In this certificate program, you will become a well-rounded Web Designer and learn to design webpages, code them with HTML & CSS, and JavaScript, and build websites with WordPress, allowing you to create a diverse portfolio to showcase your skills to potential employers or clients.
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Web design refers to the creative and technical skills that go into building a webpage or other digital application. Webpages have become an almost ubiquitous feature of our daily lives, and nearly all organizations, public and commercial, make use of webpages to communicate with an audience or sell a product. More than one new webpage is created every second, and web design experts must ensure that these are visually appealing, easy to use, and programmed to operate correctly.
The term “web design” generally pertains to the user experience component of websites instead of the software development aspect. In the past, this field focused largely on creating websites for use on desktop browsers. Over the past decade, however, design goals have shifted and focus more on tablet and mobile browsers. Although a Web Designer’s job will vary depending on their employer, most work with appearance aspects related to images, fonts, and colors. They also focus on layout to ensure that information is clearly categorized and structured. Successful layouts are more than aesthetically pleasing; they also convey the website’s brand. Any extraneous information can be distracting on websites, so web designers strive for simplicity to avoid confusing or distracting users. Some web designers also create content for websites.
There are two common website design methods to ensure that the website created can work on both mobile and desktop devices: Adaptive and responsive design. Adaptive design involves creating various pre-made layouts capable of fitting screens of differing sizes. When presented with these options, the device’s browser selects the one that’s the best fit. Adaptive design is useful because it ensures webpages can function on devices that vary in size, ranging from TVs to smartwatches. Six primary designs are used in adaptive design for screen widths of 320,480,760,1,200, and 1,600 pixels. On the other hand, in responsive design, content isn’t fixed in layout sizes paired with common screen sizes; instead, it can move depending on the screen size. This approach involves the interface adapting to the layout of the device. Media queries allow the design to automatically adjust to space on the browser, which provides consistency across various devices. Responsive design allows web designers to connect with a larger audience since mobile devices are commonly used for internet searches. It also can improve SEO and provide brand and design elements consistency across different devices. Because of its many benefits, responsive design is the default design option that supports device switching.
You may have heard of web design and web development but not be sure what the difference is between these two skill sets. Web design is a field that focuses on creating the front-end of websites (the component that visitors can see). Successful web design requires creating websites that are not only understandable but are easy to navigate and visually engaging. Successful web design creates clear, clean-looking websites free from clutter and distracting text or images so that customers or others visiting the site immediately know how to interact with its content. Often, web designers are referred to as UX designers.
Web development is closely related to web design, though it focuses on a different element of the website. Whereas web designers focus primarily on the front-end of websites, web developers work behind the scenes and are involved with programming to ensure the site works correctly. Some web developers focus on the visual components of websites, whereas others work exclusively with back-end tasks such as how the website functions and works. Some web developers do both. Front-end web developers often work with CSS to create a homepage layout. Back-end developers, on the other hand, may write the code to connect the shopping cart on an ecommerce site to a secure payment processing system so customers can safely complete transactions.
Web design and web development are both essential for organizations interested in creating and maintaining a strong online presence. In some organizations, web designers and web developers work closely together to create websites. Some professionals even serve as both a Web Designer and Web Developer for their organization.
There are many reasons that anyone might want to acquire web design skills. Not only is web design an in-demand career field, but it is an essential part of virtually every major industry. No business can afford to ignore its web presence, so any company interacting with a consumer audience must hire skilled web designers to build and maintain their webpages. Many businesses have shifted their focus purely to the digital space, selling products through an online shop without a physical storefront. As the marketplace becomes increasingly online, web design skills will continue to be in high demand.
In addition to finding a new career in web design, there are also many personal reasons to want to learn this skill set. Entrepreneurs want to learn how to design webpages to build their own ecommerce storefronts or advertising webpages. Creative individuals and artists may want to design webpages to either serve as a place to make their work easily accessible or to utilize the digital canvas to create vibrant digital artwork. Activists and advocacy organizers use webpages to collect important information to reach and persuade a mass audience.
A significant part of designing a webpage is creating the digital assets that will populate it. While some CMS services provide users with templates for buttons, menus, and other interactive assets, more elaborate webpages require designers to build these assets themselves. Creative design applications like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator are the most common tools for creating these individual assets. These tools are designed to streamline the process of creating pixel and vector graphics images, and those images can easily be repurposed by web designers into interactive digital objects.
