Whether you’re first entering the world of web design or own a well-established agency, one thing applies to all: you can always learn more. That’s what makes online courses so fabulous. You can learn at your own pace and pick and choose the topics you want to delve deeper into.
Instead of having to hunt around for great web design courses to take, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite online courses. Each of the following will help you to become a more solid web designer, expand your skill set, and/or improve your business direction.
Become a real expert in web design by taking this master course on Udemy. Instructor Joe Natoli walks you through UX principles for creating better web designs that work for visitors and customers.
Here’s another great course on Udemy. The instructor this time is Brad Hussey and he breaks down all the details of what it takes to become a full-stack developer. This covers it all from front-end design to back-end programming.
If you’re new to the world of web design, you’ll greatly benefit from this web design for beginners course by Brad Schiff. It shows you how to create HTML5, CSS3, and responsive design in real-world examples.
Another course you might want to consider is this breakdown of user experience in web design put together by Chris Nodder. It’s just under two hours long and aimed at beginners, but even pros could use a refresher now and then.
Here’s another beginner-level course, this time a full intro to web design and development. It consists of about three and a half hours of instruction that offer in-depth exploration of topics you need to know to advance your skills.
The last course on this list is one from Treehouse. It focuses exclusively on front-end web development and covers HTML, CSS, Javascript, and more.
Expand Your Web Design Education
Hopefully you now have the tools at your disposal to further your web design education. Completing the above ten online courses will further your skills and help you take the next step in your career. Be sure to also check out our extensive library of tutorials to add to your toolbox. Best of luck in the effort!
Being a freelance web designer offers plenty of advantages. You get to work the way you want and for the type of clients you prefer. Whether you’re specializing in a niche or open to anything – it’s all for you to decide.
And, if you manage to hang around long enough, you’ll have found a certain level of success. That’s often a result of hard work coupled with outstanding skill. But at a certain point even the most talented and dedicated designers can find themselves in a period of stagnation.
Attaining growth can be difficult for any business. But it’s especially tough for someone who works solo. After all, there’s only so much work one person can do. So it seems somewhat natural that things eventually reach a plateau.
So, how do you grow when you’re faced with the limitations that come with a freelance design business? As they say, you find ways to work smarter – not harder.
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Your Experience Has Value
Experience is something that can’t be taught – it’s rightly earned. Every one of your successes, failures and mixed bags has brought you valuable knowledge to take along to the next stop on your journey.
While experience alone doesn’t make you immune from mistakes, it does provide you with a much better picture of what works and what doesn’t. Theoretically, it means a smoother site building process for you and your clients. At worst, it means knowing how to handle bumps in the road. That’s worth something.
Your fees should reflect the experience you bring to the table. So if you’re charging the same rates you were five years ago – you’re missing out.
In my own journey, I can tell you that my hourly rates have gone up substantially over the nearly two decades I’ve been in business. And, surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of clients have stuck with me despite rising rates.
This can be tricky, however. In general, it’s best to raise fees in reasonable amounts. In other words, you don’t want to double your prices overnight. More incremental increases are much easier for clients to swallow.
The other part of the equation is to communicate the reasoning behind the rate hike. People tend to be more understanding if you’re upfront with them. Simply sending an invoice with an increased rate without prior warning is more likely to be upsetting.
Bundling Up
Part of the reason a freelance design business can stagnate is the difficulty in extracting more revenue out of existing clients. While raising prices can do some good regarding the work you’re already doing for them, it doesn’t do much to entice them to start new projects. It takes a little bit of creativity on your part to get them on board.
One way to boost business is to offer various package deals. For example, if you normally charge a specific hourly rate for maintenance, give clients who are willing to prepay for services a price break. Maybe that amounts to a free hour of labor or some other goodies.
This can provide you with some upfront revenue and encourages your clients to spend. Not everyone will fully utilize their benefits – so you’ll come out ahead in some situations. But even if they do exhaust every last drop, you may well have convinced them to spend more than they would have otherwise.
Another opportunity lies with clients who have older websites. Perhaps their site isn’t mobile-friendly or it’s using some outdated technology. Take a look at where they all stand and reach out to those who could benefit from x, y or z. Offer them an upfront quote for making the improvements.
