Need advice
I already posted a bit about it in #general but figured it would be best to make a new thread here.
I've been watching Flux Academy, DesignCourse, and some other website design content on youtube for around a year or so, on and off, whenever I'm trying to design websites. I'm at the point where I can look at the website and notice some things that they do well and things they don't do well. However, when I go to make a design in Figma, I just cannot for the life of me make something that looks decent. I've watched Kevin's video about how he approaches making new website designs, and I do the same thing, but I struggle because I end up liking one or two designs a lot and end up either copying them or just giving up out of frustration because I don't want my design to look exactly like theirs. I also struggle because I feel like what makes websites stand out in today's landscape is really good graphics, but I'm not good at photoshop at all so making assets that pop and make an otherwise boring website look good is beyond me, for now anyway.
I almost feel like I'm stuck in tutorial hell for design, which is a weird thing I've never felt before with coding. Usually with coding I just dive right in and if I get stuck I'll read the docs and figure it out. I know design is a skill, and it can be learned just like coding can, but I feel like its so much more subjective so it's a lot harder to pick up in a sense. I was thinking maybe I should just pick out a really nice course one of you guys recommend and go along with it and after that just make a ton of designs in Figma.
It's not for a lack of trying; I've tried to make designs in Figma on and off and I just can't get something that looks decent to me. I'd like some advice if you guys have any and perhaps course suggestions or other things that have helped you. I've just graduated from college and am looking to start a career and do freelance so I need to be good at this stuff.
6 Replies
It sounds to me like you are in the "valley of despair" portion of your journey on learning functional design. That's a good sign, because you are getting really close to a breakthrough.
First, I want to allay your fears. Very little modern web design comes from creative / graphic design. It's truly like 90% 'functional' design, which is nothing more than learning the scope of rules and then mostly adhering to them. I do not believe many web developers are using photoshop for anything more than minor image manipulations, or at all
My background in design far predates making any kind of web stuff, and I don't feel like I use very much of it to be honest.
That said, the first step is to be able to see 'good designs' and it sounds like you have that capacity
If you can look at existing pages and see what is good and what is not good about them, that's a very significant step in making your own
as far as my process, here's what I do basically.
1. when i have a new project, I immediately try to identify the following things: 1. the audience 2. the mood 3. the funnel
The audience - this is one of the most important things to know. For instance, I made a baby products website focused on sales to 18-36 year old moms and young families. Knowing that, you can immmediately discard 'futurey' or 'corporate' or boring old school looks. It really helps narrow it down
The mood - this is like the 'color palette' I guess. But more, what is the company or person who you are designing for like, what do they want to present to the world. What is their story. Just a ton of other factors like that. When talking to a client or whoever, you can quickly get a sense if they like modern or retro, or if their logo has bold colors or muted shades, or if they are an elegant sophisticated brand vs and everyman type brand
The funnel - this is like the purpose of the website. What is it that you want to happen when someone visits. Once you recognize that, you can make your designs lead to that end goal. It helps determine what information has to be presented and in what order.
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Once I have a good feel for those things, I create a new project in figma with basic settings (like 1 desktop frame and 1 mobile frame, in light or dark depending what direction it will go *(or if they want multiple themes, then i start with dark). But determining the colors becomes much easier with the info above
I make like a bunch of other pages and label them 'resources' 'inspiration' 'documentation'
and on those pages, I start to just copy in tons of stuff from the internet. If I am working on a 'life skills coach' page, I will just google the hell out of that subject
and look at tons of sites
and anything I like, I just screen shot and throw it into my inspirations. I go to vecteezy or unsplash and do word searches and see what interesting things come up. and I copy any of that over too
in the documentation, i copy in emails or context from the client. any thing they have ever said or written that they want or whatever, so I can constantly reference it and make sure I am staying on target
and in the resources, i make an 'outline' framework. So I determine the sections that I wan tot add or the pages, and then i make rough outlines with just text and boxes
then i just slowly fill in those sections one at a time until i feel they look promising and start moving them to the main design page and integrating them into it. If I know I need a testimonial, I make the basic outline I like, then I try to fill in the gaps with the information I have learned about the project. When I have something basic going, then I reference all the inspirational photos I copied and see if I can use any of their features to tweak my design in a new way
and once i have a main design going, I usually end up with 3 or so iterations of it until I am happy with the overall look
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lastly, I don't know of any courses that I could recommend, but check out Michal Malewicz on youtube:
YouTube
Malewicz
Hello! I want to redefine and disrupt education. This channel is about design, building companies and having a happy life in the process. Sharing my over 23 years of experience with you.
āļø We still do client work!
If you want hype4 to design/code a project for you, please contact us directly at hype4.com :-)
he also has some great paid courses and books
Gumroad
Hype4 Academy
We condense our 20 years of design knowledge into easy to digest, informative design handbooks and courses used by thousands of designers from around the world.
I have learned a lot from him in the past, and he might be a good resource for you as well
Thank you so much ghostmonkey! I appreciate you taking the time out to soothe my anxiety and write a really comprehensive outline of how to approach new projects. I'll definitely reference this a lot when I'm approaching new projects.
I've also seen some of Malewicz's work, and he's pretty good from what I remember. I'll check out Hype4 Academy as well. Thank you so much š