Perhaps the most important tool for a Web Designer is a user interface (UI) design tool like Figma. These tools let users create wireframe outlines of webpages and convert them into interactive prototypes they can share with others for testing. This allows designers to get an idea of how their webpage will look and feel once it has been coded and is in use, allowing them to make more informed decisions about the design. Figma is noteworthy for being one of the most popular UI design tools, owing to its powerful collaboration features. As a browser-based program, users can access Figma from anywhere, and they can work together on a design project in real-time, allowing users to see the changes their fellow designers are making as they’re made.
Many web design bootcamps will teach students how to use HTML and CSS and JavaScript to program the front-end of a webpage. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a programming language that applies a series of tags to a block of text to tell your web browser how it should be displayed. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) tells the browser what font, color, size, and style elements should apply to any text. It allows the text to be displayed uniformly across different browsers and devices. These languages form the backbone of modern web design and are vital skills for any Web Designer to learn.
While HTML and CSS can be used to build a webpage, audiences would likely find that page noticeably dated in its functionality. HTML and CSS have limited options for user interactivity, so most web designers also learn JavaScript to help them add increased functionality to their webpages. JavaScript lets users incorporate interactive menus, buttons, images, and other features into the webpages they develop, making it a vital part of a robust web design training program. Most bootcamps that teach some coding as part of their web design curriculum teach JavaScript as the central programming language.
Designing the appearance of a webpage is often only half the battle for web designers. Since webpages are interactive, designers must account for user behavior when building web applications. This process is called user experience (UX) design and is important for anyone hoping to ensure that they are designing navigable, user-friendly, accessible webpages. Successful UX design work revolves around iterative design, user testing, and other behavioral research to understand how users engage with a web application or user interface, as opposed to how designers imagine they will interact with that interface. If you are interested in the research elements of a web design project or you want to work to make the web more accessible for everyone, learning UX design skills is an important part of achieving that goal.
Anyone with a creative streak and a desire to work in an in-demand, technologically driven environment should consider enrolling in a web design bootcamp to master the necessary skills. Most web design bootcamps teach HTML, CSS, JavaScript, responsive design, and software like Sketch, Figma, or Adobe products. You also learn basic design techniques and concepts that will give you the proper foundation for a long-term creative career. Many bootcamps downplay or eliminate the need for computer programming training, as more and more webpages move over to a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. This offers students multiple avenues to learn important web design skills they can build upon later or use as the foundation for a career in this in-demand field.
When considering the right web design bootcamp for you, you should first decide whether you are more interested in the coding or design aspects of web design. A major hurdle for students wanting to learn web design is a hesitation to learn how to code. While programming skills are important for a well-rounded Web Designer to learn, some students may want to explore the creative principles of web design before they learn to code, if they go on to learn to code at all.
Students will have various options to choose from when it comes to bootcamps that de-emphasize coding, with some bootcamps omitting the skills entirely and others pairing basic HTML and CSS training with WordPress training. Those interested in coding should consider a web development path, while design-focused professionals would find more value in a UI or UX design course. Once you have your specialization established, considering the costs and time commitments of the various programs is the next step. Some programs offer a few dozen hours of training, making them more affordable, while others offer weeks or months of intensive instruction; these more immersive options are more expensive, but they also may better prepare you for the field and truly stand out on a resume.
Potential bootcamp learners should also consider the financing options available through a program, the possibility of flexible scheduling, and benefits like a job guarantee or one-on-one mentorship/coaching opportunities. While some of these perks tend to be limited to more expensive programs, they can add a remarkable amount of value to your bootcamp experience. Ultimately, however, any web design bootcamp you choose to enroll in will be a fulfilling and valuable start to an exciting web design career.
One of the main appeals of bootcamp learning is that it tends to be very beginner-friendly, aiming to take students with no prior programming experience and provide the training they need to become professional web designers. Those enrolling in a bootcamp typically don’t need prior experience with tools like Figma or programming languages like HTML and CSS to succeed in the course. In fact, most of these classes treat beginners as the default student and model their instruction around the idea that those enrolled in the course will need basic training to become accustomed to web design skills. This makes learning in a bootcamp an ideal place to pick up elaborate web design skills, even if you have no prior experience.
