Best Online Web Design Courses for CPD

This article provides a simple introduction to online web design courses. The number of new websites grows every day as new techniques and technologies emerge. For a website to be effective, it must be well designed from both a visual standpoint and well developed from a technical one. In this article, we have provided an overview of the best web design courses, along with some general information on how to kickstart your career in this area.

What is Web Design?

In its simplest definition, web design is all about dealing with the development and design process of any website. Web designers use their creative and technical skills to design new websites and redesign existing ones. A quality website is one which comes with perfect codes, is well-organized in terms of content, and provides ease of navigation, clarity in layout and is completely functional.

Difference between web design and web development

Although web design and web development are often used interchangeably, web design is technically a subset of the broader category of website development. Generally speaking, a web designer works on the appearance, layout, and, in some cases, content of a website. This may focus on either the front end (more visual; what the user sees) or back end of the website (more functional; how the website works).

As a designer, you'll work with clients, web developers and marketing departments to create the layout and design of a website. There can be a crossover between the roles, but you will usually find individuals who specialise in one of these areas and may involve the use of one or all of these skills.

Well-thought and high-quality CPD courses help you in furthering your career or to improve an existing one. To get started, it can be useful to undertake a wide range of offline and online web design courses, with the best web design courses providing a full array of different subjects, topics and web designing aspects.

Web design CPD courses can lead to a wide range of careers

In truth, every person working in business today should have an understanding of a website and how it works. As more companies are going digital, this has opened up several opportunities for skilled website designers, and that’s only going to increase in the future. Every company needs a website and wants to keep it looking current, as this impacts how an audience perceives their brand.

Learning and finding the best online web design courses to study can lead onto a variety of different careers, due to the varied skills and disciplines it requires. There are thousands of companies that hire web developers for their front end and back end web development projects. A web designer ranks amongst the top highly paid jobs in the IT industry, which is the main reason behind its popularity and demand.

However, web design does not necessarily mean that a professional will be pigeon-holed into just that one career. Web designers are required for a diverse range of jobs. Those that have an aptitude go on to have careers in various industries and roles including:

• Applications developer
• Games developer
• Multimedia programmer
• Multimedia specialist
• SEO specialist
• UX analyst
• UX designer
• Web content manager
• Web developer 

Foundational knowledge cannot necessarily be self-taught or looked up online, and so it is essential that you get your basics right. By opting for to partake in online web design courses or perhaps classroom training that has obtained CPD accreditation, can help to support in finding great employment opportunities across the whole industry spectrum. 

What are the possible benefits of studying CPD web design courses?

Many of the best online web design courses cover multiple aspects of web design and development, such as project development, client management, and coding in different computer languages. You can become qualified in specific areas that will improve your overall professional skills. This can include creating modern and fully functional sites for various customers, increasing user traffic and impressions to a site, and improving business prospects, conversion ratios and enquiries for continual business growth.

The best online web design courses will provide structure and give you a solid foundation that will not only last throughout your career, but it will be useful in a wide range of different work positions across companies. The benefits of studying online web design courses can include:

1. You can learn a lot of information in a short period of time
2. Can provide a return on investment if it helps you develop your career
3. Builds your self-assurance, confidence and self-worth
4. You can do freelancing projects for different clients
5. Work from home with the flexibility it brings
6. Web designers will constantly be in demand
7. Multiple career opportunities 

Studying CPD courses in IT does not necessarily just have to be for those who want to develop their professional career in this area specifically. For example, you may want to set up a new blog or create a website for your own small business. While many people believe that the time investment and barrier to entry is high when it comes to the IT sector - the best online web design courses will require dedication of time and effort, and the investment will be worth it.

What are the different types of CPD online web design courses?

There are many opportunities to study web design and development, both through online courses and in face to face classroom style training. It is really up to you to decide which courses are most relevant to your career and the area you specialize in within your industry. Beneficial skills for a web designer can include:

• HTML coding
• CSS
• PHP
• JavaScript
• SEO
• Web technologies
• Programming
• Scripting
• Adobe Flash
• Web hosting 

Other subject areas you can learn from online web design courses include solution designing, needs analysis, website content planning and writing, product photography, flash and graphics design. If you are considering a career in IT and digital marketing, then we recommend having a look at some more examples of accredited web design courses to get an idea of what specialist areas exist in the industry and what appeals most to you.

How to find the best CPD web design courses

Given the opportunities web design and development can offer as a career, or simply as something that employees of the future should understand, it’s a hugely valuable skill to have. If you are interested in a career or already have a career in the web design, there is no shortage of both offline and online web design courses to enhance your professional development.

Within the Information Technology (IT) CPD Industry Hub, you can find a full scope of IT and web design CPD providers and courses covering these subjects. For example, there are accredited web design courses and eLearning on topics such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, to Adobe, web development and cyber security.

Become an accredited web design CPD training course provider

We hope this article was helpful. Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service has over 27 years’ experience providing CPD accreditation. With members in over 100 countries, our CPD providers benefit from the ability to promote themselves as part of an international community where quality is both recognised and assured. Gaining CPD accreditation for your web design courses is a simple process that helps ensure your training meets the desired requirements to be suitable for Continuing Professional Development.

We hope this article was helpful. If you are a training provider in the IT or Web design sector and are looking for information on how to become a CPD provider please contact our team to discuss in more detail. Alternatively, if you are looking for a free online CPD record tool to help manage, track and log your ongoing learning, as well as store your professional training records and attendance certificates in one simple place, go to the myCPD Portal page.