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Is web design a safe career if you are average at programming?

Discussion in 'HTML & Website Design' started by dreadlord88, Dec 3, 2018.

  1. #1
    Some questions:

    1. Is it easy to work for a company's site and if yes what kind of work do you usually do?

    2. Since there are a lot of customizing softwares like elementor and visual composer, what kind of services can a web designer sell as a freelancer that make him better than the other choices?

    3. Do you have to constantly practise and learn modern technologies in order to compete and find work?

    4. Is it good idea to learn web design and have it in your arsenal as a backup profession in case your main business fails? or is it a waste of time if you don't plan to constantly practise it?
     
    Solved! View solution.
    dreadlord88, Dec 3, 2018 IP
  2. #2
    Web design is a competitive market. Especially with automation tools available for anyone to design a website... Anyone with little skills can put a site together. But, there is plenty of opportunities for web designers who are creative in their marketing. Local and offline clients are easier to get if you approach them and they like and trust you. Bottom line, be creative in how you market your web design business and you'll get business. You also have to have an interest in design so that it's fun for you to learn new developments in the web design industry. Hope this helped.
     
    Abraham Cherian, Dec 3, 2018 IP
  3. Abraham Cherian

    Abraham Cherian Member

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    #3
    Thank you dreadlord88! I appreciate it.
     
    Abraham Cherian, Dec 3, 2018 IP
  4. Larry Anderson

    Larry Anderson Peon

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    #4
    If you want to be a successful programmer, you need to learn constantly.
    You constantly need to upgrade your knowledge.

    Web design is a very creative job, but you need to know what you are doing.
    It is not all about design, it also needs to function.
    Someone who buys the website that you have developed needs to know how to use it.
    An average person doesn't know much about coding, so you are there to make their life easier.

    Goog luck!
     
    Larry Anderson, Dec 6, 2018 IP
  5. designgenie

    designgenie Active Member

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    #5
    if you prioritize web designing, You should have creativity. But If you have perfect programming knowledge, Then you don't pay attention for designing section. Because Programmers can earn high.
     
    designgenie, Jan 8, 2019 IP
  6. shofstetter

    shofstetter Well-Known Member

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    #6
    If I could do it all over again I would skip web development all together. Too much competition for too little pay. Instead I would go for something more in demand like learning AWS, Python, Java, Hadoop, and Spark. I would still learn JavaScript though as it has many uses outside of websites. Websites are now mostly designed in Photoshop by graphic designers then those designs are implemented by developers. Large companies typically outsource the work to well known design firms. Smaller companies typically complain about pricing thanks to products like GoDaddy's website tonight, and wix.
     
    shofstetter, Feb 1, 2019 IP
  7. chinemeremz

    chinemeremz Well-Known Member

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    #7
    well like everyone above suggested, it's all about creativity and the willingless to continue learning and expanding your knowlegde and views as it concerns this highly competitive industry. However, with the availability of varied frameworks and web and page builders, the bar has kinda been reduced and peeps with zero coding ability can kickstart their careers utilizing these highly responsive tools. The DIV page builder and Bootstrap framework are examples of these kinda tools/ I have seen dudes on Fiverr with no sort of experience, getting gigs, just because they know a thing or two on working with these tools for profit. However, if you want to stay ahead of the competition, then understanding the basics and semantics of what a good web page should look like is one that is truly important
     
    chinemeremz, Feb 1, 2019 IP
  8. Peter Summers

    Peter Summers Peon

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    #8
    In my opinion it is better to work together with someone. For example, write the code yourself, and give the design to another person. Or vice versa. It is the fast way to make money and become a strong specialist in your specific)

    Excellent guys, for example, can be these guys:
    https://breakthruweb.com/

    Start your search and you will quickly find your specialist.
     
    Peter Summers, Feb 8, 2019 IP
  9. Gracie Tallis Fetch

    Gracie Tallis Fetch Greenhorn

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    #9
    When you're making websites, this means that, in the broadest sense, you're solving a business problem. A website exists to realize a business goal.
    It's your job as a designer to help the business by making sure that as many users as possible fulfill the business goal and to help the users navigate the website so that they can fulfill their own goal.
     
    Gracie Tallis Fetch, Mar 6, 2019 IP
  10. Virtualman89

    Virtualman89 Greenhorn

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    #10
    It totally depends what your definition of Web Design is. To me web design is litteraly a designer. A designer creates mockups of a website to look and function in the most effective manner. It's not easy to be a great designer. What may seem simple design principles on the surface, is not simple in practice. Thanks to technology, creating a live website has become easier for designers. But that doesn't take away the complexity of designing the website.

    Is programming harder than designing? It depends who you ask. Because many great programmers wouldn't be able to design a beautiful button using CSS. To them designing is harder than programming. And vice versa. I personally have a bias to say that programming is harder than designing. But that question can't really be answered.

    So if you are not a good designer, and you are not a good programmer should you put up your boots and call it quits? Not necessarily.

    Setting up a website for a clients is extremely valuable if you target the right market. Let's be real, most clients out there don't know WordPress or similar platforms.

    The amount of energy and perceived time it would take a CEO to fully understand these tools is not in their best interest most of the time. Put your self in the shoes of a busy CEO with more than 3 employees. Many of them don't even consider setting up a website themselves. Because in all honesty, they have better things to do. Like get more sales for their company.