There are few better ways, and almost no more time-efficient ways, to improve your long-term earning potential than by completing a skills bootcamp. Alumni from web design bootcamps commonly move straight into paid positions or freelancing. The average bootcamp graduate sees a 51% increase in their salary. For most professional web designers, this amounts to a nearly $25,000 yearly increase after graduating from a bootcamp and finding a new job in the field.
Another advantage of learning in a bootcamp format is that several different delivery and scheduling options are available for students looking to find a program that fits their schedule. Many bootcamps offer full-time and part-time training options for learners who need to schedule their attendance around work and family obligations. An increasing number of bootcamps offer robust live online learning options for students who can’t attend an in-person training session. This flexibility makes learning web design skills easier and ensures that anyone who wants to study web design can find a bootcamp that fits their unique needs.
Bootcamps are most commonly compared to four-year college and university degree programs in terms of their long-term career benefits. The major advantage to a bootcamp program is that it tends to be significantly more accelerated than other methods of training, meaning students will be able to go from beginner to professional in a far more condensed timeframe than if they opted for other training programs. Students who need to quickly learn new career skills or who simply don’t want to dawdle can enroll in a bootcamp to learn in only a few months, which could otherwise take years and cost significantly more.
Most bootcamps are career-focused courses that aim to help students find work in the field of web design once they graduate. In many of these bootcamps, career professionalization services are built into the core curriculum to help ensure that students succeed once they leave the program and enter the job market. These training services vary from provider to provider, but a few commonly offered professionalization programs include portfolio-building seminars, group career coaching, and one-on-one job mentorship sessions. In addition to tailored career-support services, most bootcamp training programs aim to teach students web design skills using real-world projects and hands-on exercises that prepare them for the kind of work they will be doing in their future careers.
As the digital revolution continues to transform virtually every aspect of society, the demand for functional and aesthetically pleasing websites has practically exploded. Nowadays, developers must consider more than the core functionality of their websites; they must also think about how easy and pleasing it will be for audiences to navigate their websites, as well as how to design a site that has a distinct and exciting visual identity.
Taken in sum, these considerations are often grouped together under the field of web design. Encompassing careers such as web development, user experience (UX) design, and user interface (UI) design, the field of web design continues to be an exciting and high-demand career field with plenty of fulfilling job possibilities. With demand for these jobs showing no sign of stopping, now is a great time to brush up on web design skills to enhance your resume or start an entirely new career.
Today, there is no better way to get into a web design field than by taking an intensive web design bootcamp. These courses are comprehensive training opportunities focused specifically on fostering career skills and expertise. While the time commitment needed to complete these courses is particularly high, the payoff is more than worth it; web design bootcamps can even replace an equivalent college degree in some cases.
Today, there are a number of different bootcamps focusing on web design in which students can enroll. These options include courses that focus on UX design, (which is not coding-heavy), web development, (which focuses primarily on coding), and visual design, (which combines some programming along with design training). When choosing from these options, however, it can be difficult trying to decide on the best path for you. To help, Noble Desktop’s Classes in Your Area tool allows users to search and compare web design bootcamps available in-person nearby, as well as live online.
Some learners may prefer to master web design in an in-person bootcamp environment. For these learners, several of the largest providers of in-person web design bootcamps include General Assembly, which offers a 32-hour Visual Design Course along with immersive UX design and web development bootcamps. Other options include Miami Ad School’s 12-week UX Design Bootcamp, which is offered in over a dozen major cities around the globe.
While in-person bootcamps are great for some learners, they don’t always offer the flexibility that many busy students today need to meet their educational goals. For these students, virtual web design bootcamps provide unparalleled value. In addition to offering the same high standard of educational quality learners expect, virtual bootcamps also allow students to complete lessons entirely remotely. This makes these bootcamps a perfect choice for students prioritizing a more flexible learning environment than an in-person course may be able to provide. It’s also a good option for those who live far from training facilities, which are typically located in or near major cities.
As a leading provider of tech education for over 30 years, Noble Desktop is proud to offer a wide variety of virtual web design bootcamps catering to the many career specializations in the field. One of the highlights of these courses is the Web Design Certificate program, which provides over 90 hours of instruction and covers topics such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, along with creating web graphics and designing emails using HTML. This class is the perfect choice for a learner looking to master both the coding and design training needed to become a Web Designer.
Other intensive programs offered by Noble include the Web & Visual Design Certificate, as well as the UX & UI Design Certificate program. These intensive learning options give learners the tools they need to become successful web designers, whether they specialize in visual design of websites or user experience design and research.
