Web Designer Day Date in the current year: May 31, 2024

The history of web design is almost as long as the history of the World Wide Web itself. Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web in the 1980s while working at CERN and made it available to the general public in August 1991. The first websites were simple text-only pages structured using the HTML markup for tables.

The development of web design as we know it began in the mid-1990s due to the so-called browser wars between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The competition between the two browsers resulted in the rapid development of new features and technologies, most notably CSS, Dynamic HTML and JavaScript.

As the web has become more integrated into our daily lives, approach to web design has changed too. For example, much attention is paid to website accessibility, i.e. the design of web pages that makes them easy to use for people with different impairments and disabilities. Another example is the “mobile first” approach to web design that gained prominence when a significant part of web traffic became mobile-generated.

Creating a website requires at least two people: a web designer and a web developer. The web designer is responsible for the visual aspects of the site (the layout, color scheme, graphics, fonts, etc.), whereas the web developer codes the website using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and other programming languages. In smaller organizations with simple websites, both jobs can be carried out by one person, since most web designers have a working knowledge of markup languages.

When creating large and complex websites, web designers may work with other specialists: graphic designers who create logos, buttons and other visual elements, UX analysts who help determine the user-friendliness of websites, SEO (search engine optimization) specialists who help make websites more attractive for search engines, web copywriters who create written content for websites, etc.

To become a good web designer, one needs a combination of technical skills, creativity, and critical thinking. Web designer job requirements typically include proficiency in graphic design software and programming languages used in front-end web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), good understanding of the most common content management systems and SEO principles, up-to-date experience with web technologies and standards, visual design skills, creativity and openness to new ideas, adaptability and willingness to learn, and more.

The origins of Web Designer Day are rather murky, but there is no doubt that web designers deserve to be celebrated. You can observe this amazing holiday by learning more about web design in order to better appreciate the work of web designers, giving a shout out to the web designers you know on social media, signing up for a web design course (even if you’re not planning to make a career out of it, it’s a useful skill to have), and posting about the holiday on social media with the hashtag #WebDesignerDay.