Why building websites boost design career ?

Free. Why? Building websites can always have a benefit if you are a product designer or a UI UX designer, or even in any creative field. So this particular podcast is going to give you the clarity of pros and cons of building a website, whether is it really required or not. Okay. It's been a very common myth like hey, I need to have a great portfolio, then I need to have a website, I need to have a profile in behance. This, that. So this particular podcast is going to break that resolution and make sure whether you've decided to build a website or not, you are going to get a clarity to move forward. Okay. After hearing this podcast, your action item would be to really go and implement the very faster action step which I'll be also discussing with you at the end. Okay, so with this context we will start diving into the topic. Guys, welcome, welcome. This is Jagdish from Design for Change podcast and thank you for subscribing my podcast channel. So now this is an era of digital world, right? So we've been following a lot of social media pages, watching YouTube, watching lot of feed on Instagram, Facebook. So the attention span of the human has really come down. People wanted very quicker stuffs to check it out. So it's not a very unconventional way of actually sending PDFs as a portfolio, having hundreds and hundreds of pages and having a, what you call one, one slideshow where people can run through. So this is a world where websites could be built, built in very, very faster time. Okay, so there are a lot, many advantages in building a website, being a product designer or UI UX designer or like let's say if you are in any creative field, if you are in photography, if you are in film and editing, if you are an animation designer, it could be a great way to influence the audience whom you wanted to attract for. Okay, so let me discuss six things which is a great advantage for you. Okay. The very first skill is you have a chance to showcase, if you're building a website like let's say you have a chance to showcase your UI UX skills and graphic design skills and visual presentation skills, which is inherently expected in many design studios across India and globe. In fact, I would say, okay, because when you have something like a static portfolio, like a static images or something that is, what do you call doesn't have that much advantage compared to dynamic moving images. So showing your portfolio and your projects in that way will actually make a lot of sense for you. Okay. And that will get a more traction also while you go through that. Like let's say if your audience is recruiters, if your audience is your clients, or maybe if you're building a brand as a designer so that complete digital experience will be game changer. The second important thing is interactivity and self check. Like let's say if you're building a website, okay, people have a chance to go and navigate each and every point at any point of time, right? Unless you build a batch story. Like let's say if you wanted to build a website, you need to create a story first. You cannot go and just directly build a website. That's like using the tools. That's not the point. Okay. I used to normally tell my students and I make them do also make a big mind map before building a website. Then and only they'll be able to clearly navigate themselves first and then ask the people also to navigate accordingly, right? So your website should tell the story so that interaction can be easily planned. Wherein if it is another static medium, it is little difficult. You can't predict the behavior of the user, how they can able to navigate unless until you clearly map it. So that is a great advantage being a portfolio maker in digital website. The third is it is actually relevant in the digital era. I told you so a lot of people can watch your portfolio across many devices. Like let's say they can view it in their, what do you call tablet, they can view it in their mobile, they can do it in their desktop, laptop, whatever that is there. So this kind of relevancy in this particular trend is actually going to match that. Okay? See whether you are interested in working for a design agency or in house corporation or web design skills or anything, that's not a problem. But designing website, it's actually a greater trend for this particular context. And fourth important thing is tools and the ease of building. See the advantage being website building is it takes only very, very minimal effort to build an excellent portfolio. There are very good platforms like Wix, WordPress where you can really create good amount of portfolio and in no matter time you don't need to learn coding and all this what do you call coding computer related stuff which is not required also. So you can use normal templates and you can use pre templates which is already there in wix. WIX is one of the very cool websites. I normally recommend my students if they are beginning as a fresher so they can able to effectively create a very good portfolio in just hours, in just even in 45 minutes you can create a very good project and launch it live and send it to the recruiters for sharing. It is that simple guys. Okay? Yes. The other advantage, the fifth advantage, the fourth advantage, what you have is actually accessibility and responsiveness. See web design is not just creating some beautiful desktop website. It's also ensuring the accessibility across various devices. As I told you, the ease and responsiveness, right? Because when you wanted to show that accessibility and responsiveness which is there for the other devices, okay, if this image, what you're putting