All it takes is a couple of positive responses to bring in some fresh funds. And with the way web technologies go out of favor, you’re sure to have plenty of improvements to suggest.
Look for the Right Opportunities
When it comes to bringing in new clients, you should be picky. This is incredibly important if you have a mature business. If you already have a lot of clients, there’s no sense in just chasing the fast cash. Instead, look for those who will be a good fit for now and in the long term.
Ideally, you’ll want to choose to work with clients who will mesh well with the way you do business. If you’re looking for someone who will be with you for years, don’t settle for a client that has a tiny upfront budget with little need for changes down the road. This often ends up being more trouble than it’s worth.
When you’re just starting out, you often end up settling just because you need the business. But over time you may regret having done so. You can get stuck in situations that no longer fit with what you do.
Now that you’re older and (hopefully) wiser, you can look for opportunities that encourage growth.
Get Some Help
Flying solo is tough. There will be times when there simply isn’t enough of you to go around. To take that next step, it might make sense to look at bringing another freelancer aboard to help out.
This doesn’t necessarily mean hiring on an employee in the classic sense. It’s more like a trusted colleague who can pitch in occasionally. Perhaps they take care of some smaller tasks while you handle the bigger items on your agenda. Since it’s your business, you get to decide when and how to utilize the extra hand.
The challenge here is finding someone that is both trustworthy and affordable. On the first front, you want a person who does what you ask of them and isn’t afraid to ask questions. Second, you still want to make money on the tasks you assign to someone else. What you don’t need is a situation where you miss deadlines and run over budget.
Finding the right person can take some time – you may have to go through a few freelancers before you find “the one”. One way to minimize risk is to work with a candidate on a few small projects and see how things go. If all goes well, you’ll have a trusted source of help when you need it.
Growing for Good
Keeping your design business moving full-steam ahead requires a lot of creative thinking. It’s about finding effective ways to bring in revenue from both new and existing clients. Beyond that, you need to think about how your business has evolved over time and make decisions that help keep things pointed in that direction.
Ultimately, you get to decide your own path to growth. It’s not always easy, but it is one of the unique aspects of being a freelance designer.
The hero is the section of a landing page which has the utmost importance.
It is contained within the fold of a website and therefore is the first area that communicates with the visitor. This means the message needs to be put across simply and concisely to convey the product or service effectively. It is also the area where the company can create high visual impact and interest, and lead the visitor on into the key content sections.
In this article we are going to look at some excellent hero design examples in landing pages to discover what makes them so efficient.
Headway maintains a beautifully clean hero section, while delivering a concise product description and clear call to action. The navigation options are simple and easy to understand and cast the primary focus on the hero message.
The colorful illustrations serve as a content break, and carry the brand through the design, while visually representing the product at the same time.
Rezi
Rezi’s hero section sparks a tangible sense of emotion. It tempts the visitor with the emotion attached to receiving the property keys and moving home.
The message is short, large, and quickly gets across the use of the site as a tool to rent or let property. The imagery has a subtle purple hue to continuate the branding through the design. A clear call to action accompanies the hero section, allowing the site to capture the user’s initial interest and learn more about the service – in this case, getting an instant property offer.
Bonsai
Bonsai has executed their hero section with precision and simplicity. They have not even opted to include a description, going simply with a large title which quickly explains the product at hand.
The title is accompanied by a clear call to action and a product screenshot which reinforces the concept of the product further.
This user interface also allows them to sell their product through its clean and simple design. The waves behind serve to create visual interest, carrying through both the brand as well as the graphs which are so integral to the product and its underlying concept.
Glyph
Glyph is one of the more simple approaches to hero design in landing pages. There is very little noise, distraction, or hard-selling. It’s as simple as a description of what Glyph does, and an accompanying call to action which stands out clearly against the minimal design.
The illustrative section is situated below the main hero section to keep the important information and call to action as high into the fold as possible. The section also serves as a break between written content, as not to overload the user with information.
Framer
Framer is probably the most polished and structured of all the examples. It uses a clear grid system with plenty of differentiation through color and spacing. The main hero area uses an effective video to quickly convey what would otherwise be a difficult product to describe to the everyday visitor.
