A Web Design Toolkit
Working in web design today, there is an ever-growing list of skills and technologies that comprise the discipline. You could probably ramble off a few of the new and shiny, but have you ever stopped and written down everything you have to know? Well, I did. And I thought I'd share it here.
Basics
- Adobe Creative Suite (or some other graphics program)
- Text Editor of Choice
- HTLM5
- CSS3
- JavaScript
- General Design Priciples (Typography, Color Theory, Form & Function, etc.)
Best Practices
- Semantic Code
- Separation of Resposibilities (Structure/Presentation/Behavior)
- Progressive Enhancement
- Graceful Degradation
- Accessibility
Specialized
- User Experience
- User Interface
- Usability
- Information Architecture
- Mobile First
- Responsive Web Design
Optionally...
- Git/SVN/Version Control
- Agile Process
- Modular/Object Oriented Design
And don't forget...
- CSS Preprocessors (Sass/LESS)
- Frameworks (Bootstrap, MV*s, Grids)
- APIs
- Some back-end
- Some database
So, if you come home from work and are absolutely exhausted, now you know why. It's not all mandatory and every team/job/project is different, but these are all things that we should have some level of familiarity with.
If there are any that I missed (and I'm sure I missed a few), let me know in the comments below. Cheers!
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