is let's say if your self image you're putting, if it's viewed in mobile, how will it come? So you are thinking through that experience when you're designing that. So that kind of an accessibility and responsive design you will be able to think through. So this is also a skill which is expected inherently in designers. Okay. So starting from all the aspects of it and the big advantage is AI powered templates, another advantage. See right now we are in the world of ChatGPT and machine learning model, right? GPT is actually a machine learning model which is doing lot many stuffs. So even there are tools like Mid Journey where they can create some images, some templates, some kind of AI powered templates are also ready madely available so that even you don't have to even spend minutes before you can spend seconds to create templates to that level of faster and easier layouts. Color schemes and other things are available now. So that is a greater advantage when you're able to build a portfolio using AI power tools. Even WIX has a free version of AI power tools. You can go and check it out. It's not a paid also. Okay, so at the last of this podcast I'll be sharing you some of the resources also guys like let's say free website where you can build or paid website. So stay tuned for that. Okay, so the next is last advantage is future business needs. See definitely your business is going to be scaled up, right? Your business meaning the place where you are going to apply job or you are even having your own business. Every business is planned of able to scale it up, not down, right? So let's say if you're building a website, it is always easy for for you to build it. Your more products, your more services, your more offerings. So there you can go for something like Webflow, Squarespace, WordPress. So these are all some of the what you call premium platforms where you can use for businesses and enterprises, right? So having this advantage, being a fresher now to know all these things is really better because when you're building a bigger site, you don't have to worry much. You can just keep on adding your portfolio again and again and again. Even for one year subscription you can take. That's also a minimum cost. I think some thousand five hundred rupees or something. I guess I'm not sure you can check it out now. But if you're a student, if you're not able to afford, no problem, you just use the free version. Okay? So this is very easy guys. See I've told you six aspects of it, okay? Starting from the first, showcasing your elements, interactive, making sure you're how you're interacting. And then you're analyzing your skills through your portfolio. And relevance in this particular digital era. And the tools and ease of building. I told you in minutes we can able to build a site. And also the accessibility and the responsiveness how you're able to navigate your user us through it. And also the AI powered templates. See these are all the six strong advantage which you have when you start making websites. Okay, so there is something which is cons also we need to understand that okay, there are some drawbacks also when you're building a website. But you have to just make sure how it's going to balance it out finely. See first is if you're building a website, if your story is not properly designed, it leads to poor navigation. People will be confused where to press your projects or home button. Right? Have you faced this problem in many websites? Yes, that's a big problem because you have not built your story properly. If it is a PDF, you know what happens? User has to go through linearly. If you're. If your PDF if your project is 50 pages, they'll have to go through it. It's only a linear way of organizing it. So that is the second disadvantage. Unless you have that advantage to put it in your portfolio through a very good story. Third is importance of storytelling. See, building website without a proper narrative or a story can lead to disjointed user interface. I already clearly told you that. So aesthetics is important and effective communication. What you wanted to clearly precisely tell your audience. Let's say if you're building a brand, you need to have a story narrative. Accordingly, if you wanted to show one good project, that's it. Show that particular project in a very different way. It's as simple as that. There are many sections in WIX website like let's say section pages and lot of add on icons, buttons, images, graphics, background. So just choose one project, choose one audience and then just target it. So that is very important when you build a story narrative. Around it and like let's say performance consideration. This is another big drawback. Sometimes people require high quality graphics, sometimes people put high quality graphics which will not be loaded at the other end. Right. Sometimes media could be slow. Your Internet connection on the other side could be slow. So optimizing performance is a very crucial element when it delivers at the end, at the user end. So that is also a big compromise. So and the fifth important element is which is a bad thing is AI is lot many things, lot many times will hinder your creativity. Like let's say if something is like templated and given something like a very ready made, people tend to use it most of the time. So your exploration tend to stops a little bit. Your personal expression will be a missing factor over there. So these are all the five cons also guys like navigational challenges for the user and user taking control of website over a PDF and importance of missing a storytelling, how it impacts and also how bigger graphics can affect loading times and also