What are your biggest challenges as a web designer?

[hoangvu]

As I pointed out in my question, I'm new and not comfortable with certain aspects of web design and instead of challenging myself, when searching for a web designer I found out more from freelancer sites but wondering how they can exist in this competitive environment. Do they have great skills on web design? and if you are a web designer, What are your biggest challenges in this industry?

 

[Mike001]

Brett

One of the biggest challenges that I faced was building up my own self confidence when I first started out. If you have the skills and you understand the technology there really should not be that much doubt but it seems until you really get going and build that portfolio there is plenty of doubt.

Once I became established, and that took about a year maybe two, the problem that I had then was competition, there was plenty of it, so what I did I became very good at one aspect of web design. I made my aspect dynamic data. I became the goto person for questions on that aspect of web deployment long before CMS's became popular. Once you find your niche you build a reputation as long as it is a good one your business will grow. Whether you are working for a large corporation, small business or independently. I have found great satisfaction in all aspects, as I have tried them all.

Find a niche in the market that you are comfortable pursuing, become very good at that aspect of web design and then pursue it. Become one of the best in that area. Be patient and persistent and it will pay off.

By the way, in web design there are so many aspects of that field no one knows it all. We all have found our specialties and call in other people with their specialties when we work independently on large projects. Freelancing can be very rewarding and really force you out of your comfort zone as you are forced to learn new stuff. For new clients. But you have to be able to get through the feast or famine period. What I mean by that is you will have months with lots of revenue rolling in and you will have months with no revenue rolling in.

You have to be able to deal with that to be successful.

 

[WebmasterPhil]

I've been web designing for many years. Anyone can learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScripting. It's not difficult but it will take time. You just need to build a large portfolio of websites and the right clients will fall into your lap. You're not going to be able to impress every potential clients out there. Everyone has different taste and your websites might not be attractive enough for everyone.

The challenge for a Web Designer is to constantly update your skills. Another problem facing today's Web Designers is that it's easy for the average Joe to make a website by himself. All he has to do is go to self-servicing sites like Web.com or WordPress.com to piece together a website in a day. Worse off, these places are free.

I guess as a potential Web Designer, you can learn to be more of a consultant because although self-servicing sites are making it easier for clients to build websites themselves and for free, the clients still don't know HTML and CSS. Therefore, they still might need to hire and pay a technical consultant to come in and fix up their sites for them.