As a graphic designer, what do you struggle with the most when it comes to web design?

MrDaveFoy

New Member
If you’ve ever been involved with any part of the process of making websites, I’m wondering what are the main challenges you’ve faced? What do you struggle with or wish you knew more about?

It could be related to any part of the web design process: the planning, the designing, the building, managing the client, stuff that crops up after the launch, etc.

Thanks!


Why am I asking?

I've been a web designer/developer for 15 years and have worked with loads of graphic designers in that time on more projects than I can remember.

I've always enjoyed helping designers with their web design-related questions and struggles, or explaining how to fix their unintentional mistakes (e.g. thinking too much like a print designer; accidentally destroying their client's SEO or conversion rate, etc).

I've decided I want to help more graphic designers with similar web design related issues. I have absolutely no idea what form that help will take yet. I imagine lots of free stuff (blog posts, videos, podcast, free courses, etc), but I might well charge for some of it at some point too (disclosure).

I'm asking you what you struggle with the most when it comes to web design, so I can come up with the most useful material possible. No better way to know what people need help with than asking!

I'm not selling anything, I promise. It's not a trap. I hope it's ok to post this here. I'm sorry if it's inappropriate and am happy to delete.

Fingers crossed... thanks everyone in advance for your time and your insights.
 
Does anyone have anything to add? I'd love to learn more about what your biggest web design challenges.

Thanks. :)
 
Most of the designers struggle in creating an innovative design. As you know that the challenges are constantly increasing in the market and every client wants to produce a unique design for his website and the designers have to produce a design that will stand up in the crowd . There are thousands of websites on the internet and the users always have an alternative option for the website, that is why the designers have to produce a professional looking website.
 
Thanks for your comment @Claire20. Definitely an ongoing task keeping website designs fresh and current, while also still being easy to use. There are probably more than just thousands of websites though... ;)
 
I guess the thing I struggle with (struggle = completely useless at) is anything non design related.
All the tech stuff.
I've designed quite a few sites but I have to hand it over to someone to actually turn it into a functioning web-site rather than just a design.
 
Thanks @scotty. I know a few designers who do exactly that. Heck, even my hardcore developer friends struggle to keep up with the latest changes in web dev technology! Sometimes I think it's better to just specialise in what you do best.

Thanks again.
 
I've designed quite a few sites but I have to hand it over to someone to actually turn it into a functioning web-site rather than just a design.

There's @scotty stealing my thoughts again... I could have typed this word for word. This is exactly me and many other designers I'd imagine; it's not like I haven't tried to learn to code many years ago, it's just I failed so miserably, I gathered it was best to stick to what I'm good at (design) and hand over the web development side of things to the pros to code and have everything fully functional.
 
My biggest challenge as a graphic designer is having no knowledge about SEO and little knowledge about website development. And biggest challenge is to keep self updated with the latest design trends.
 
My biggest challenge as a graphic designer is having no knowledge about SEO and little knowledge about website development. And biggest challenge is to keep self updated with the latest design trends.
I agree with you. The concepts of SEO are compulsory for both the graphics designer and the developers. If the website is not SEO friendly then the client has to hire developers/SEO to redesign the application and it does not only increase the cost of the app development but the clients do not consider hiring the same developers for another project.
 
I wholeheartedly agree with the above :). the part I mostly struggle with is testing and the unavoidable bug fixing that follows.

I found that things like browserstack is pretty useless, since you cannot figure out what is causing the issue. I can run multiple instances of Firefox on my machine, but when it comes to different versions of chrome or safari, on different platforms and devices I simply struggle :(. Sadly some of the clients we as a company and me personally work for have the minimum requirement of triple A standard and it has to be compatible down to IE7.

If anyone has advise on the matter I would appreciate it ;)
 
as a graphic designer is having no knowledge about SEO and little knowledge about website development is my biggest challenge. And is to keep self updated with the latest design trends.
 
just "coding" in general, I love the outcome of it, but the process of sitting there just typing stuff is very tedious

when you can just export a design out of an adobe layout programme, I'll be a happy man
 
It's constantly feeling that no matter how many hours I put into training on the more 'technical' side of building a website, ie everything but the design, I still feel like a fraud ad there is just too much information for me to ever feel I know what i'm talking about. So this affects my confidence a fair bit. Also I hate having to rely on other people to do a job which usually ends in disappointment and a lot of stress. I'm currently trying to find a way to tell my developer that I want to transfer all my clients sites that he hosts and maintains over to my reseller program. It's the first time I will manage my clients hosting, backups and updates and it still feels a bit scary to be honest. I've always outsourced it as I don't like to spend time on things that stress me out and I feel take away from the creative space in my head! But after 2 developers I've had to fire now, the first because he stole my clients money, and the second because he started making inappropriate sexual comments towards me, I need to take it into my own hands. Gah!
 
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