How To Be A Good Web Designer | Skills That Count

Guide / By

To be a good web designer, build strong UX taste, clean code habits, and client process—then practice them on real projects.

Web design blends taste, craft, and delivery. You shape layouts, pick type, set color, and ship pages that load fast and read well on any screen. This guide gives you a solid path: skills to learn, routines to build, and checkpoints to use on every project.

Becoming A Good Website Designer: Core Habits

Great design comes from repeatable moves. Learn the blocks, then run them like drills. The table below turns the job into simple, trainable steps you can apply on client work or practice projects.

Skill What It Looks Like How To Practice
Layout Systems Grids, spacing, clear visual hierarchy Rebuild 3 landing pages using a 4pt spacing scale
Typography Readable sizes, line length, scale, rhythm Design a blog post with a type scale (e.g., 1.25)
Color High legibility, restrained palette, real contrast Create two themes and test contrast with a checker
Components Buttons, forms, cards with consistent states Build a mini UI kit in code and ship a demo
Accessibility Clear labels, keyboard flow, focus styles Add skip links and test with only a keyboard
Responsive Layout Content-first breakpoints, fluid media Set mobile styles first, then layer wider rules
Performance Snappy load, stable layout, smooth input Audit with Lighthouse and fix the worst sinks
Process Brief → wireframe → prototype → build Timebox each phase; ship weekly progress

Design For People: UX Moves That Matter

Before pixels, write the goal: who is visiting, what they need, and the fastest way to deliver it. Then sketch the top tasks and remove hurdles. Clear labels beat clever names, and obvious controls beat hidden tricks. Run five-minute tests: watch one person try to complete a task and fix the points where they stall.

Navigation That Guides, Not Hides

Keep menus short. Use page names people expect. Pair a search box with clear section links. On long pages, add anchors and a sticky jump link back to the top. Breadcrumbs help on deep sites.

Forms People Finish

Ask only what you need. Mark required fields. Use native inputs for dates, email, and phone. Show helpful errors near the field that needs a fix. Always let users save and resume on long forms.

Microcopy That Reduces Friction

Short, concrete text wins. Button labels should say the action (“Create Account”). Empty states should explain what to do next. Confirmation messages should say what changed.

Ship With Standards: Semantics, Access, And Speed

Browsers and assistive tech rely on clear structure. Use semantic HTML for headings, lists, nav, and main content. This boosts clarity for screen readers and search engines and keeps your CSS simpler.

Readable Type On Any Screen

Set a base size that works on phones, then scale up. Keep line length in the 45–75 range for body copy. Use real italics and weights from your font files, not faux styles. Reserve one display face for big headings and keep body copy to a clean sans or serif.

Color Contrast That Passes

Text needs enough contrast against its background so people can read it with ease. WCAG Level AA sets a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for larger text. You can learn the exact rule in the contrast minimum guidance. Check pairs with a trusted tool, then bake those pairs into your design tokens.

Core Web Vitals As A Guardrail

Load speed and visual stability shape the first impression. Measure Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Google’s Core Web Vitals overview explains the metrics and the target ranges and ties them to real user experience. Design with these in mind: reserve image space to prevent jumps, ship lean fonts, and keep scripts in check.

Build Like A Pro: Practical Front-End Patterns

Good design shows in the markup. Structure pages with <header>, <main>, <nav>, and <footer>. Use one <h1> per page, then nest headings in order. Prefer lists for groups of links and fieldsets for grouped inputs. Label every control. Give focus styles that are easy to see.

Responsive Layout Without Pain

Start with a single column that reads well on a small screen. Then add grid or flex patterns for wider viewports. Set max-width on long lines and add spacing with a fixed scale so the page feels consistent from top to bottom.

Media That Plays Nice

Compress images and use modern formats. Serve sizes that fit the viewport with srcset and sizes. Add alt text that conveys the point of the image. For video, include captions and a transcript when it adds value.

Design Tokens And Reuse

Codify color, type, spacing, and motion into tokens. Build components on top of those tokens so changes roll out across the site without rewrite churn. Name tokens by purpose (e.g., “text-muted”) rather than raw hex codes.

Portfolio That Proves Skill, Not Hype

Your site is your case for hire. Pick three to five projects. Lead with the problem, the constraints, and the result. Show before/after screens, a short write-up of your process, and a link to the live build. Keep it scannable and honest.

Item What To Show Proof
Problem Plain-language statement of the goal One paragraph + bullets for constraints
Process Sketches, wireframes, prototypes Images or embeds with 1–2 lines each
Outcome Before/after, metrics if available Links to the live site or repo
Role What you owned vs. team-owned Short list of tasks and deliverables
Learnings What you’d do differently next time Two to three honest bullets

Client Work Without Chaos

Set expectations early. Write a one-page brief that states scope, timeline, and decision makers. Agree on milestones: content ready, wireframes done, visual pass, code complete, handoff. Share a single source of truth for files. At each checkpoint, ask for one decision, not open-ended notes.

Feedback You Can Use

Invite comments on goals, not tastes. Ask, “Does this page help the user finish the task faster?” Capture feedback in a single thread. Batch changes and ship them in cycles so the project keeps moving.

Daily Practice Plan

Skill grows with reps. Block one hour a day and run a tight loop: learn one topic, build a small thing, share a link. Rotate topics so you touch visual design, HTML/CSS, and UX each week.

Checklist Before You Ship

Run this list on every build. It keeps quality steady and saves you from rework after launch.

  • Headings are in order and page has one clear <h1>.
  • Interactive elements have focus styles and reachable targets.
  • Text contrast meets the ratios from the WCAG rule linked above.
  • Images use alt; decorative images use empty alt.
  • Navigation works with a keyboard and screen reader landmarks.
  • Forms have labels, errors near the field, and plain helper text.
  • Layout does not jump during load; images reserve space.
  • Fonts load with a smart strategy; no long blank text flashes.
  • Pages pass a quick Core Web Vitals check in the field.
  • Meta title and description match the search intent for the page.

Career Growth: From Junior To Lead

Early on, you win by reliability: clean files, steady delivery, no missed handoffs. Mid-level, you shape scope and teach patterns to others. As a lead, you define the system, guard quality, and clear blockers for the team. Keep learning: new tools land each year, but the base—type, layout, and UX sense—never goes out of style.

Mindset That Sustains The Craft

Curiosity beats perfection. Ship small, learn fast, and refine. Ask for feedback, not praise. Share what you learn in public and you’ll build trust and leads.