Top Web Design Projects to Sharpen Your Skills and Build Your Web Design Portfolio

Web designers are in charge of creating, designing, and troubleshooting the design and layout of websites and web pages. Web design can involve creating entirely new websites from scratch or updating an older site with better UX and technical features. To become a web designer, you need to be prepared to manage all the visual content and design elements of a website.

Keep in mind that web designers are different from web developers. While the latter deal with backend coding, the former focus on the front end look of each page. But the two roles can overlap, so knowing some web development skills can benefit any web designer. You can use the web design projects in this guide to enhance your web development and web design skills.

5 Skills That Web Design Projects Can Help You Practice

A good web design project will help you hone several practical and technical skills. Web design requires excellent artistic vision for design trends, as well as some web development knowledge and abilities. You should especially seek out project ideas that can give you hands-on experience in the five areas listed below.

• HTML. Most web designers these days are expected to learn HTML. Short for HyperText Markup Language, HTML lets you provide structure and form to your content. Your website cannot function without HTML, so it’s an integral skill for web designers. 
• CSS. An HTML page’s style is determined by CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. Simply put, CSS skills help you make your content more visually appealing. This coding language lets you do things like change fonts, tweak colors, and add or remove backgrounds.
• JavaScript. Web design is mainly a front end phenomenon, and JavaScript has become an essential tool for front end developers and designers alike. JavaScript is the best technology available for building functional web applications and making web pages more interactive and dynamic.
• User experience design. A website’s user experience (UX) design determines how a visitor feels while interacting with the website. Web designers are increasingly approaching their designs from a user-first perspective, which means that they conduct user research and use what they learn to improve navigation, content, and colors. 
• Visual design. This skill is closely connected to UX design. However, its focus is more on the aesthetic. Grid systems, space typography, color psychology, and type hierarchy are examples of visual design tools that successful web designers know a lot about.  

Best Web Design Project Ideas for Beginners 

If you’re interested in web design but don’t have a lot of experience in the field, there are plenty of projects you can try. Learners at the beginner level will find the following five web design project ideas useful for building their skillsets and improving their resumes. 

One-Page Layout

• Web Design Skills Practiced: UX design, HTML, CSS

This beginner-friendly project involves recreating a one-page, responsive layout from a previously established one-page design. This project is excellent for beginners because you already have the source code at your disposal. You just have to edit it according to your needs and specifications. 

This project uses Conquer, a basic template that includes various one-page layouts to choose from. As a result, you can experiment freely with CSS layout technologies like Flexbox and the float property. 

Login Authentication

• Web Design Skills Practiced: UX design, HTML, JavaScript

This project will put your JavaScript skills to the test and offer you new insights into this text-based programming language. It entails designing a login authentication bar that allows users to type in their email and username credentials to log in to the site. 

Once the user logs in successfully, they should be able to access certain features that are not available to unauthenticated users. If you’re interested in getting into web design, this is a great project since almost every website uses some form of login authentication.

Product Landing Page

• Web Design Skills Practiced: UX design, HTML

Product landing pages are crucial for any web designer to know how to create. It’s a major type of digital media that users interact with, and web designers must understand HTML and CSS to create a strong landing page for any type of product.

The goal of this project is to design and develop a product landing page relevant to the target audience. You will do this by using HTML and CSS to add columns, content, and stock photos related to the product itself or the business. To make the layout more attractive, you can play around with additional features and tools, such as design templates and UX design elements. 

To-Do List

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UX design

A to-do list generated with JavaScript and HTML makes for an excellent beginner web design project. You will first use JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to create a prioritized list for tasks, due dates, and other upcoming deadlines. Once the basic page is in place, you can develop your UX design skills by changing the look and feel of your list. 

JavaScript is the most appropriate language for this project since it allows you to design the interactive coding lists however you want. You’ll be able to add, delete, and re-group the content more easily, using JavaScript to make the page more dynamic and compelling. 

Google Home Page Lookalike

• Web Design Skills Practiced: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, UX design

Have you ever wanted to create an iconic yet simple web page, just like Google? With this straightforward beginner-level web design project idea, now you can. This Google homepage lookalike project lets you design a Google-like homepage using JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and UX features. 

Essentially, you will need to create a picture-perfect copy of Google’s homepage, with all its logos, search icons, text boxes, links, and images. It won’t be necessary to worry about the page’s functionality since the goal is to replicate the homepage.

Best Intermediate Web Design Project Ideas 

If you’re feeling more confident in your web design skills, you should check out some more advanced online projects. The following project ideas will help you add more tools and skills to your web design arsenal. 

Giphy with Unique API

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, CSS

This is an excellent intermediate project that you can sink your teeth into. You’ll have to design a web application that presents GIFs via search inputs and the Giphy API. Essentially, you’ll be recreating the Giphy website. 

The best way to go about this project is to use the Giphy API instead of making additional configurations to request data. The Giphy API will also help with creating a search bar for users. Upon typing the name of a GIF into the search bar, users will find specific and trending GIFs in a column format. You can include more search options at the bottom of the search field.

JavaScript Quiz Game

• Web Design Skills Practiced: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, UX design

Here you’ll be building and designing a multiple choice quiz game using JavaScript. You must develop the game in such a way that the player can see the right and wrong answers upon finishing the game. 

This project is a great way to master JavaScript and get some UX design training. Additionally, you can delve into JavaScript DOM manipulation and data management by building and designing score charts and leaderboards.

