Putting Visual Design Back Into Web Design

Web development has taken off dramatically and has acquired its own momentum. Millions of sites, created by designers and non-designers alike, litter the Web, and an array of different kinds of software is used to make their pages ranging from simple text editors to expensive offerings such as Dreamweaver. Anyone can legally call themselves a web designer, and one may launch a site only a few weeks after tinkering around with one of the editing programs available - thus, there are a lot of examples of websites which have been made without any basic design skills at all.

Design in the old-fashioned visual sense uses pieces of charcoal, pencils and paper as more than adequate tools. Composition and layout can be learned without stepping near a computer, yet they make a huge difference to a website's visual success. Unfortunately it is not possible to acquire graphic design skills merely by fiddling with a computer program that builds web pages. Added to this is the problem that many courses in web design tend to focus more on technology and less on visual design principles.

Studying colour theory and the basics of composition, including layout and the use of grids, will go a long way towards creating web pages that work better visually in web marketing. Knowledge of typography is also essential. Only when solid graphic design skills are combined with technological proficiency will a fully-fledged, 'top notch' web designer emerge. At Click Consult we understand the importance of visual design in all our web development projects.