balancing out your creativity over AI edge. Okay, see I've given you six advantage and I've given you five disadvantage also. So Hojagdish, what are you trying to say Then Let me tell you guys, if you outweigh all the balances of disadvantage and disadvantage, it's actually good to build a website. It is my perspective, it is my verdict. So you can choose guys based on your story narrative, based on your customer, based on your project nature, based on the target audience, which you wanted to do, based on even the business investor which you wanted to pitch. Yeah, sometimes you could do that. Being a designer, you can pitch your products, you can service. So choose your method of delivery accordingly. Even a 1 slider is enough to pitch if you're pitching for an investor, if you know how to do it properly, right? So you choose a medium. It's not necessarily always to build a website and I need to have something like a premier, that's okay, fine, but these are all the pros and cons which you need to take care when you do it. Okay? In conclusion, web design is definitely valuable and it's significant for a design career. But staying relevant in the digital age is also very, very important. And scaling your business or your projects or anything is having a very good advantage to use it. And the ease of use is coming into picture. So unless until you understand this particular factor, you won't be able to clearly decide how to do after listening to this podcast if you have taken it. Yes guys, so go and build a wix website right now. It takes hardly 30 to 40 minutes to build and launch one good project, guys. It doesn't take so much of time where I make my students in my program do a website building activity in just less than a hour so that they will be able to create their own website, present it to the pin, send it to the recruiters for job selection. It is as simple as that. So it's not very difficult, guys. Okay, so jump in, I'll teach you, I'll help you how to do it. If you're very novice or if you're a fresher, no problem. So another caution, what I would like to close with this podcast at the end is do not allow the tools too much, just use the tools. I'm repeating it. Do not allow the design tools too much, just use the tools. Do not get carried away by making beautifying things and editorial design and website and all these things. It's fine if you are particularly, particularly a full time website builder or if you're working for a platform like wix or maybe if you're working in webflow as a website designer or building platforms or website even then also you need to learn design process, design thinking, research your customer what is required and then only you will touch the tools. Finally. Right, so this is a word of caution, guys. Do not allow the tools. Just use the tools. But love the process of how you are able to explore, innovate and ideate and bring value to the customer. Always this website building beautification will look very fancy, particularly if you're a student. People take hours of time for that. Do not do that. Okay, yes. So finally I would like to suggest you some recommendation, guys. If you're a student, there are some free options for you to build website. WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Blogger, Webflow. So these are some of the limited free versions which you can use for your student is more than enough if you're a freelancer, if you wanted a student. But if you want to invest more, more. We wanted to get a very good what do you call website with a lot of HDPICs, images and videos and content. You can go for a slightly higher version of Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress.org BigCommerce, Weebly. That's premium plans you can use. Okay. And also I'll suggest you some AI websites. Okay. You can use WIX adi. In WIX itself there is something called ADI Bookmark Fire, Drop the grid Wai Xyro Wondershare grid box. Don't worry, I'll be pasting you in the description as well bubble. So these are all some of the website builders in AI tools which you can create website in minutes guys. Okay, I hope you would have understood the difference and importance of making a portfolio in website and what are the cons of it. Okay, so thank you so much guys for staying tuned in this podcast. If you feel this podcast has added value, give me a best rating in Spotify and also make sure to subscribe for further notifications. Also, if you want to address any kind of a pain point in your design career, please feel free to text me and also send an email to me. DFC Design changemail.com Design for changemail.com so I would be happy to reply you and if you wanted to take my coaching and mentoring. Yeah you can always click that link and send an email. I'll check whether if you're qualifying because I don't take normally a lot of students. So this would be a great way for you to learn a new skill. But if you don't want to do it, if you wanted to do it in your own way, go ahead. No problem. If you need any support, you can always ask me. I'll be be able to help you at my context, whatever is there. Okay? So thank you so much guys. Thank you for staying tuned. It's. It's slightly a bigger podcast, but I believe if you're listening to it fully, you might have understood the differences between because people wage wars for years and months, whether to make a portfolio or static PDF or they take months of time procrastinating making a portfolio. If you have spent this 15 minutes, I think you should be able to take action forward. Okay, so my mentor always says take action, take action. Just listening will not change your life. Okay, thank you guys. Stay tuned. Bye bye. Take care.