SEO-Friendly Website

• Web Design Skills Practiced: UX design, HTML, JavaScript

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in not only building your website but also allowing it to reach your target audience. Without SEO, your website will not be visible to organic search traffic in search engine results pages (SERPs). Web designers must understand the principles of SEO if they’re going to design web pages that get traction from users. 

For this project, you’ll be part web designer and part digital marketer. The goal is to construct a website with user-friendly URLs and a responsive design. If you’re not quite sure why SEO is important for digital design, we recommend learning about technical SEO basics before getting started with this project.

Survey Form

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, UX design

This project involves creating a survey form or questionnaire using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Building a survey form will undoubtedly test your webpage structuring abilities and allow you to get creative with web design. A lot of companies collect information about their customers via survey forms even today, so this is a job-ready skill that employers appreciate.

The survey form must include all the necessary components, including relevant fields like name, age, email address, and phone number. You can generate multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank response types to gather a variety of users’ answers. Depending on the type of company or field involved, you can then add more industry-specific questions.

Exit Plugin

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, JavaScript

If you have ever used the Internet, you have encountered tiny pop-up banners when trying to close a web page or website. These little pop-ups are called exit plugins, and they are designed to persuade users to stay on web pages through eye-catching advertisements.

In this project, you’ll be designing an exit plugin that would keep a potential user on your webpage a little longer. You can build exit plugins and exit widgets through JavaScript. The jQuery open source library provides a helpful tool for getting started on your project, but there are many other libraries available online that can provide the same resources.

Best Advanced Web Design Project Ideas

A successful web designer has to be able to work on advanced web development projects. More challenging tasks will improve the skills of anybody who wishes to become better at designing websites. Below are a few advanced web design project ideas that will put your web design skills to the test.

Online Affiliate Platforms

• Web Design Skills Practiced: UX design, HTML, JavaScript

Affiliate marketing can generate passive income for businesses. Let’s say you run a business website. An affiliate website includes links leading to separate pages for other brands, products, or services. Each time a visitor purchases something through these platforms, you earn a percentage. As a web designer, you can decide how the affiliate program of your choice will appear on your website. 

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Being able to design an affiliate website can lead to freelance designers getting their big breaks. Web designers who can create affiliate platforms are highly sought-after by a wide range of companies and individuals interested in passive income.

AJAX-Style Login

• Web Design Skills Practiced: UX design, HTML, JavaScript, AJAX

Login forms are essential for numerous online businesses and websites. In this project, you will build the front end for an AJAX-based login page. AJAX is an advanced skill for building dynamic websites. With an AJAX-style authentication system, you will not need to reload the page to determine whether you have entered the right information.

Alternatively, you can use the software development process of hard-coding to input a username and password directly, which can then be the basis for validating login attempts. You can also implement error messages that pop up after unsuccessful login attempts.

Address Book

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python

This project involves using some basic Python skills, along with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, to create an app that works as a functional address book. This is an excellent project to teach you practical coding skills perfect for your dream web design career. You must ensure that the application has a functional search bar, data entry capability, and priority status options.

You can generate placeholder data through an API or JSON. AJAX requests, such as those created by jQuery or HTTP requests utilizing XML, are needed to load the data into the application. Caching requests can also reduce unnecessary network traffic.

Modal Pop-Ups

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, JavaScript, UX design

For this web design project, you’ll have to design modal pop-ups that show up whenever a user accesses your page. These modal pop-ups will provide visitors with notifications, advertisements, and other data in a fun, animated way. 

You can create these pop-ups with JavaScript code. These pop-ups have to be appealing to look at, so you can incorporate some basic design and UX techniques. Try to include animations like sparkles or pulsating colors to make your pop-ups look more interesting. Additionally, you must design a way for users to close these pop-ups with one click. 

Social Share Buttons

• Web Design Skills Practiced: HTML, JavaScript, UX design

Social media share buttons are available on the vast majority of WordPress-built websites. Sharing buttons allow users to share content on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, which is an excellent way to reach a wider audience online.

For this project, you will create a social share button for non-WordPress websites. You’ll be using JavaScript code to generate these share buttons, and you can link to any relevant social media site that you’d like. These dynamic buttons should add to the webpage’s UX, so they should seamlessly flow with the rest of the website design.

Next Steps: Start Organizing Your Web Design Portfolio

A portfolio of your work is essential if you want to break into the tech field as a web designer. Just like a well-designed website, an organized and well-written portfolio will catch the eye of any reader and help you get hired as a web designer. You can improve the appearance of your web design portfolio by following these tips.

Build a Portfolio Website

If you’re an aspiring web designer, building a personal website is a logical substitute for a web design portfolio and paper resume. A portfolio website is different than a personal blog. This should be a full-fledged website dedicated to reflecting your skills and expertise to employers.

A portfolio website is a way for you to contact and impress potential hiring managers or web design clients, no matter where they are located in the world. You can take some design inspiration from other professionals’ online portfolios, but make sure that your unique skills as a freelance web designer stand out. 

Follow a Proper Layout

If you want your portfolio website to be successful, you should separate it into logical sections. Giving prominent placement to your best projects is also a great way to make your portfolio more effective. If you magnify your best work, it will be much easier to browse. 

Include Relevant Skills

Make sure to list your relevant technical skills alongside each project, and provide details wherever necessary. Web design involves being knowledgeable about coding, so list the programs and coding skills you know. Also, list whether you have taken any online web design classes to further round out your resume. Whoever is looking at your portfolio or portfolio website should be able to see and understand the relationship between your projects and your skills. 

Web Design Projects FAQ