friction,
and I think that, if we just become better communicators,
that ultimately, will lead to better Design
and better Design relationships.
Well, I hope this,
"Five Design Things Web Designers Need To Know",
or whatever title I came up with,
actually really helped you guys.
This video was kinda fun for me,
I'm actually thinking of covering more topics like this
in the near future.
And I also think I kind of want to do a video
covering each of the Gestalt Uniforming Principles now.
If those are things you're interested in,
let me know in the Comments section.
Would love to know
what you guys think
and what you guys would like to see here,
on the channel, a little bit more.
Anyway, Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to Subscribe.
Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
Remember, Graphic Design videos are usually on Mondays.
As always you guys,
thanks so much for watching and don't forget,
Create something Awesome today.