Tips to write a good web designer job ad

The same from above applies to those that start a business just now.

The work of a web designer is incredibly vital at such a starting point. Because, if you think about it, every website we visit online captures our attention through its service or product, but even more so through the visual look and functionality, almost immediately.

The whole point of web design is to make a website attractive, functional, and pleasant visually. The web designer should reflect and present everything entailed in your business perfectly. The hard part is not so much finding the perfect candidate but how to write an excellent web designer job ad. Let’s see how you can tackle this part on your own, with some tips below.

What does a web designer do?

A web designer is an expert in the IT industry and works on the visual appearances of a website, its functionality or usability, and works on layouts too.

Web designers work on how a website should look in the end and make sure that that visual look goes hand in hand with the website's usability for the user. They can create something from scratch or redesign already made websites.

For a website to turn out visually appealing, web designers meet with clients to discover what type of website visuals the clients want. In this same context, the designer also finds out more about the target audience. That is perhaps the most crucial factor since the target audience should be attracted to visiting the website and staying on it longer.

The web designer aims to captivate the attention of the website visitors or the target audience and, at the same time, convey the message of that particular business.

Types of web design

It is essential to differentiate between the various types of web design to conceptualize the job ad concisely.

Of course, it is crucial to find a good web designer, but it goes a long way to define in detail which type you need. When you make the job ad more precise, you will attract exactly those industry branches you seek. With this, you know that the user experiences are taken care of and that the UX design will turn out expertly done in the end.

Static web design

Web pages that display content that doesn’t change belong to the static category. There needs to be HTML usage to code these pages, and every visitor will see the same kind of content on the screen. This type of web design is simple and easy to make, and it is the most common one.

Dynamic web design

A dynamic web design means creating a web page that shows changing information to various users. In other words, there will be different types of content on such a website for different users and audiences. Here the focus is on the functionality rather than just the visual aspects.

Responsive web design

A responsive web design is a type of design that adapts to the user's behavior. This adaptation depends on the platform, screen size, and orientation chosen within the user interface. In this case, the web designer mixes various layouts, images, and grids to achieve excellent web page adaptability for different devices.

Liquid/Fluid web design

A liquid or fluid web design is a type of design where a web page shows proper alignments of the width values everywhere. A liquid/fluid design means proportional alignment of all page elements with the browser window's whole screen or width. With liquid/fluid web design, a website will be functional with screen sizes.

Fixed web design

A fixed web design is a page layout with unchanging width dimensions or fixed width. When you visit such a website, all elements and parts inside have a fixed value width or width shown in percentages. In other words, the width does not and will not change for the visitors, and it will be the same value for everyone visiting the website.

What should a web designer job ad contain?

The first thing is that you should not confuse the vocation titles ‘web developer’ and ‘web designer’ – sometimes such confusions occur due to the similarity of the phrases, but they are different things.

A web designer creates the visual elements of a website, its layouts, fonts, colors, and the overall aesthetics of a website or the frontend of it. They make a website not just visually pleasing but user-friendly too.

A web developer creates the whole code structure of a website, maintains it, and does all of this through programming languages, such as JavaScript, PHP, Python, and HTML. Their job is more technical than visual, focused on the configuration and backend.

When you clarify and differentiate between the precise web design types, it is time to create the job ad and wait for the applications to start arriving. You need to be as straightforward as possible, with the most crucial and concise information shown, preferably early on in the ad.

You might have difficulty finding the ideal candidate if you do not specify whether you need a UI designer or UX/UI combination, or something else. Below are the most important sections that make an excellent web designer job ad, in the most common order.

1. Job title

After you have initially made the difference and comparison between a web developer and a web designer and found out the various types of web design, the first step is to formulate a clear job title.

Specify the type of web designer you need to hire – this is the job title. It must be literal, word for word, without any redundant phrases and words. Applicants will choose to apply if the job title they see matches their vocation title and portfolio.

If you say you need a web designer, but in the section further, you list requirements that apply to this, and web development too, then the job title is not correctly phrased. Avoid this mistake. If you need someone to be a one man show, communicate it honestly, and state it in the job title, not just the job requirements and skills.

2. Role description

Now comes the exciting and demanding part, the job description writing. At the same time, this is the most fun and challenging part of the job ad writing process.

Specify as much as you can what sort of website design you need to be done. Specify the visual design concept you brainstormed about if you have a clear idea. A web designer job description needs detailed but concise components. Due to this, you’ll be able to weed out some applicants and keep the relevant ones a perfect match.

This section should include a description of the short-term and long-term job responsibilities and a brief about the types of internal and external communication the designer will participate in. But remember, as much as you mention everything crucial and relevant, keep it short.

Now, list the responsibilities to make the job ad relevant. Mention the usual things expected from the web designer, such as the following examples out of many others:

• Creating a landing page design
• Testing of the website design and improving it when needed
• Designing visual imagery for the specific client or brand
• Creating sample pages with suitable fonts, colors, patterns
• Making mockups to be approved by the client
• Coding of site navigation
• Designing of controls and buttons for the website

To finish up this section of the job ad, mention the location and job type. In the job type section, you need to specify the type of employment, whether the position is open for full-time, part-time, etc. And finally, mention the location, or if the job is remote, on-site, or hybrid.

3. Skills and requirements

After finishing the sections above, it’s time for the pre-assessment section of the job ad.

In other words, this section paragraph is the one listing skills and requirements. When you list the required skills for this role, the web designer will pre-assess themselves, whether or not they could tick off most or all criteria to be a fit for the position.

You should mention the following requirements, along with a strong portfolio, for example:

• Experience in working with HTML/CSS, and preferably also JavaScript
• Defining and knowing the UX and UI concepts
• SEO knowledge
• Experience with WordPress
• Good proficiency in cross-browser compatibility
• Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop
• Good knowledge of CMS (Content Management Systems)

4. About the company

It’s a great idea to start the job ad with the section that seals your brand identity, or the ‘About’ section. You might think it is not vital to include this initially, but every applicant wants to know whether a particular brand corresponds to their experience.

For example, some web designers might have a more corporate experience than another. They all could apply to your job ad, technically, but the ones that stand the best chance would be those with expertise relevant to your industry, in most cases.

5. Additional information

If your practice is to publish the pay range or the exact compensation, this is an excellent section to include it in.

Or, perhaps you want to mention vacation days and days off, perks, and additional benefits of any kind you think are relevant and shareable.

The takeaway

Once you know what to require and expect from a web designer, it is easy to find the best candidate. But, after you see what sort of message you want to convey with the help of the web designer, almost everything falls quickly into place.

But, do not forget that the process of finding and retaining great talent, web designers, software engineers, or web developers, takes good planning, practical strategy, creative brainstorming, and foremost, a clear idea of what you expect and anticipate for the business, on the long run.