    So to them you having the skills to setup a website for them, with minimal effort from them is valuable. There is always going to be competition, no matter what industry you are in. You have to start from the bottom like everybody else.

    You have to learn marketing, and improve the quality of your clients. You have to provide great service. And you have to give your client what they want. They don't care how you do it, as long as you do it.

    Good day to you! :)
     
    Virtualman89, Jun 19, 2019 IP
  11. deathshadow

    deathshadow Acclaimed Member

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    #11
    It's often a struggle where if you understand that ACTUAL design is not art unto and of itself, you'll find yourself constantly butting heads with marketing dirtbags who know nothing more than print or video media and cannot grasp the most basic of web concepts, or worse advertising executives who insist on endless pointless glitzy bling on pages where you've already won that fight and the CONTENT becomes more important. New clients often have multiple people in their ears filling their heads with preconceived notions that have dick-all to do with reality, because those so-called 'friends' or 'experts' actually know not the first blasted thing about websites.

    Which is why you ALWAYS get a contract, notorized or otherwise legally bonded if possible; CLEARLY outlining the duties, responsibilities, and terms of the work.

    Accessibility, usability, functionality, lowered hosting costs, and putting the client's content and products AHEAD of the goofy marketing scam-artist flashy "bling bling" BS that does nothing but harm to a company's investment in a site and their bottom line at conversions.

    Pretty much if it has the word "visual" in its name, it's incompetent trash meant more for blogs for grandma where accessibility and cost doesn't matter, than it is a legitimate tool for business. The exact same can be said of the mentally enfeebled incompetence of "frameworks" like bootcrap or jquery -- or "pre-processors" such as LESS/SASS/SCSS. They result in bloated hard to maintain sites that typically tell users with accessibility needs to go f*** themselves... and telling potential clients to go F*** themselves is NOT a good business plan!

    This is computing. On the hardware side three years is obsolete, five years is the scrap-heap. From a software perspective you are LUCKY if you can get double those numbers. You HAVE to keep learning, there's always something new, something better, and sometimes something worse. New for new's sake is a constant trap you have to look out for, but at the same time you have to keep learning damned near everything just so you aren't left behind. As important a skill as learning is the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff; determining what makes your life easier, the client's site better, and what clearly are steps backwards to bad/outdated practices.

    HTML/CSS frameworks are an example of garbage people tout as the newest, easiest, greatest, simplest, etc, etc, when all they really do is drag things back to the WORST of mid-1990's browser-war era methodologies we've been told since 1998 to stop doing. They'll tell you to do garbage like class="w3-red font-large" which si no different than what the outdated / outmoded / has no business being used any time after 1997 <font> tag did in the markup... End result being the same lack of separation of concerns, bloated HTML, and just plain bad practices. It's 100% grade A farm fresh manure that people who don't know any better yum up like you put it in a waffle cone and told them it was chocolate soft serve... worse, people will believe the lie thanks to the WFR (Wizard's First Rule).

    Wizard's First Rule: People are dumb. They will believe a lie because they want it to be true, or worse are afraid it might be true.

    Something snake oil peddlers have exploited in people from pulpit to throne-room since the time Orruk pissed in a hollowed out rock, mixed in some charcoal, and sold it to Grok as hair tonic.

    It is a useful skill to have just so you aren't 100% reliant on others all the time, and have some clue when/if you do need to hire someone else if they're any good or not. The basics of HTML and CSS is not rocket science -- even less so with all the new stuff CSS3 brings to the table.

    You just need to beware that for the first ten years you make websites, you'd probably make more money flipping burgers the 60+ hours a week you'll put into it. Unless you go full scam artist flipping the same work to every client as just another cheap dirtbag, you're not going to get rich -- hell you'll barely be able to support yourself -- those first few years of doing it.

    BUT, it does make an excellent second job while you establish yourself. IF you can find a niche market, IF you can provide proper usability, accessibility, and keep the load times a fraction the competitions, and IF you can make a name for yourself in said market, then you can start charging a third of a years income for two to four weeks worth.

    But until you get that established, like anything else it's a lot of work for little return. Yes, I know I'm one of the few people telling you that, but that's because most of the people who believe otherwise are either blinded by their own hope (again, WFR), or are looking for entry level shubs they can exploit right up until "raise time" comes around so they can fire you and then hire some other fresh out of the gate shub they can roast in the depths of the slor.

    Like anything else, it takes a good deal of work for very little if any benefit until you are established, THEN things turn around. Anyone telling you otherwise is, well... as you wish.
     
    deathshadow, Jun 20, 2019 IP
  12. NetStar

    NetStar Notable Member

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    #12
    This is a prime example of why people fail at Web Development. The key phrase here is "If I could do it all over again". You should be doing it now. You should be keeping up with technology and trends. You should know that as a professional it's your responsibility to evolve your skill set and be as resourceful as possible and not obsolete. You should know that you don't have to turn back time to do something when the expectation is to do it NOW.

    As for the original poster... There's this misconception that programmers or web designers who work for companies (small and large) are experts. From my experience working at a tech company there are plenty of elementary, lazy and clueless developers who are paid to barely produce usable code. I am NOT a developer for the company I work for but I have seen the spaghetti code that our development team writes. I am constantly amazed by the millions of dollars that's produced each month by clients using the product. The code sucks but.....it works. And that's whats most important in business.... so yes you can be successful as a average programmer. Most programmers are just that. If that.
     
    NetStar, Jul 2, 2019 IP