Providers other than Noble Desktop, which offers virtual web design bootcamps, include Thinkful, which offers a six-month UX/UI Design Flex, and Devmountain’s remote UX Design Bootcamp. Students interested in a coding-focused web design education should also consider BrainStation’s 30-hour Web Development Certification program.
Web design bootcamps are renowned as some of the most immersive and comprehensive web design training programs available today. However, their relatively high cost and high time commitment mean they are not always the best choice for learners looking to try out the field or learn the basics. For these learners, web design classes can be a great choice.
Select web design classes offered by Noble Desktop include a 12-hour Photoshop for Web Design & UI course, which is perfect for Photoshop beginners with some knowledge of the software who are looking to dive deeper into its applications in web design. Noble Desktop also offers an 18-hour Web Development With HTML & CSS course, which covers HTML and CSS fundamentals, as well as a 12-hour course focusing on building custom themes in WordPress. With the help of these classes, learners can enhance their web design skills while building the foundation for more advanced study through a web design bootcamp.
If you want to learn to create engaging and visually appealing websites but can’t commit to a class that meets at regularly scheduled intervals, on-demand coursework is a good alternative. This type of training is the most flexible way to study web design. Unlike in-person and live online bootcamps, which require meeting at regularly scheduled intervals, on-demand content is recorded at an earlier time and placed online. This makes it a popular learning method for those who have busy professional schedules, who travel for work, or who have family or other personal commitments that may make it difficult to enroll in regularly scheduled classes. Students can access on-demand lessons from any location and do so as their schedule permits. Some learners may opt to devote 30 minutes of their evening for a few weeks to studying a web design tool like Figma, whereas others may wish to spend an entire weekend learning this app. On-demand content ranges from short YouTube videos to comprehensive bootcamp courses that can take a dozen or more hours to complete.
On-demand coursework is typically a much more affordable way to learn web design than live study. Some content is even available for free. Another benefit of on-demand content is that you get to determine your own learning speed. You can watch lessons repeatedly if necessary or pause and rewind as often as needed to ensure you’re really learning the material. Since no instructor is present, you’ll be on your own to find answers to any questions you may have when studying. This is why some learners prefer to begin their studies with on-demand web design content but then move on to more structured coursework, like live online bootcamps, to learn complex web design skills.
Several top educators offer on-demand web design and web development coursework. Springboard’s UX Design Bootcamp provides six months of beginner-friendly training for those who want to gain real-world training in UX design. Participants receive instruction on the design process, the basics of user-centered design, and how to work with tools like Adobe XD and Sketch. This fully online, part-time class is self-paced, which allows students to progress at their own speed. All learners also receive one-on-one mentoring, career coaching, and a four-week externship.
Those interested in learning web design through on-demand content may also wish to explore Udemy’s course listings. UX/UI Design with Figma prepares students to work with Figma and other popular design tools to create both mobile and web design. Participants receive over four hours of on-demand video and two downloadable resources as part of this class. UI & Web Design Using Adobe Illustrator CC provides learners with four hours of on-demand video that covers how to use Illustrator to create site maps, responsive websites, and wireframes. If you’re completely new to working with Figma, you may wish to learn the basics in Udemy’s Figma 2024: The Absolute Beginner to Pro Class in Under 2 Hours. Those enrolled learn how to set up their Figma account, as well as create a wireframe and user interface design with this software.
Hiring an agency to create your website is not only expensive, but it also outsources control of your creative vision. Instead of outsourcing this important task, you may wish to learn how to create your own websites. However, you may worry that this is a difficult undertaking. Like acquiring any skill, the difficulty of learning web design will likely depend on several factors such as your prior design background, experience working with programming languages, and familiarity with core web design tools such as Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Another important consideration in the difficulty of creating websites is the type of site you wish to create. If you’re okay with using template layouts and themes for website design, the process is much easier and less involved. You can work with tools like Squarespace to create the scaffolding into which content is then added. However, if you’re interested in learning how to customize the layout and design of your website, the process and technologies involved require time and training to acquire.
Figma, for example, is a largely user-friendly web design platform. Most users can acquire basic Figma skills in just a few days of training. This program also has a large online community of developers and designers and many free resources that can help speed up the Figma learning process. To develop more advanced Figma skills, however, a more focused form of study such as bootcamp or certificate program, is useful. These typically require several weeks of intensive study.
