It would be way too easy to answer this question with: “Whoever pays your bills.” And, honestly, I don’t think you can be a very successful web designer if you’re only driven by what the person paying you tells you to do. Then again, that doesn’t mean you should swing to the exact opposite end and say that you only serve the end user. When you take an extreme view or approach to this, you’re bound to leave someone or something important...

Designing for emotion in and of itself is not a problem. Websites are bound to elicit an emotional reaction from visitors, even if it’s as simple as them feeling at ease because of the soft, pastel color palette you’ve designed the site with. I don’t want to outright villainize emotional design. Unless there is some form of unethical manipulation at play, designing for your visitors’ emotions can actually provide them with a more positive...

In today’s look at the latest research for web designers, we’re going to look at studies and reports from Payoneer, Robert Half, Hootsuite, and Contentsquare to see what they have to say about things like: Current freelancer demand Web designer earning potential A change in ecommerce shopping trends Unseen content rates 1. There’s Light At the End of the COVID-19 Tunnel for Freelancers Payoneer’s The State of Freelancing During...

I often see freelancers on social media asking what the secret is to working fewer hours, making more money, and helping new clients to find them. While those things tend to happen the longer you’ve been freelancing, it doesn’t happen without some effort. If you’re wondering how you can change things so that your business becomes more profitable and easier to manage, education is the key. But it’s not just mastering new design techniques...

While a lot of the research for web designers that’s come out this year has to do with COVID-19, we’re starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Many of these reports aren’t just looking at the effects of the pandemic on business and marketing today. They’re now looking at what consumers plan to do once the pandemic is gone. So, I have some very interesting research for you here today. Three of the reports have to do with coronavirus...

As a web designer, you’re constantly being bombarded with messages that tell you to acquire new skills, try new tools, and keep on hustling. But if you’re constantly changing things up, does it do the opposite of what you originally set out to do? In other words, if you always have to start over, is it possible to ever really achieve anything? I think it ultimately depends on why you’re making the change. When Change Is the Right Move for Web...

If we don’t question this kind of design homogenization, do we put ourselves at risk of perpetuating the same mistakes in the years to come? Or is it even a mistake to begin with? Today, I’m going to look at four things that are likely causing this, and what you can do to break the mold. 1. Education We used to have a design school in every city in the world, each with its own design style or, at the very least, the encouragement of its designers to...

For many professionals looking for new work opportunities, they know that prospective employers are going to ask for proof of their credentials; where they went to school; how long they worked in the field; who they worked for; a résumé communicates these details nicely. For web designers, though, a list of jobs and accolades isn’t sufficient. Imagine if you created a resume that listed off your skills and experience as a designer: I have...

The web has made it all too easy for consumers to look up anything and everything they’re interested in or have questions about. “Pet stores near me.” “Best web hosting 2020.” “Tom Brady net worth.” And it’s with this easy access to data that consumers have grown pickier about who they do business with. Because if they can get answers to all the other questions in their lives, why can’t they find out everything there is to know...

For those of you working from home right now (willingly or unwillingly), you can’t allow your surroundings to have an effect on your work and, more importantly, your client relationships. Clients don’t care where you are. They just want you to get the job done, and get it done it well. By that same token, you can’t allow your interactions with clients to have a trickle-down effect on your home life. There needs to be a clear separation between...

In today’s roundup of the latest research for web designers, we’re going to look at a variety of topics, from 2020 holiday shopping predictions to missed opportunities in SEO. Retail Experts Predict Huge Uptick in E-commerce Holiday Sales Shelley E. Kohan wrote a piece for Forbes entitled, “Coronavirus Fears May Drive U.S. E-Commerce Sales Beyond 2020 Projections—And Change How People Shop In The Future”. While all we have at...

Today, we’re going to look at what web standards are, why we have them, and what you actually need to do with them as a web designer. What Are Web Standards? When we talk about web standards, what we’re referring to are formal specifications that the Internet and everything on it should adhere to. So, this is frequently less about how the frontend of a website appears and more about how the backend of it is structured. Web standards aren’t...

There are a lot of negative emotions swirling around right now: fear; stress; frustration; anxiety; depression. And what’s worse is that it feels like there’s no escape from them. We don’t know how long the coronavirus crisis is going to last, so we can’t allow these negative emotions to overwhelm us day in and day out. It’s not sustainable. What’s more, there’s a direct correlation between negativity and productivity. So,...

I know this might seem like an odd question to ask. After all, it’s not like we’re living in a villain-filled Gotham City in need of saving. When it comes to asking the question, “Can web designers save the world?”, I look at it like this: Superheroes don’t exist in real life, so there’s no way that one single person on this planet is going to “save” the world — web designer or otherwise. But heroes that fight small battles that...