The design is focused less on producing a hard-sell, and more on educating the user about the product, hence the positioning of the primary call to actions in the top right of the navigation. The use of color is clear, sharp and effective, cleverly using the brand colors throughout. The three cards provide a useful visual separator from the main written content.
Which are your favorite hero design examples in landing pages? Share them below in the comments section!
A great mockup for a website, app or other design helps to drive sales – just as eCommerce stores have models wearing available pieces of clothing. It’s easier for customers to visualize the look and feel of the product when it’s placed in a real-world image. That’s why mockups are so important when it comes to web design. You’ll see these mockups on developer’s websites and when you search for apps on the Google and Apple stores.
Although sometimes you’ll want to pay for mockups, you can typically find high-quality free options that look just as professional as the premium ones. That’s why we’ve put together a list of free mockup templates for web designers.
Some of these include tablets, phones and other devices on their own, while others show those devices in the midst of various scenes. For instance, it’s not uncommon to see website mockups with a computer in a coffee shop or on a phone in someone’s hand.
If you’re looking for free web design mockups, this is the place to be.
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This is an excellent free mockup for creating a simple, elegant presentation for your website. You’ll receive multiple views of the Macbook on the same table, allowing you to get creative with your mockup.
The floating iPhone takes a different route than what you typically see from phone mockups. This would work great in a website header or on a landing page trying to sell an app or mobile website.
All web designers need to show how they can develop websites for multiple devices. One of the best ways to sell your site is to have a showcase of all devices supported. This way, customers get a taste of what the theme, template, or final web design looks like on phones, tablets and computers.
Web designers also create interfaces for wearable devices, so it’s nice to have an Apple Watch mockup in your arsenal. This one is a free PSD file with different views on multiple wrists. This way, people can visualize what the watch will look like when they actually wear it.
Today, many people work from home. That’s why it’s essential to have some mockups with computers and phones sitting on kitchen counters, coffee tables and beds.
Don’t forget Android devices! It’s all too common to limit most of your mockups to iPhones and Macs because of how sleek they look. However, lots of people have Androids and Windows computers, meaning you want to make those people feel included as well.
Some mockups bring the technology you have worked with into the real world. And that makes sense, since some folks plan on using their phones while camping or at coffee shops. Allow your users or clients the opportunity to envision themselves using your web design in their natural habitats.
Here’s another mockup with multiple responsive designs. It’s simple and sleek, using white and grey colors to mimic something you might see on the Apple website.
One of the most popular ways to show a visual of your website design is to go with the standard iMac on a desk. The tricky part about using a mockup on a desk is ensuring that it looks like real life. Sometimes you see desks that are way too pristine or they don’t have anything on them at all. I like this one since it’s a wooden desk and you can see several other devices like speakers, phones, and even some books and decorations. This is more realistic and similar to what someone would have at their own home office.
Designer workspaces are an ever-popular source of inspiration. Creatives often enjoy looking at the computer and equipment a designer uses, their often-minimalist desk and furniture, or even the prints or art they have on their wall.
There’s plenty to be inspired by and draw from when putting together or rearranging your own workspace setup.
In this article, we’re going to round up a selection of the most beautiful and inspiring designer workspaces from the past year.
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Beautifully spacious, this minimalist workspace combines the simplicity of Apple products and white furniture, with some creative chairs and a bright red bean bag.
Eddie’s workspace shows off his wonderfully customized MacBook lid, covered with some beautiful stickers. He uses a Wacom tablet and curved widescreen monitor.
A little messy, but nonetheless inspiring, Svetlana’s workspace is filled with cards, prints, coloring pens and pen tablets. The iPad Pro is also used for illustration.
This workspace includes a beautiful colorful print, action figures, and a limited PS4 games console. It’s simple but playful and offers a balance between minimalist and maximalist.
Very minimal in its setup, this workspace uses an abundance of white, with a beautifully curved seat and fancy lighting, walls and an unorthodox pencil pot.
Using a wall-mounted monitor, this setup is extremely colorful against the teal wall behind. The desk looks high quality and has been carefully themed with lighting and items like the clock and lamp.