It’s not enough to learn Figma to be a successful Web Designer. A strong background in UX design is also essential so that you know how to create a webpage that’s accessible, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. Studying UX design can be a more involved process, one that requires two to four years of intensive study to fully master.
If you’ve already studied web design and want to take your professional skill set even further to become a more competitive job candidate, there are several related fields you may wish to explore.
Creative individuals interested in designing intricate, elaborate webpages may require additional design skills to do so. This is where training in motion graphics can come in useful. Motion graphics is a field that combines animation with a textual element. This creative skill set focuses on creating design that’s digitally animated and has applications for all forms of digital media. Computer-generated animations range in complexity; some are as basic as 2D animated title sequences that appear when digital art is loaded, whereas others are intricate 3D designs.
Most web designers have extensive experience working with HTML and CSS to develop webpages. These languages can provide an excellent springboard to explore other coding languages. If you’re interested in expanding your programming skills, Python is an in-demand language with machine learning and data science applications. You may also be interested in learning to work with structured query language (SQL), which is used to build and communicate with databases, and has applications for internet data storage and search engine efficiency.
Those with the skills to select and edit images to include in their web design have an upper hand as design professionals. Not only can they add clarity and color to what may otherwise be a drab design space, but they also ensure these images are professional-looking by adjusting brightness, color levels and contrast, and saturation. Rather than hiring a photo editor to perform this skill, web developers who acquire training to work with Photoshop or similar software can perform all photo editing themselves, thus reducing project costs and maintaining complete creative control over webpage content.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a popular tool for digital marketing and copywriting that is used to improve website visibility with major search engines like Bing and Google. The SEO process is done to improve the visibility of websites so they’re more likely to be found and interacted with. SEO is a powerful tool that can improve sales rates for services and products and impart specific information to a desired audience. The goal of SEO is twofold: to attract visitors to websites that may be interested in making a purchase or learning more about a topic and to improve the likelihood that they will return to the site in the future. To do so, web designers, content writers, or web developers create content that is searchable on Google. This process involves the act of weaving important words and phrases into any content that’s being written and making it flow naturally as part of the text. Forced SEO can be jarring to readers and impair the readability of content.
Web design is one of those skills that will always be in-demand as long as there are websites. As an especially broad field, web design encompasses a number of different specific careers in which professionals can choose to specialize. However, no matter the path they choose, web design and development professionals can rest assured that their skills will remain in high demand. With companies in every industry looking to expand and refine their web presence, there are many web design-related careers available now, and there are expected to also be available careers in the future.
Unsurprisingly, the most common avenue for employment is as a Web Designer. Web designers are creative professionals tasked with outlining, designing, programming and potentially updating webpages for their employers and clients. Many web designers work for web design firms contracted out by clients, while others work as freelancers building webpages for anyone wanting to hire their services. Depending on the firm's size or job, web designers may be tasked with programming the webpage. In contrast, on larger projects, a dedicated Web Developer may take over the programming aspect of the design process.
Anyone who specializes in user experience design can find work as a UX Designer. These designers dedicate themselves to iterating upon other designers' work to ensure that the webpages are easy to use, navigate, and accessible for as many users as possible. They regularly engage in user research projects such as conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups. They also provide actionable feedback and recommendations to project managers about how a web design project can be modified to respond to this feedback. As user-friendliness and ease of use become increasingly important, UX designers are playing an increasingly vital role in web design projects. Professionals interested in web development and UX design can make even more than that—as much as $120,000 per year, in some cases.
In addition to careers in web development and UX design, which respectively focus on programming sites and designing their interfaces to be easily navigable by users, web design careers often encompass visual design and UI design. Nationally, these careers pay quite competitively, with recent job listings on Glassdoor and Indeed showing positions with salaries of between $50,000 and $90,000 per year.
Most modern web design projects, particularly those undertaken by large organizations and corporations, are massive collaborative projects that require the work of many designers, developers, UX testers, and other specialists. This means that project managers will be needed to oversee the work on a web design project and ensure that all disparate individuals involved are working together to bring the project through to completion. Project managers still need web design training to understand the kinds of work required to launch a webpage, but they also complement this training with soft skills and on-the-job experience.
Upskill or reskill your workforce with our industry-leading corporate and onsite Web Design training programs. Conduct the training onsite at your location or live online from anywhere. You can also purchase vouchers for our public enrollment Web Design courses.
